Download or read book Man made Catastrophes and Risk Information Concealment written by Dmitry Chernov and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the risks of information concealment in the context of major natural or industrial disasters – offering detailed descriptions and analyses of some 25 historical cases (Three Mile Island nuclear accident, Bhopal disaster, Challenger Space Shuttle explosion, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster, Enron’s bankruptcy, Subprime mortgage crisis, Worldwide Spanish flu and SARS outbreaks, etc.) and applying these insights to selected on-going cases where such information concealment is suspected. Some successful examples of preventive anti-concealment practice are also presented. In the book, the term ‘concealment’ is used to represent the two distinct behaviors uncovered in the investigations: (i) facts and information about an organization and its functioning being hidden from those that need them – here the concealment can be due to various factors, such as complexity and miscommunication, to name but two – and (ii) the conscious and deliberate action of keeping important information secret or misrepresenting it. This second meaning makes up a surprisingly important part of the evidence presented. Accordingly, emphasis has been put on this second aspect and the approach is more pragmatic than academic, remaining focused on evidence-based practical and useful factors. It raises awareness and provides valuable lessons for decision- makers, risk specialists and responsible citizens alike. This work is also intended as a fact-based reference work for future academic and scholarly investigations on the roots of the problem, in particular regarding any psychological or sociological modeling of human fallibility.
Download or read book Don t Tell the Boss written by Dmitry Chernov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-20 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a major disaster, when investigators are piecing together the story of what happened, a striking fact often emerges: before disaster struck, some people in the organization involved were aware of dangerous conditions that had the potential to escalate to a critical level. But for a variety of reasons, this crucial information did not reach decision-makers. So, the organization moved ever closer to catastrophe, effectively unaware of the possible threat—despite the fact that some of its employees could see it coming. What is the problem with communication about risk in an organization, and why does this problem exist? What stops people in organizations or project teams from freely reporting and discussing critical risks? This book seeks to answer these questions, starting from a deep analysis of 20 disasters where the concealment of risks played a major part. These case studies are drawn from around the world and span a range of industries: civil nuclear power, coal, oil and gas production, hydropower energy, metals and mining, space exploration, transport, finance, retail manufacturing and even the response of governments to wars, famines and epidemics. Together, case studies give an insight into why people hesitate to report risks—and even when they do, why their superiors often prefer to ignore the news. The book reviews existing research on the challenges of voice and silence in organizations. This helps to explain more generally why people dread passing on bad news to others—and why in the workplace they prefer to keep quiet about unpleasant facts or potential risks when they are talking to superiors and colleagues. The discussion section of the book includes important examples of concealment within the Chinese state hierarchy as well as by leading epidemiologists and governments in the West during the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in 2019-2020. The full picture of the very early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear, and further research is obviously needed to better understand what motivated some municipal, provincial and national officials in China as well as Western counterparts to obfuscate facts in their internal communications about many issues associated with the outbreak.
Download or read book Averting Disaster Before It Strikes written by Dmitry Chernov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-27 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the major industrial disasters could have been prevented. When the facts of what happened are established, their stories share a common thread: before things spiralled out of control, there were workers at the affected sites who knew that the situation was dangerous, and could become catastrophic unless immediate action was taken. But tragically, nobody dared to tell the decision-makers who could have authorized that action. With no idea of the risks they were taking, the people in charge continued as normal... and disaster struck. Because vital information about risks could not flow freely from the shop floor to the director’s office, the crucial decisions were not made in time. This observation has been documented in the following major technological accidents: Challenger space shuttle explosion (USA, 1986); Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster (USSR, 1986); Deepwater Horizon oil spill (USA, 2010); Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant disaster (Japan, 2011); and numerous other industrial disasters. After accidents like these, losses and costs for dealing with the consequences are often hundreds — or even thousands — of times greater than the finances that would have been required to deal with the risks when they were first recognized. This handbook is about how to transform the way large critical infrastructure companies communicate about safety and technological risks. It aims to support senior managers to get the information they need from their subordinates concerning the risks they are facing, in order to prevent accidents before it is too late. The recommendations in this handbook are based on interviews with 100 executives at various levels, working in 65 critical infrastructure companies around the world, in power, oil and gas, metals, chemicals and petrochemicals, mining and other industries. The recommendations of these leaders were also tested in the pilot project, in an industrial company which is the world leader in its sector. More than 400 managers at various levels of the corporate hierarchy, and employees at several of the company’s industrial plants, took part in the project. This open access handbook is written for the owners, senior managers, and industrial safety directors of critical infrastructure companies.
Download or read book Critical Risks of Different Economic Sectors written by Dmitry Chernov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the major differences between the kinds of risk encountered in different sectors of industry - production (including agriculture) and services - and identifies the main features of accidents within different industries. Because of these differences, unique risk-mitigation measures will need to be implemented in one industry that cannot be implemented in another, leading to large managerial differences between these broad economic sectors. Based on the analysis of more than 500 disasters, accidents and incidents - around 230 cases from the production sector and around 280 cases from the service sector - the authors compare the risk response actions appropriate within different sectors, and establish when and how it is possible to generalize the experience of dealing with risks in any given industry to a wider field of economic activity. This book is mainly intended for executives, strategists, senior risk managers of enterprise-wide organizations and risk management experts engaged in academic or consulting work. By setting out clearly the sector differences in risk management, the authors aim to improve the practice of general risk assessment with regard to identifying and prioritizing risks, and of risk control with regard to planning appropriate mitigation measures.
Download or read book Integrated Disaster Risk Management From Earth Sciences to Policy Making written by Irasema Alcántara-Ayala and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-11-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Handbook of Crisis Communication written by W. Timothy Coombs and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised and updated new edition of the comprehensive guide to crisis communication research and practice The Handbook of Crisis Communication provides students, researchers, and practitioners with a timely and authoritative overview of the dynamic field. Contributions by an international team of 50 leading scholars and practitioners demonstrate various methodological approaches, examine how crisis communication is applied in a range of specific contexts, discuss the role of culture and technology in crisis communication, and present original research of relevance to the development and evaluation of crisis communication theory. Now in its second edition, the Handbook covers the latest advances in global crisis communication technology, current trends in research and practice, social media in crisis communication, and more. Each of the 38 chapters incorporate new material offering fresh insights into existing areas of crisis communication and explore new and emerging lines of research. A wealth of new case studies, practical scenarios, and in-depth analyses of recent crises are integrated throughout. Examines traditional applications, recent advances, and emerging areas in crisis communication Discusses communication approaches for organizational crises, disasters, political crises, and public health crises Provides up-to-date coverage of the latest terminology, methods, and research trends in the field Highlights how crisis communication theory and research can inform real-world practice Features detailed analyses of crisis communication in major events such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, industrial accidents, and global pandemics The Handbook of Crisis Communication, Second Edition is an excellent textbook for advanced students in public relations and strategic communication programs, and a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in fields such as crisis communication, public relations, and corporate communication.
Download or read book Preparing Nurses for Disaster Management E Book written by Joanne Langan and published by Elsevier Health Sciences. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to plan for and respond to disasters! Preparing Nurses for Disaster Management: A Global Perspective helps you build the skills you need to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergency situations efficiently and effectively. It includes the personal stories of nurses who have experienced disasters, describing the specific incident, the response, what worked or didn't work, and the lessons learned. Case studies show how to apply international response guidelines in providing care for those in need. Written by Joanne Langan, an internationally known expert in disaster preparedness, this reference will help you feel more confident in handling the aftermath of both natural and man-made disasters. - Coverage of disaster management includes the stages of disaster response, nursing roles, and personal case studies of actual disasters and public health emergencies around the world, e.g., natural disasters, global earthquakes, radiation disasters, chemical disasters, biologic or infectious disease outbreaks, and man-made disasters. - Actual Disasters unit provides a description of each event, preparedness, response, recovery, personal preparedness equipment, legal and ethical issues, special considerations, and lessons learned. - Tabletop exercises and drills allow organizations and institutions to assess their readiness, determine community vulnerabilities, and prepare appropriate responses to disaster events such as an active shooter, cyberattacks, and the grid/power going down. - Case studies help you learn to apply concepts to practice. - User-friendly content includes definitions of key terms and the role expectations for different nurse specialties and levels. - Discussions of International Council of Nurses' Core Competencies in Disaster Nursing use this benchmark as an outline for effective nursing practice before, during, and after disasters. - Reviews of psychiatric/mental health issues discuss interventions to improve mental health following disasters. - Expert contributors share perspectives and experience from a number of different countries.
Download or read book Offshore Process Safety written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Methods in Chemical Process Safety, Volume Two, the latest release in a serial that publishes fully commissioned methods papers across the field of process safety, risk assessment, and management and loss prevention, aims to provide informative, visual and current content that appeals to both researchers and practitioners in process safety. This new release contains unique chapters on offshore safety, offshore platform safety, human factors in offshore operation, marine safety, safety during well drilling and operation, safety during processing (top side), safety during transportation of natural resources (offshore pipeline), and regulatory context - Helps acquaint the reader/researcher with the fundamentals of process safety - Provides the most recent advancements and contributions on the topic from a practical point-of-view - Presents users with the views/opinions of experts in each topic - Includes a selection of the author(s) of each chapter from among the leading researchers and/or practitioners for each given topic
Download or read book The Great 1976 Tangshan Earthquake written by Euan Mearns and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1966 to 1976, four large earthquakes shook the Bohai Bay rift basin of Northeast China. This prompted the Chinese to launch one of the world’s largest social and science experiments into earthquake prediction that would engage tens of thousands of common people. The climax of this came in February 1975 where a prediction was made hours before the Haicheng earthquake struck. Evacuation of the city of Yingkou and some rural districts saved thousands of lives. The Chinese were jubilant, believing they had cracked the earthquake prediction conundrum. Eighteen months later, however, on the 28th July, 1976, jubilation turned to despair when a great earthquake flattened the large industrial city of Tangshan resulting in 250,000 to 650,000 casualties. This book describes the geological, technical, political and sociological backgrounds to the Haicheng prediction success and the Tangshan prediction failure. Ahead of the Tangshan earthquake, Chinese seismologists had accumulated significant information that suggested an earthquake was imminent and came close to making a prediction. With improved knowledge and vastly improved ability to accumulate, consolidate and analyse data, this book suggests that Tangshan could have been predicted today using techniques developed in China in that epic decade of discovery. Building on these insights, it also offers a viable future pathway towards earthquake predictions that combines the insights and organisation of the 1966-1976 Chinese prediction program with modern technologies, in order to facilitate data gathering, interpretation and sharing.
Download or read book The Skeptics Guide to the Future written by Dr. Steven Novella and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling authors and hosts of "The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe," a high-tech roadmap of the future in their beloved voice, cracking open the follies of futurists past and how technology will profoundly change our world, redefining what it means to be human. Our predictions of the future are a wild fantasy, inextricably linked to our present hopes and fears, biases and ignorance. Whether they be the outlandish leaps predicted in the 1920s, like multi-purpose utility belts with climate control capabilities and planes the size of luxury cruise ships, or the forecasts of the ‘60s, which didn’t anticipate the sexual revolution or women’s liberation, the path to the present is littered with failed predictions and incorrect estimations. The best we can do is try to absorb the lessons from futurism's checkered past, perhaps learning to do a little better. In THE SKEPTICS' GUIDE TO THE FUTURE, Steven Novella and his co-authors build upon the work of futurists of the past by examining what they got right, what they got wrong, and how they came to those conclusions. By exploring the pitfalls of each era, they give their own speculations about the distant future, transformed by unbelievable technology ranging from genetic manipulation to artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Applying their trademark skepticism, they carefully extrapolate upon each scientific development, leaving no stone unturned as they lay out a vision for the future.
Download or read book Introduction to Manufacturing written by Michel Baudin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-12-27 with total page 1076 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Introduction to Manufacturing focuses students on the issues that matter to practicing industrial engineers and managers. It offers a systems perspective on designing, managing, and improving manufacturing operations. On each topic, it covers the key issues, with pointers on where to dig deeper. Unlike the many textbooks on operations management, supply chain management, and process technology, this book weaves together these threads as they interact in manufacturing. It has five parts: Getting to Know Manufacturing: Fundamental concepts of manufacturing as an economic activity, from manufacturing strategy to forecasting market demand Engineering the Factory: Physical design of factories and processes, the necessary infrastructure and technology for manufacturing Making Information Flow: The "central nervous system" that triggers and responds to events occurring in production Making Materials Flow: The logistics of manufacturing, from materials handling inside the factory via warehousing to supply chain management Enhancing Performance: Managing manufacturing performance and methods to maintain and improve it, both in times of normal operations and emergencies Supported with rich illustrations and teaching aids, Introduction to Manufacturing is essential reading for industrial engineering and management students – of all ages and backgrounds – engaged in the vital task of making the things we all use.
Download or read book New Ways and Needs for Exploiting Nuclear Energy written by Didier Sornette and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-29 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of mankind is a story of ascent to unprecedented levels of comfort, productivity and consumption, enabled by the increased mastery of the basic reserves and flows of energy. This miraculous trajectory is confronted by the consensus that anthropogenic emissions are harmful and must decrease, requiring de-carbonization of the energy system. The mature field of indicator-based sustainability assessment provides a rigorous systematic framework to balance the pros and cons of the various existing energy technologies using lifecycle assessments and weighting criteria covering the environment, economy, and society, as the three pillars of sustainability. In such a framework, nuclear power is ranked favorably, but since emphasis is often placed on radioactive wastes and risk aversion, renewables are usually ranked top. However, quantifying the severity of the consequences of nuclear accidents on a rough integral cost basis and balancing severity with low core-damage accident probabilities indicates that the average external cost of such accidents is similar to that of modern renewables, and far less than carbon-based energy. This book formulates the overall goal and associated unprecedented demanding criteria of taming nuclear risks by excluding mechanisms that lead to serious accidents and avoiding extremely long stewardship times as far as possible, by design. It reviews the key design features of nuclear power generation, paving the way for the exploration of radically new combinations of technologies to come up with “revolutionary” or even “exotic” system designs. The book also provides scores for the selected designs and discusses the high potential for far-reaching improvements, with small modular lines of the best versions as being most attractive. Given the ambition and challenges, the authors call for an urgent increase in funding of at least two orders of magnitude for a broad international civilian “super-Apollo” program on nuclear energy systems. Experience indicates that such investments in fundamental technologies enable otherwise unattainable revolutionary innovations with massive beneficial spillovers to the private sector and the public for the next generations.
Download or read book The Seneca Effect written by Ugo Bardi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essence of this book can be found in a line written by the ancient Roman Stoic Philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca: "Fortune is of sluggish growth, but ruin is rapid". This sentence summarizes the features of the phenomenon that we call "collapse," which is typically sudden and often unexpected, like the proverbial "house of cards." But why are such collapses so common, and what generates them? Several books have been published on the subject, including the well known "Collapse" by Jared Diamond (2005), "The collapse of complex societies" by Joseph Tainter (1998) and "The Tipping Point," by Malcom Gladwell (2000). Why The Seneca Effect? This book is an ambitious attempt to pull these various strands together by describing collapse from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint. The reader will discover how collapse is a collective phenomenon that occurs in what we call today "complex systems," with a special emphasis on system dynamics and the concept of "feedback." From this foundation, Bardi applies the theory to real-world systems, from the mechanics of fracture and the collapse of large structures to financial collapses, famines and population collapses, the fall of entire civilzations, and the most dreadful collapse we can imagine: that of the planetary ecosystem generated by overexploitation and climate change. The final objective of the book is to describe a conclusion that the ancient stoic philosophers had already discovered long ago, but that modern system science has rediscovered today. If you want to avoid collapse you need to embrace change, not fight it. Neither a book about doom and gloom nor a cornucopianist's dream, The Seneca Effect goes to the heart of the challenges that we are facing today, helping us to manage our future rather than be managed by it.
Download or read book Hitler and Stalin written by Laurence Rees and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning historian plumbs the depths of Hitler and Stalin's vicious regimes, and shows the extent to which they brutalized the world around them. Two 20th century tyrants stand apart from all the rest in terms of their ruthlessness and the degree to which they changed the world around them. Briefly allies during World War II, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin then tried to exterminate each other in sweeping campaigns unlike anything the modern world had ever seen, affecting soldiers and civilians alike. Millions of miles of Eastern Europe were ruined in their fight to the death, millions of lives sacrificed. Laurence Rees has met more people who had direct experience of working for Hitler and Stalin than any other historian. Using their evidence he has pieced together a compelling comparative portrait of evil, in which idealism is polluted by bloody pragmatism, and human suffering is used casually as a political tool. It's a jaw-dropping description of two regimes stripped of moral anchors and doomed to destroy each other, and those caught up in the vicious magnetism of their leadership.
Download or read book A Sustainable Bioeconomy written by Mika Sillanpää and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative and comprehensive volume of knowledge and green technologies wholly focused on the future of the bioeconomy. The authors present data, show opportunities, discuss R&D findings, analyze strategies, assess the wider economic impact, showcase achievements, criticize policies and propose solutions for the green revolution in biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials’ production and power generation. A fascinating range of case studies from the US, China and many European countries are used to inform readers about the impact of this field on society and how various technologies are currently being implemented. Additionally, the role of industry on this green industrial revolution is outlined with contributions from several major companies such as DuPont (US), UPM-Kymmene Oy (Finland), Anhui BBCA Biochemical Co (China).
Download or read book Oil and Modern World Dramas written by Alireza Fakhrkonandeh and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first to focus on the (re-)presentations of oil in dramatic literature, theatre, and performance, Oil and Modern World Dramas is a pioneering volume in the emerging field of Oil Literatures and Cultures, and the more established field of World Literatures. Through close analysis, Fakhrkonandeh demonstrates how these dramatic works depict oil, both in its perceived nature and character, as an overdetermined matter/sign/object: a symbol (of freedom, autonomy, speed, wealth, modernity, enlightenment), a commodity, a social-cultural agent, a social relation, and a hyper-object. This book is also distinguished by its innovative and critically manifold conceptual framework, positing the petro-literatures and petro-cultures an inextricable part of a global network. Oil and Modern World Dramas not only demonstrates how the chosen works of petro-drama manifest these concepts in their social-political vision, aesthetics and historical-ontological dynamics, but also reveals how they deploy such assemblage-based approaches both as a cartographical means and aesthetic method for exposing the systemic (Capitalocenic) nature of petro-capitalist exploitation, and as means of proposing ways of resistance and producing alternative modes of subjectivity, community, relationality, and economy.
Download or read book Catastrophe written by Richard A. Posner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-11 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.
