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by Alice C. Hill (Author)
COVID-19 exposed the world's failure to prepare for the worst -- can we learn to build back better?
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit our world on a scale beyond living memory, taking millions of lives and leading to a lockdown of communities worldwide. A pandemic, much like climate change, acts as a threat multiplier, increasing vulnerability to harm, economic impoverishment, and the breakdown of social systems. Even more concerning, communities severely impacted by the coronavirus still remain vulnerable to other types of hazards, such as those brought by accelerating climate change. The catastrophic risks of pandemics and climate change carry deep uncertainty as to when they will occur, how they will unfold, and how much damage they will do. The most important question is how we can face these risks to minimize them most.
Author Biography
Alice C. Hill is Senior Fellow for Climate Change Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, she served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Senior Director for Resilience Policy on the National Security Council, and led the DHS Leadership Group responsible for bio-security and bio-preparedness efforts, including pandemic planning efforts. Her first book, Building a Resilient Tomorrow, co-authored with Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, published in 2019.
