The beauty about an article about geological timelines is that it will never really be irrelevant! I got referred to this unexpectedly on an episode of The Vergecast, where almost ten years later, a tally is made of systems in place today to warn the US west coast of a Cascadia earthquake, and where one podcast host describes bolting their Seattle house to its foundation for earthquake preparedness.

While a regular geological macro-event is not human-induced climate change, the parallels drawn in our attitude towards both are apt:

The Cascadia situation, a calamity in its own right, is also a parable for this age of ecological reckoning, and the questions it raises are ones that we all now face. How should a society respond to a looming crisis of uncertain timing but of catastrophic proportions? How can it begin to right itself when its entire infrastructure and culture developed in a way that leaves it profoundly vulnerable to natural disaster?

In that respect, I've once read The Great Derangement: Climate Change and The Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh (published only one year after this article), where the author called out the lack of imagination (in fiction) as one cause of the unpreparedness of societies. To the contrary, this piece was visceral non-fiction. We need more of it.

In those cases, builders are required only to consult with DOGAMI about evacuation plans. “So you come in and sit down,” Ian Madin says. “And I say, ‘That’s a stupid idea.’ And you say, ‘Thanks. Now we’ve consulted.’ ”