Brian Tucker. GEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONAL www.geohaz.org

"[...] The more I saw California successfully dealing with its [seismic] risk, the more I thought of the far greater risk abroad and the far fewer resources available there to address it. Over several years, the idea gradually grew in me to create a non-profit organization that would apply the science, engineering and public policy that had helped the U.S., Japan and Europe manage their earthquake risks to the world’s most vulnerable countries."

http://www.geohaz.org/contents/publications/Opinion.pdf

http://www.geohaz.org/contents/publications/BET_DC_speech_for_website6.pdf

“[…] Why should the citizens of industrialized countries, distant from most earthquake threatened developing countries, care that there is a growing gap between the seismic risk of developing and industrialized countries and that not nough is being done?

[…] We should also care out of self-interest. We in industrialized countries understand that the growing gaps between rich and poor in our own countries led to social tensions. We can therefore realize that the widening of the gap between the industrialized and developing worlds is threatening. We will be more secure if all countries can develop without being periodically set back by natural disasters. It is in our economic self-interest, particularly, that developing countries become earthquake-resistant because they are increasingly important economic partners of the U.S., Japan, and the E.U. Often the infrastructure, residences, and factories of developing economies represent investments made by the industrialized world. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also considers that helping developing countries manage their earthquake risk is in its self-interest. For example, NATO is organizing a workshop to address the problem of seismic risk of public buildings in the Maghreb Region (Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria) because (1) NATO is in the business of stability, (2) mass migrations are destabilizing, and (3) natural disasters (such as earthquakes) cause mass migrations. NATO’s previous “Science for Peace” program is now known as the “Security through Science” program. […].”

Brian E. Tucker

GeoHazards International

http://www.geohaz.org

200 Town and Country Village

Palo Alto, CA 94301

tucker@geohaz.org