As a geographer who has devoted many years to the study of natural disasters and public policy, I view the election of Donald Trump as the political equivalent of a natural catastrophe.
Extreme natural events like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires threaten human lives and well-being through destruction of physical infrastructure including buildings, transportation, communications, health facilities, and other lifelines. The installation of Donald Trump, with the help of Russian hackers and an FBI director, threatens human lives and well-being through destruction of civil infrastructure in the form of voting rights, Obamacare, the Iran Nuclear Agreement, the Paris Climate Agreement, nuclear non-proliferation, environmental and civil rights, gun control, women’s right to choose, LGBT rights, and civility in public life.
Since Noah’s flood (whether or not apocryphal), humans have struggled to prepare for, survive, and recover from natural disasters. The medieval world viewed disasters, including epidemics like the Black Plague, as “Acts of God” inflicted on humans as punishment for sinful behavior or heresy. But the advent of the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century aroused new awareness of scientific and social factors underlying the destructiveness of natural disasters. This in turn encouraged efforts to reduce vulnerability to foreseeable hazards through changes in building laws, financial measures, and engineering design — all contributing to what we now call “hazard mitigation.”
The Great Fire of London in 1666 marked a watershed between a theological and a rational response to a major catastrophe. The result of an extended drought and high winds, it burned most of the city’s medieval wooden buildings lining a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys. With no access to water, the fire consumed some 13,000 dwellings as well as St. Paul’s Cathedral, many parish churches, guildhalls, and other structures. At the urging of architect Christopher Wren and other leading citizens, King Charles II appointed a royal commission to examine the causes of the damage and how to prevent it from recurring. The resulting “Act for the Rebuilding of London of 1667” –– the world’s first modern building code –– banned the use of exterior wood and overhanging upper floors, while mandating wider streets and access to the Thames as a water source. London’s famous West End, built under the 1667 act and its successors, largely survived the Nazi blitz in World War II.
The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and related tsunamis and fires destroyed most of Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon. Shunning religious advice to seek God’s forgiveness, the Crown turned instead to a civil administrator, the Marquês de Pombal, to survey the ruins and supervise reconstruction. The rebirth of Lisbon as a baroque capital city under Pombal’s (rather harsh) oversight marked what historian Nicholas Shrady describes as “a new era in which a wholesome sense of doubt and the powers of reason would replace the certainties of religious dogma.”
In the United States, the “powers of reason” began to outweigh “Act of God” post-disaster apathy in the Progressive Era: the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 each yielded stronger construction standards and water supply improvements. More recently, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 stimulated ambitious proposals to rebuild more sustainably, with mixed results
In the same spirit, we must make rational adjustments to our electoral process — a revered but imperfect product of the Age of Enlightenment. Several issues demand immediate attention.
First, is to reform or replace the electoral college, a legacy of slavery, which undermines the will of the majority.
Second, the threat of hacking by political opponents or foreign powers must be eliminated through technology and legal consequences.
Third, presidential candidates must be required to release their tax records as is the case for other federal office nominees.
Fourth, deliberate spreading of false information by presidential candidates or their campaigns must be subject to criminal and/or civil prosecution.
Fifth, presidents and vice presidents must be held strictly subject to conflict of interest laws including the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Art. 1, sec. 9).
Sixth, gerrymandering of House districts by state legislators of either party must be curtailed.
Meanwhile, the political tsunami generated by the seismic election is about to strike –– a “hinge moment in human history” in the words of Bill McKibben. Can we withstand it? Will we oppose the “climate skeptics” who would return to a pre-Copernicus Dark Age? Will we resist tarnishing the “shining city on a hill” of American democracy with hate and discrimination? Will the “Four Freedoms” survive? I think so –– and with renewed awareness of what we have achieved and what remains to be done.
Rutherford H. Platt is professor of geography emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of “Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events.”