Download or read book Catastrophe aversion written by Christoph Rheinberger and published by FonCSI. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In light of climate change and other existential threats, policy commentators sometimes suggest that society should be more concerned about catastrophes. This document reflects on what is, or should be, society’s attitude toward such low-probability, high-impact events. The question underlying this analysis is how society considers - a major accident that leads to a large number of deaths ; - a large number of small accidents that each kill one person where the two situations lead to the same total number of deaths. We first explain how catastrophic risk can be conceived of as a spread in the distribution of losses, or a “more risky” distribution of risks. We then review studies from decision sciences, psychology, and behavioral economics that elicit people’s attitudes toward various social risks. This literature review finds more evidence against than in favor of catastrophe aversion. We address a number of possible behavioral explanations for these observations, then turn to social choice theory to examine how various social welfare functions handle catastrophic risk. We explain why catastrophe aversion may be in conflict with equity concerns and other-regarding preferences. Finally, we discuss current approaches to evaluate and regulate catastrophic risk, with a discussion of how it could be integrated into a benefit-cost analysis framework.
Download or read book Averting Catastrophe written by Cass R Sunstein and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein examines how to avoid worst-case scenarios The world is increasingly confronted with new challenges related to climate change, globalization, disease, and technology. Governments are faced with having to decide how much risk is worth taking, how much destruction and death can be tolerated, and how much money should be invested in the hopes of avoiding catastrophe. Lacking full information, should decision-makers focus on avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes? When should extreme measures be taken to prevent as much destruction as possible? Averting Catastrophe explores how governments ought to make decisions in times of imminent disaster. Cass R. Sunstein argues that using the “maximin rule,” which calls for choosing the approach that eliminates the worst of the worst-case scenarios, may be necessary when public officials lack important information, and when the worst-case scenario is too disastrous to contemplate. He underscores this argument by emphasizing the reality of “Knightian uncertainty,” found in circumstances in which it is not possible to assign probabilities to various outcomes. Sunstein brings foundational issues in decision theory in close contact with real problems in regulation, law, and daily life, and considers other potential future risks. At once an approachable introduction to decision-theory and a provocative argument for how governments ought to handle risk, Averting Catastrophe offers a definitive path forward in a world rife with uncertainty.
Download or read book Prioritarianism in Practice written by Matthew D. Adler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 687 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prioritarianism is a systematic framework for analyzing governmental policy that gives extra weight to the well-being of the worse off.
Download or read book Facing Catastrophe written by Robert R. M. Verchick and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author argues for a new perspective on disaster law that is based on the principles of environmental protection. His prescription boils down to three simple commands: Go green, be fair, and keep safe. He argues that government must assume a stronger regulatory role in managing natural infrastructure, distributional fairness, and public risk.--[book cover].
Download or read book Law and Liberty in the War on Terror written by Andrew Lynch and published by Federation Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we ensure national security against people unafraid to kill themselves along with their victims - people who, self-evidently, will not be deterred by traditional laws which punish offenders after their crimes are committed. This is the challenge for liberal democracies such as Australia. New laws specifically designed to forestall terrorist activity have been a key response. Law and Liberty in the War on Terror describes these laws and debates both their effectiveness and impact on civil liberties. International and domestic commentators from the fields of government, law and political science address questions such as: How does the law define 'terrorism'? Can the criminal justice system accommodate preparatory terrorism offences? Is torture ever acceptable as an interrogative method? What is the role of the judiciary in times of emergency? How do Australia's anti-terrorism laws compare with those of the United Kingdom and New Zealand? How are Australian communities and politics affected by responses to terrorism?"[I] n this book, proponents of the new anti-terrorism laws seek to justify their provisions and opponents argue that the laws go too far. These chapters also show the extent of the changes that have been made to our legal and administrative structures. ... The chapters in this book cannot be dismissed as mere academic analyses. They have to do with the lives and aspirations of all Australians. They ask whether Australia is, and whether it will be, a united, secure, free and confident nation." - Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE, former Chief Justice of Australia
Download or read book Safety Design for Space Operations written by Paul D. Wilde and published by Elsevier Inc. Chapters. This book was released on 2013-03-24 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning of humankind’s use of space, human-made objects have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and experienced the severe aerodynamic heating and loads characteristic of high-speed atmospheric re-entry. Some of these reentries have generated fragments that survived to impact the Earth’s surface and be hazardous to people and damaging to property. This chapter addresses the safety of both broad types of space hardware re-entries: either controlled so impact is targeted in a specific area, or uncontrolled, where re-entry can occur anywhere within the latitude band defined by the orbital inclination of the reentering object. The overall objective of this chapter is to help prepare safety engineers to answer the ultimate questions involved in the design of safety re-entry operations.
Download or read book Proceedings of a Hydrology Hydraulics Conference on Functional Safety Aspects of Corps Project written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Valuing the Environment Methodological and Measurement Issues written by Rüdiger Pethig and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last decades, environmental economics as a science has been very successful in improving our understanding of environment-economy interdepen dence. Using conventional economic methodology, environmental aspects have been explicitly incorporated into economic models making use of the concept of externality. This concept was already familiar to economists long before evidence of severe environmental deterioration found its way into the headlines and peo ple's awareness. But before that time, external effects were not considered as being empirically very relevant, they seemed to be -like the example of the bees and the fruit trees - somewhat bucolic in nature. All that changed dramatically when it was no longer possible (or easy) to ignore the large-scale environmental disruption with its negative feedback on consumers and producers caused by growing pollution and excessive use of environmental resources. In diagnosing the discrepancy between private and social cost as the cause of the problem, the externality paradigm proved very useful. The correct diagnosis implies the straightforward cure to internalise all external cost, namely the damage cost of pollution. But it is one thing to identify the qualitative nature of the problem at an abstract conceptual level and quite another thing to place specific money values on pollution damage and society's valuation of the environment, respectively, in the context of specific pollution (control) problems. Very often it is controversial not only how inefficient the no-policy situation is but also what exactly the net benefit of any public action of reducing pollution is.
Download or read book Risk Analysis Foundations Models and Methods written by Louis Anthony Cox Jr. and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Risk Analysis: Foundations, Models, and Methods fully addresses the questions of "What is health risk analysis?" and "How can its potentialities be developed to be most valuable to public health decision-makers and other health risk managers?" Risk analysis provides methods and principles for answering these questions. It is divided into methods for assessing, communicating, and managing health risks. Risk assessment quantitatively estimates the health risks to individuals and to groups from hazardous exposures and from the decisions or activities that create them. It applies specialized models and methods to quantify likely exposures and their resulting health risks. Its goal is to produce information to improve decisions. It does this by relating alternative decisions to their probable consequences and by identifying those decisions that make preferred outcomes more likely. Health risk assessment draws on explicit engineering, biomathematical, and statistical consequence models to describe or simulate the causal relations between actions and their probable effects on health. Risk communication characterizes and presents information about health risks and uncertainties to decision-makers and stakeholders. Risk management applies principles for choosing among alternative decision alternatives or actions that affect exposure, health risks, or their consequences.
Download or read book Economics of Natural Disasters written by Prarthna Agarwal Goel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Economic Analysis of Severe Industrial Hazards written by Immo Querner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: and Acknowledgments Apparently almost every other month severe industrial hazards invade our living rooms, be it in terms of an ex post report or in terms of an alarming scenario, be it in a remote corner of the world or just in front of our doorstep. Although the invasion of our living rooms is mostly only via printed or electronic media (as opposed to personally experienced tragedies), people in the western hemissphere seem to be concerned, and so are politics and science. Given that welfare-economics has played (or is about to play) a helpful role in terms of analyzing and rationalizing "political" issues (such as the environment, education, or the law) that had been deemed too soft, too psychological, too value-laden, or too political, a book about the economics of catastrophic industrial hazards and their prevention will hardly come as a surprise. However, what are the precise obj ecti ves of this book? For a start, the author intends to argue the welfare-economic relevance of severe industrial hazards, both from a theoretical as well as from a very down-to-earth perspecti ve. Secondly, it shall be demonstrated that and how the problem can be theoretically dealt with, without really departing from standard micro-economics, in particular the "Pareto principle" and, when it comes to very small "collective" physical risks, the well established "von Neumann-Morgenstern" framework.
Download or read book Catastrophe Insurance written by Martin F. Grace and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. THE PROBLEM OF CATASTROPHE RISK The risk of large losses from natural disasters in the U.S. has significantly increased in recent years, straining private insurance markets and creating troublesome problems for disaster-prone areas. The threat of mega-catastrophes resulting from intense hurricanes or earthquakes striking major population centers has dramatically altered the insurance environment. Estimates of probable maximum losses (PMLs) to insurers from a mega catastrophe striking the U.S. range up to $100 billion depending on the location and intensity of the event (Applied Insurance Research, 2001).1 A severe disaster could have a significant financial impact on the industry (Cummins, Doherty, and Lo, 2002; Insurance Services Office, 1996a). Estimates of industry gross losses from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 range from $30 billion to $50 billion, and the attack's effect on insurance markets underscores the need to understand the dynamics of the supply of and the demand for insurance against extreme events, including natural disasters. Increased catastrophe risk poses difficult challenges for insurers, reinsurers, property owners and public officials (Kleindorfer and Kunreuther, 1999). The fundamental dilemma concerns insurers' ability to handle low-probability, high-consequence (LPHC) events, which generates a host of interrelated issues with respect to how the risk of such events are 1 These probable maximum loss (PML) estimates are based on a SOD-year "return" period.
Download or read book Policy Issues in Insurance Terrorism Risk Insurance in OECD Countries written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2005-07-05 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents OECD policy conclusions and leading academic analysis on the financial management of terrorism risk nearly four years after the World Trade Centre attacks.
Download or read book Safety Design for Space Operations written by Firooz Allahdadi and published by Butterworth-Heinemann. This book was released on 2013-03-24 with total page 1071 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Endorsed by the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) and drawing on the expertise of the world's leading experts in the field, Safety Design for Space Operations provides the practical how-to guidance and knowledge base needed to facilitate effective launch-site and operations safety in line with current regulations. With information on space operations safety design currently disparate and difficult to find in one place, this unique reference brings together essential material on: - Best design practices relating to space operations, such as the design of spaceport facilities. - Advanced analysis methods, such as those used to calculate launch and re-entry debris fall-out risk. - Implementation of safe operation procedures, such as on-orbit space traffic management. - Safety considerations relating to the general public and the environment in addition to personnel and asset protection. Taking in launch operations safety relating unmanned missions, such as the launch of probes and commercial satellites, as well as manned missions, Safety Design for Space Operations provides a comprehensive reference for engineers and technical managers within aerospace and high technology companies, space agencies, spaceport operators, satellite operators and consulting firms. - Fully endorsed by the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), with contributions from leading experts at NASA, the European Space Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), amongst others - Covers all aspects of space operations relating to safety of the general public, as well as the protection of valuable assets and the environment - Focuses on launch operations safety relating to manned and unmanned missions, such as the launch of probes and commercial satellites
Download or read book The Limits of Safety written by Scott Douglas Sagan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental tragedies such as Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez remind us that catastrophic accidents are always possible in a world full of hazardous technologies. Yet, the apparently excellent safety record with nuclear weapons has led scholars, policy-makers, and the public alike to believe that nuclear arsenals can serve as a secure deterrent for the foreseeable future. In this provocative book, Scott Sagan challenges such optimism. Sagan's research into formerly classified archives penetrates the veil of safety that has surrounded U.S. nuclear weapons and reveals a hidden history of frightening "close calls" to disaster.
Download or read book Strategic Management of Technological Learning written by Elias Carayannis and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do companies such as BMW, Airbus Industrie, and Bayer leverage technology and learn to thrive where others fail? This book provides a one-stop resource on technology, innovation, and knowledge management. It gives you a tool for gaining short-term, case-specific insight and long-term, industry-wide understanding of the best technology management and learning policies and practices. The Strategic Management of Technological Learning explores a portfolio of case studies on technology-driven-but not exclusively high-tech-companies that have an overall long-term record of success and prosperity. Through in-depth interviews with industry practitioners, the author empirically identifies the presence of Strategic or Active Incrementalism. The following chart shows the studied firms, which operate at high risk and uncertainty, very dynamic, and technologically intensive business environments:
Download or read book Integrated Catastrophe Risk Modeling written by Aniello Amendola and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Efficient and equitable policies for managing disaster risks and adapting to global environmental change are critically dependent on development of robust options supported by integrated modeling. The book is based on research and state-of-the art models developed at IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) and within its cooperation network. It addresses the methodological complexities of assessing disaster risks, which call for stochastic simulation, optimization methods and economic modeling. Furthermore, it describes policy frameworks for integrated disaster risk management, including stakeholder participation facilitated by user-interactive decision-support tools. Applications and results are presented for a number of case studies at different problem scales and in different socio-economic contexts, and their implications for loss sharing policies and economic development are discussed. Among others, the book presents studies for insurance policies for earthquakes in the Tuscany region in Italy and flood risk in the Tisza river basin in Hungary. Further, it investigates the economic impact of natural disasters on development and possible financial coping strategies; and applications are shown for selected South Asian countries. The book is addressed both to researchers and to organizations involved with catastrophe risk management and risk mitigation policies.
