The most important idea that I gleaned from this journal article is primarily what affects the magnitude of damage that can arise from a disaster. Klinenberg takes a particular natural phenomenon, in this case the Chicago heat wave of 1995, and examines its human casualties an how they came about to be so high. Klinenberg argues that the intensity of the heat wave was not really the cause of the spike in casualties (in comparison to similar historical phenomena); rather he asserts that the causes of death were not examined from a sociological perspective and seeks to do so himself. What appears to be uncontestable is the relationship between poverty and suffering. There are three social conditions that he identifies as contributing factors to high death tolls:

1) the social morphology an political economy of vulnerability

2) the role of the state in determining this vulnerability

3) the tendency of journalists and political officials to render invisible the severity of the first two factors.

Several Questions I Had:

– To what extent was it the state’s fault that poor seniors were literally isolated?

– Which changes in public service delivery had the greatest impact on the suffering?