Are current efforts to reduce urban global earthquake risk “enough”?
To answer this question, one must first define what is meant by “enough.” One could say that we are doing enough if, for example, by 2025 all people in earthquake-prone areas of the world would have an equal risk of dying due to earthquakes. This might, however, be considered too high a standard because we do not demand equality elsewhere (for example, in the risk of dying due to diarrhea or malnutrition). Perhaps one could say that we are doing enough if by 2025 people in developing countries are only 10 times more likely to die due to earthquakes than people in developed countries, and the risk in developing countries is not increasing. Or one might focus only on children, and say that we are doing enough if by 2025 all children are equally safe from earthquakes. (If we accepted this standard, we have our work cut out for us: GeoHazards International estimates that today a child in a school in Kathmandu is 400 times more likely to die from earthquakes than a child in a school in Toky
