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Natural Disasters in a Global Environment.

Ebook Central College Complete Available online

Format:: Book
Author/Creator:: Penna, Anthony N.
Contributor:: Rivers, Jennifer S.
Language:: English
Subjects (All):: Natural disasters--History.; Natural disasters -- History.; Environmental disasters--History.; Environmental disasters -- History.; Natural disasters--Environmental aspects.; Natural disasters -- Environmental aspects.
Physical Description:: 1 online resource (362 pages)
Edition:: 1st ed.
Place of Publication:: Somerset : John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013.
Summary:: "Natural Disasters in a Global Environment serves as a much-needed respite from the glossy hyper-produced texts on environmental geology and natural disasters so prevalent today. Instead, Penna and Rivers couple delightful exposition, insightful comparative images, and historical anecdotes that together produce some of the finest science writing I've seen. This book not only could be an outstanding text for a course on the subject, but it also would be a fine read for anyone interested in how the earth 'works.'" - Donald Siegel, Syracuse University "This is an impressive collection, wide ranging in time, place and discipline. The result stimulates new thinking both about history and about the ongoing role of catastrophe in the course of human society -- altogether, an imaginative venture." - Peter Stearns, George Mason University "Eco-anxiety sometimes makes us exaggerate our power over nature for good and ill. In an important, welcome and riveting collaboration between history and science, Penna and Rivers unfold a minatory drama of disasters - seismic, climatic, pandemic, atmospheric, meteoric - that humans can barely influence, let alone control." - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, University of Notre Dame "This skillful record of natural disaster-in climate, epidemics, and earth tremors-shows how society risks further disaster even in planning for safety." - Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh "Appealing to both students of history and science, this study of natural hazards and vulnerable populations provides an enthralling guide to how disasters have altered the course of human history." - Greg Bankoff, University of Hull "Interdisciplinary in methods and reach, Natural Disasters in a Global Environment surveys big ideas in concise and accessible form. This book is an indispensable introduction for everyone who wants to understand; human response to disaster-scientists, disaster planners, historians, and policy-makers, students and senior researchers." - Conevery Bolton Valencius, University of Massachusetts Boston.
Contents:: Cover; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; List of figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Background; Responses to Hazards and Disasters; The Global and Environmental Basis for this Book; The Emergence of Climate Science and its Relationship to Natural Disasters; Conclusion; Chapter 1: Supervolcanoes; The Mt. Toba Eruption (73,000 BP); The Mt. Toba eruption and the human bottleneck controversy; The Thera (Santorini) Eruption in the Aegean Sea (1600 BCE); Minoan civilization; The Santorini eruption; The physical, social, and cultural meaning of this supervolcano; Mt. Tambora (1815) and Krakatau (1883); The Mt. Pinatubo Eruption (1991); The Luzon earthquake - a harbinger; Relief efforts; Rebuilding; Global effects; A Threatening Future Scenario; Summary; Further Reading; Chapter 2: Earthquakes; The San Francisco Earthquake (1906); The city's early history of growth and its susceptibility to earthquakes; The earthquake; The fire; The Great Kanto Earthquake (1923); The Haitian Earthquake (2010); Hispaniola's geology; Haiti's history; Chapter 3: Tsunamis; Lisbon, Portugal: The Quadruple Disaster (1755); The tsunami; Scientific and religious thought and the birth of modern seismology; The Lituya Bay Mega-Tsunami (1958); The landslides; Lituya Bay historical accounts; Modeling efforts fail; Relief and rebuilding; The Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake (2004).; The earthquake; The Tōhoku (Japan) Tsunami (2011); Nuclear disaster; Japan's energy future; Chapter 4: Fire; The Burning of Rome (68 CE); Circus Maximus; The Great Fire of London (1666); The Chicago and Peshtigo Fires (1871); The Chicago fire; The Peshtigo fire (1871); Another explanation for the causes of the Chicago and Peshtigo fires; Chapter 5: Floods; Central China Floods (1931); Geography; The floods; The Dutch Flood Disaster (1953); The flood of 1953; The Bangladesh Floods (1997-98); Geology/geography; Chapter 6: Landslides; The Turtle Mountain Landslide, Canada (1903); The rockslide; The Aberfan Landslide, Wales (1966); The slide; The Ancash Earthquake and Landslide, Peru (1970); Geology and snowpack; Previous landslides; The avalanche and rockslide; The Southern Leyte Landslide, the Philippines (2006); The landslide; Relief efforts.; Rebuilding; Chapter 7: Pandemic Diseases; The Bubonic Plague (1347-51 and After); The Justinian Plague (540-547 CE); The Black Death (1347-51 CE); The Great Influenza Pandemic (1918-20); The pandemic's origins; The pandemic; The influenza's etiology; HIV/AIDS (1985-); The question of origins - competing theories; Chapter 8: Hurricanes, Cyclones, and Typhoons*; The Labor Day Hurricane in the Florida Keys (1935); The hurricane; Government response; The Bhola Cyclone (1970); The cyclone; The government response; Super-Typhoon Nina (1975); Chapter 9: Famines and Droughts; The Irish Potato Famine (1845-51); Background to the famine; The famine; The "Dust Bowl" Drought in the American West (1930-40); The conditions that created the Dust Bowl; The dust storms; The Great Leap Forward Chinese Famine (1958-61); The Great Leap Forward; The cultural revolution; Chapter 10: Meteorite Impacts; The Creation of Earth's Moon and the Origins of Meteorites; The Yucatán Chicxulub Crater, Mexico (65 MYA); Tracing the evidence; The Clovis Extinction (12,500-12,900 BP); The Tunguska (Siberia) Event (1908); Introduction.; Size, type, and impact; Investigating Future Impacts; 1997 FX11; 2002 NT7; 2003 QQ47; 99942 Apophis; 2012 DA14; Quantifying the risk; Preventing a global catastrophe; Epilogue; Index.
Notes:: Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
Other Format:: Print version: Penna, Anthony N. Natural Disasters in a Global Environment
ISBN:: 9781118327531
OCLC:: 842932632

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Natural Disasters in a Global Environment.

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