Fire and Flood

How extreme events, paradoxically, sow the seeds of positive response—and create opportunities for becoming adaptive to place.

Throughout our history we have dealt with extreme events, sometimes adaptively, by coping or even thriving with them, and sometimes disastrously, by repeatedly ignoring their lessons. Now extreme events and disasters are increasing in frequency and severity, and their signals are difficult to read. In Fire and Flood, Thomas Princen argues that the most useful signals may be those coming from fires and floods, both historically and today. This book looks to these past and present events to imagine—and to construct—a regenerative future.

Extreme events are much more than just confirmation of climate change. Princen’s in-depth investigation of disaster response, including our long-term societal response,… Keep Reading