Ecology of Fear
By Mike Davis
Metropolitan Books, 1998
342 pp., $55
Review by Ben Reid
Natural disasters are generally viewed as independent of human control. However, their impact is inextricably linked to the social structures of particular societies. Mike Davis' Ecology of Fear exposes the link between catastrophe, nature and capitalism in the city of Los Angeles.
Those familiar with Davis' work, such as City of Quartz, will be familiar with his arguments about the relationship between urban forms and social inequality and exploitation. Los Angeles is for Davis the place where urban chaos and exploitation are at their most developed.
Ecology of Fear maps the relationship between the mindless expansion of Los Angeles and the increasing anxiety felt by many of its residents. Increasing incidence of natural disaster and crisis in the city generate the anxiety.
Davis notes that, since 1992, the steady expansion of southern California's population has ended and been replaced by a net loss, for the first time. The reason for this exodus has been the urban and natural crises that have hit the city: the 1992 riots, the 1994 earthquake and a range of other catastrophes.
The metropolis now appears to be facing a plague of biblical-inspired catastrophes. Fault lines under the city, long concealed by the state's oil industry, mean that the city is much more vulnerable to seismic catastrophe than first thought. A big quake appears to be looming.
The scrubby and dry climate of the region means that fire is a constant threat. The areas were once controlled by patterned burning by indigenous populations. The expansion of suburbs into bushland, such as the wealthy Malibu area, mean that parts of the city are periodically threatened by catastrophic fires.
Meanwhile, inner Los Angeles periodically explodes with social unrest. Poor planning means that many buildings are death traps. Firefighters battle to save the un-savable Malibu, while Latino areas of the city are regularly consumed by blazes.
Tornadoes, tsunamis, floods and all manner of disasters are increasing. Human populations are even experiencing increased attacks by snakes and mountain lions as suburbs expand into the San Gabrielle mountains.
Davis uses the example of the popular film Independence Day to demonstrate its identity in popular consciousness. While scenes of New York being obliterated generated sympathy, Los Angeles was represented by gays, hippies and various oddballs dancing idiotically on the top of sky scrapers to welcome the alien guests. The city's annihilation happens in a way to suggest "well, who'd miss any of them?".
The disaster theme appears to have long dominated the city's popular literature. Older books and movies were obsessed by anxieties about invasion and communism. Recent literature, such as the neo-Nazi "Day of the Rope" stories, are high on scapegoat politics which pits whites against an alliance of blacks, Latinos and Asians.
The last chapter of Ecology of Fear explains some of the real causes of this anxiety. Following the themes of City of Quartz, Davis examines the machinations of power in the city. The unplanned and speculative nature of the real estate industry underpins suburbanisation. Ruthless cutbacks to welfare have resulted in crowded prisons.
Far from being natural, the real and imagined dangers of catastrophe in the city are the result of capitalism. Whole suburbs are located where they are because it's profitable, ignoring looming natural hazards.
Davis' description of the workings of capitalism in the belly of the beast can seem remote from Australia. Yet interestingly, the "Mediterranean" climate of southern Australia is quite similar to southern California.
While there is only a marginal threat from earthquakes, many of the catastrophes afflicting Los Angeles affect Australian cities; most notably fire.
The same profit-first mentality means that Australian cities have been inappropriately planned and located. Indigenous knowledge of the need for controlled burning of bush have been ignored.
Ecology of Fear builds on Davis' earlier work on cities. Unfortunately, as in City of Quartz, some of the more explicitly political conclusions are not developed. This is different to Davis' earlier Prisoners of the American Dream which was a splendid analysis of the causes of Reaganism.
Elsewhere, Davis has commented about the role of nature and catastrophe in Marxist theory. The looming world recession has inspired a renewed bout of discussion about theories of why crises of capitalism occur. Davis has argued that wars and natural factors play as important a role in capitalist crises as the recessions caused by the capitalist business cycle. It would have been interesting for Davis to develop these ideas.
Ecology of Fear is an incisive and compelling exposé of the relationship between capitalism and urban catastrophe. What a pity the current crisis of capitalism, expressed in the depreciation of the Australian dollar, will mean that the hefty price will deter many from buying the book.