The Forces of Nature: Our Quest to Conquer the Planet

1. The Power of Environmental Perceptions
Introduction
Summary

2. Living on the Edge of the World
Introduction
Summary

3. Settling the Ancient Ecumene
Introduction
Summary

4. Geotheology from the Cradle of Civilization
Introduction
Geotheology
Cosmology and Geoeschatology
Geotheokolasis and Geotheomisthosis
Sacred Images of Weather and Climate with Inferences for Climate Change
Summary

5. Geokolasis: The Cases of Donora, Lake Erie, and the Dust Bowl
Introduction
Asia fills the Production Void
Deaths in the Fog
Death and Rebirth of Lake Erie
Grapes of Draft
Summary

6. Erosion and Dispossession: The Legacy of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933–1939
Introduction
Framing a Perspective on Life in the Cumberland Gap Area
Tennessee Valley Authority and Norris Dam
Life of the Nondispossessed
Lingering Legacy of TVA in the Cumberland Gap Area
Summary

7. Life and Death in Hurricane Alley
Introduction
Geography of Hurricanes
The Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900
Summary

8. Life and Death in America’s Tornado Alleys
Introduction
Predicting Tornadoes
Classifying Tornadoes
Geography of Tornadoes
The Tri-State Tornado of March 1925
Mossy Grove and the Outbreak of November 11, 2002
Summary

9. Life and Death in Quake Zones
Introduction
Predicting the Next Big One
Measuring Quakes
New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811 and 1812
Summary

10. Challenges of Climate Change
Introduction
When Human Ecology Approaches Geotheology
Stigmatization of Carbon
The Imprecision of Predicting Global Warming and Climate Change
The Historicity of Climate Change
Summary

11. The East’s Human Tsunami
Introduction
Demographic Adaptations in Midlatitude Coastal Areas
Ecological Forces behind International Migrations
Carrying Capacity in the Near and Middle East and Southern Asia
The East’s Expanded Carrying Capacity and the Declining Pull of the West
Living in the Eastern Hazard Zone
Summary

12. The Americas in 2060
Introduction
Lands of Contrasting Environmental Features
Population Change in the Americas
The Fatal Attraction of North America
The Need for Development in the Americas
Summary

Notes
Bibliography