Stephen Bush muses about how easy it is to “lapse into despair about our ability to swerve really, really big catastrophes” (“Can we avoid disaster and should we even try to?”, Opinion, June 28).
He mustn’t.
I left my job in government to co-found a think-tank with a mission to transform global resilience to extreme risks — such as those from pandemics and emerging technologies — through improved governance, processes and decision-making.
The UK’s academic expertise in the field, levels of private sector innovation and commitment within government to addressing extreme risks through a new national resilience strategy present a big opportunity.
Governments can make relatively small and inexpensive changes that will reduce the likelihood of extreme events occurring, and transform our ability to respond if they do.
We shouldn’t despair, we should act.
Sophie Dannreuther
Cofounder and Director
Centre for Long-Term Resilience
London SW1, UK