Ethics for Disaster shows how individual and government preparation and response to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, pandemics, and other disasters are ethical matters. Confronting the social inequalities revealed by these disasters, we must also acknowledge how the complete lack of preparation for climate change and pandemics has shifted these threats from old-fashioned isolated disasters into constant modern risks. This second edition presents four new chapters about disaster-as-risk, focusing on climate change; more intense confrontation by the elements of earth, air, fire and water; the COVID-19 pandemic; and innocent victims and refugees. Now more than ever, we need good and just moral principles to guide us through the disruptive crises ahead. Where standard ethical frameworks and government action fail to address new issues and guide just choices, humanism and humanitarianism become vital for deciding what we owe innocent victims and climate refugees. Combining moral philosophy, political theory, public policy, and environmental science, Ethics for Disaster presents new ways to think about changes in the world we all share.
Naomi Zack is professor of philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. Her recent books are: Ethics and Race: Past and Present Intersections and Controversies, The American Tragedy of COVID-19: Social and Political Crises of 2020, Progressive Anonymity: From Identity Politics to Evidence-Based Government , and Reviving the Social Compact: Inclusive Citizenship in an Age of Extreme Politics.
Preface to the Second Edition and Acknowledgements Preface to the Paperback Edition Preface to the First Edition and Acknowledgements Book Introduction and Overview of parts and chapters Part I: Ethics Disaster Planning: Is Saving the Greatest Number Best? Lifeboat Ethics and Disaster: Should We Blow Up the Fat Man? Virtues for Disaster: Mitch Rapp and Ernest Shackleton Part II: Politics The Social Contract: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Art Spiegelman Public Policy: Snakes on a Plane, Fire in the Pentagon, and Disaster Rights The Disadvantaged and Disaster: Hurricane Katrina Part III: The New Disaster-as-Risk World Climate Change: Understanding the basics, including economics. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: The elements of disaster COVID-19 and Minorities: How the worse-off fare worst Innocent victims and refugees: Moral and Practical questions Conclusion: A Code of Ethics for Disaster, its Implications, and the Global Water Crisis Postscript to 2nd edition Postscript to the 1st edition Select Bibliography Index About the Author
