Terra: Tales Of The Earth

Description

Blending history, science and eye-witness accounts, and arranged in chapters corresponding to the four elements (earth, air, fire and water), "Terra" explores the relationship between the planet and the humans who inhabit its surfaces. Through four case histories - the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; the weather-panics of the summer of 1783; the eruption of Krakatau in 1883; and, the Hilo tsunami of 1946 - Hamblyn reminds us of the earth's unimaginable force and describes what happens when that force is unleashed, both in terms of the immediate human consequences and the longer term economic and scientific implications.Serving, ultimately, as a stark and incontrovertible reminder of our vulnerability when the earth 'goes wrong', "Terra" also asks why we don't seem fully able to learn from the catastrophes, mistakes and responses of the past. Praise for Richard Hamblyn's previous book, "The Invention of Clouds": 'An elegantly written and richly diverting thesis of unusual interdisciplinary facility' - "Guardian". 'A book that accomplishes that rare feat of changing the reader's perception of the world' - "Economist".

Author description

Richard Hamblyn is the author of The Invention of Clouds, which won the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and of The Cloud Book, published in association with the Met Office. He is writer in residence at the Environment Institute, University College London.