Overview

The Asian tsunami of Christmas 2004 killed more than a quarter of a million people and shattered the lives of many more. The ruthless indifference of the forces of nature to our fragile existence on the surface of the planet could not have been more shockingly demonstrated, nor the sheer scale of their power more tragically displayed. Massive earthquakes and super-eruptions, collision with vast boulders from space, the insidious, potentially catastrophic dangers of global warming: what can mere humans do against these natural hazards, which have devastated life on Earth in the past and could do so again? Are there real alternatives to simply awaiting our doom? Bill McGuire believes there are. Following on from A Guide to The End of the World, in which he presented a frightening vision of the hazards that face us, in Surviving Armageddon he guides us through the major threats, assessing the solutions that have been proposed, from the reasonable to the bizarre. There really are ways in which we can, perhaps not prevent, but limit the damage caused by future disasters, he concludes. As a volcanologist, McGuire has sensed at first hand the dangers of volcanic eruptions, and he was deeply involved in the scientific analysis of the Asian tsunami. In this lively narrative, he combines the science behind natural hazards with enthralling accounts of his own experiences and narrow escapes while working in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. He gives us a down-to-Earth view of how we might (just) deflect Armageddon, and live to tell the tale.

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9780192805720

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Reviews

A volcanologist by training, McGuire discusses large-scale natural disasters in a concise volume for general readers. The treatment is scientific, but the chapter headings and suggested further reading are more in keeping with a popular audience. Illustrations feature effects of such disasters and proposed solutions (e.g., a giant orbiting mirror to reflect the sun's rays back into space to reduce global warming). --Reference & Research Book News

"""A volcanologist by training, McGuire discusses large-scale natural disasters in a concise volume for general readers. The treatment is scientific, but the chapter headings and suggested further reading are more in keeping with a popular audience. Illustrations feature effects of such disasters and proposed solutions (e.g., a giant orbiting mirror to reflect the sun's rays back into space to reduce global warming).""--Reference & Research Book News"

A volcanologist by training, McGuire discusses large-scale natural disasters in a concise volume for general readers. The treatment is scientific, but the chapter headings and suggested further reading are more in keeping with a popular audience. Illustrations feature effects of such disasters and proposed solutions (e.g., a giant orbiting mirror to reflect the sun's rays back into space to reduce global warming). --Reference & Research Book News<br>

Author Information

Bill McGuire is Professor of Geohazards and Director of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre. He has authored or edited over a hundred books, papers, and articles, including Apocalypse - a Natural History of Global Disasters; Raging Planet - the Tectonic Threat to Life on Earth; and A Guide to the End of the World - Everything you Never Wanted to Know (OUP 2002). A regular contributor to radio, television, and the press on hazard-related matters, he was the focus of the Carlton Television First Edition programme Disaster Man in 1999 and has presented two disaster-related series for BBC Radio 4.

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