The Geography of Risk
Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coasts
ISBN10: 125075822X
ISBN13: 9781250758224
Trade Paperback
304 Pages
$18.00
CA$24.50
Consider this: Five of the most expensive hurricanes in history have made landfall since 2005: Katrina ($160 billion), Ike ($40 billion), Sandy ($72 billion), Harvey ($125 billion), and Maria ($90 billion). With more property than ever in harm’s way, and the planet and oceans warming dangerously, it won’t be long before we see a $250 billion hurricane. Why? Because Americans have built $3 trillion worth of property in some of the riskiest places on earth: barrier islands and coastal floodplains. And they have been encouraged to do so by what Gilbert M. Gaul reveals in The Geography of Risk to be a confounding array of federal subsidies, tax breaks, low-interest loans, grants, and government flood insurance that shift the risk of life at the beach from private investors to public taxpayers, radically distorting common notions of risk.
These federal incentives, Gaul argues, have resulted in one of the worst planning failures in American history, and the costs to taxpayers are reaching unsustainable levels. We have become responsible for a shocking array of coastal amenities: new roads, bridges, buildings, streetlights, tennis courts, marinas, gazebos, and even spoiled food after hurricanes. The Geography of Risk will forever change the way you think about the coasts, from the clash between economic interests and nature, to the heated politics of regulators and developers.
Reviews
Praise for The Geography of Risk
“Carefully researched and eye-opening.”—Arlie Russell Hochschild, The New York Times Book Review
“Excellent . . . A patient and relentless investigation.”—David Wineberg, San Francisco Review of Books
"A remarkable story—not just of our increasing peril as the temperature rises, but of the relentless ways we privatize profit and make risk and loss the responsibility of the larger society. Read this and you'll be better prepared to understand the next few decades."—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
"Climate-change deniers will throw this book against the wall. Sweeping from coast to coast, exploring the confluence of science and the human experience, the stories within are meticulously researched, expertly delivered, and a bastion of sobering truth. That truth begins and ends with how Americans and public policy have chosen costly arrogance and indifference over sensible humility and logic in living with nature."—Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea
"Punchy . . . Mixing breezy storytelling with the nitty-gritty details of inside-politicking, Gaul demonstrates how state and federal agencies have tried, but failed, to reign in developers and decelerate coastal development."—Publishers Weekly
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
Introduction: The Old Man and the Sea
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
—AUTHOR UNKNOWN
A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN 1999, I met the acclaimed...