Wicked Weather: Natural Disasters that Changed History

Looks at the most significant natural disasters in Earth's history and considers whether we can prevent them from happening again. Natural disasters occur on a regular basis throughout the world with severe events occurring every few years or less. Each disaster type impacts human settlements in different ways and can be local, affecting small countries or areas, or global, affecting the world. These disasters destabilized populations, the governments of provinces and countries, and drastically impact populations and the priorities of a nation in response to a natural disaster. In other words, they changed history. In Wicked Weather, Alexander Gates explores these notable environmental disasters and their impacts, raising the question: What can we do to prevent this from happening again? After an introduction on why certain disasters occur most often in specific areas, Gates covers history's most impactful volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons, tornadoes, droughts, floods, and tsunamis.