The Big Ones
How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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Publisher Description
By the world-renowned seismologist, a riveting history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come
Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes--they stem from the same forces that give our planet life. Earthquakes give us natural springs; volcanoes produce fertile soil. It is only when these forces exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and toppled governments; influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite, and pray. The history of natural disasters is a history of ourselves.
In The Big Ones, leading seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones offers a bracing look at some of the world's greatest natural disasters, whose reverberations we continue to feel today. At Pompeii, Jones explores how a volcanic eruption in the first century AD challenged prevailing views of religion. She examines the California floods of 1862 and the limits of human memory. And she probes more recent events--such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the American hurricanes of 2017--to illustrate the potential for globalization to humanize and heal.
With population in hazardous regions growing and temperatures around the world rising, the impacts of natural disasters are greater than ever before. The Big Ones is more than just a work of history or science; it is a call to action. Natural hazards are inevitable; human catastrophes are not. With this energizing and exhaustively researched book, Dr. Jones offers a look at our past, readying us to face down the Big Ones in our future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jones, a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey for 30 years, surveys 11 natural disasters in this bracing examination of past responses to disaster and possible future courses of action. She doesn't hesitate to portray how human prejudices, superstitions, pride, and other weaknesses have exacerbated the suffering caused by naturally occurring events, making clear that the interaction between the event and the human response usually dictates the magnitude of the damage, whether it results from earthquakes in Japan and China, an 18th-century Icelandic volcano eruption, or floods in the American South. She makes clear that "we need to accept that the timing of a disaster's occurrence is unambiguously random we may never be able to anticipate the when of our big ones." Jones gives readers hope, though, describing what has been learned from each cataclysmic event and, in her final chapter, outlining ways that future catastrophes can be mitigated. This work could prove beneficial to all who live in an area prone to natural disasters, which is just about everyone.
