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Title: The Control of Nature by John McPhee ISBN: 0-374-52259-6 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Man vs. Nature: Mother Nature has more time than we do!
Comment: "Whenever you try to control nature, you've got one strike against you." pg. 13
This book tells 3 informative true stories of man's attempts to control nature. The Mississippi River, a massive lava flow in Iceland, and the incredibly powerful debris flows of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The first story describes in vivid detail attempts to control the Mississippi River from taking a new course... Atchafalaya. If the river takes this new route, say goodbye to New Orleans, B.F. Goodrich, E.I. du Pont, Uniroyal, Monsanto, Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Shell and Union Carbide just to name a few. Four major floods in 10 years and 32 disastrous crevasses in a single spring weren't enough to suggest to the Army Corps of Engineers that levees alone might never be able to handle the job of controlling the river!
The second true story involves Heimay, a volcano that dumped enough lava in 1973 alone that would have been enough to envelop New York's entire financial district, with only the tops of the World Trade Center towers sticking out like ski huts! Will pumping 11,500,000 gallons of sea water a day on the flow be enough to save the harbor from being closed off? Find out! Also find out what I mean when I say McPhee decided to "pissa a hraunid"! :) The ending to this story will surprise you in more way than one!
The last story involves the mighty San Gabriel Mountains, with average slopes of 65-70% grade, climbing faster than almost any mountain chain in the world, and dumping 7 tons of regolith each year, that threaten Angelinos (L.A.)! Drought, fire, and flood; The real seasons in Los Angeles, and instead of the occasional storm, we get the occasional Earthquake! Will more than 2,000 miles of underground conduits, concrete-lined open stream channels, and an army of debris basins be enough to stop the beast? If it does it does it at the expense of the beaches! If it doesn't?... It does it at the expense of the beaches anyway! Find out why in this great book!
You'll learn of lot of interesting facts while at the same time get a great story of the battle of all battles! Man against nature!
Only problems with the book: There is no such animal as a mudslide. Mud flows! And Earth is not spelled with a lower case and it isn't "the Earth", its just Earth. You don't say "the Mars" or "the Jupiter", so why say "the Earth"?! My worthless pet peeves... :)
Rating: 4
Summary: WARNING: Approach with care -- you'll be hooked.
Comment: A fairly detailed investigation and explanation of three locations where Man is attempting to prevent the course of Nature. The first, the attempt, so far successful, to prevent the Mississippi from changing its exit to the Gulf (it wants to go through the Atchafalaya River, substantially shorter and more attractive to the water), which change would utterly negate the entire economic geography of lower Louisiana. The second, the use of seawater pumped by the hundreds of thousands of gallons onto fresh, hot lava, to prevent said lava from overrunning and destroying the harbour and town of Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. The third, the ongoing attempt to preserve Los Angeles from the self-destruction of the San Gabriel Mountains. All three goals are fully understandable in economic terms; what is not so clear, at least with the first and third, is how long the effort can be kept up. McPhee makes a good case that in human times, not geologic, Nature will win in both cases. One leaves the book with a feeling of excitement and pleasure in the Icelandic battle, a wonder at the power of the Mississippi and the stubbornness of the Army Corps of Engineers, and a sense of amazement at the futility and blindness of people who continue to live under the San Gabriels and hold the City liable for their foolish choices.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another great McPhee
Comment: In what are really three long essays, McPhee explores the debris flows of California's San Gabriel Mountains, volcanos in Iceland (and Hawaii), and the controlling of the lower Mississippi. Fascinating as always, rich in both technical detail and the personalities inside the stories, this book was exactly why I like this author. Except for the practically unpronounceable Icelandic names, a fluid and engrossing book all the way through.
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Title: Annals of the Former World by John McPhee ISBN: 0374518734 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 15 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee ISBN: 0374514313 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1977 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Assembling California by John McPhee ISBN: 0374523932 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Basin and Range by John McPhee ISBN: 0374516901 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1982 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Rising from the Plains by John McPhee ISBN: 0374520658 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: May, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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