Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 3
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
January 2017
Print publication year:
2017
Online ISBN:
9781139547345

Book description

What does Japan's 2011 nuclear accident have in common with the 2005 flooding of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina? This thought-provoking book presents a compelling account of recent and historical disasters, both natural and human-caused, drawing out common themes and providing a holistic understanding of hazards, disasters and mitigation, for anyone interested in this important and topical subject. Based on his on-the-ground experience with several major recent disasters, Timothy H. Dixon explores the science, politics and economics behind a variety of disasters and environmental issues, arguing that many of the worst effects are avoidable. He describes examples of planning and safety failures, provides forecasts of future disasters and proposes solutions for hazard mitigation. The book shows how billions of dollars and countless lives could be saved by adopting longer-term thinking for infrastructure planning and building, and argues that better communication is vital in reducing global risks and preventing future catastrophes.

Reviews

'In Curbing Catastrophe, Timothy H. Dixon, a leading natural hazard scientist, gives a clear, calm, and thoughtful discussion of natural hazards facing societies around the world. The book nicely explains the science of hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, coastal flooding, and other effects of global warming. It looks at specific cases, and generalizes them to make sensible suggestions of how to reduce the risk they pose to people and property. Dixon draws on his personal experiences and research results to make an easily readable and insightful book. Anyone interested in natural hazard science and policy will enjoy reading the book - and will gain new insights, even on topics with which they are familiar.'

Seth Stein - President of the American Geophysical Union Natural Hazards Focus Group, William Deering Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Institute for Policy Studies Associate, Northwestern University, Illinois

'Timothy H. Dixon provides a cogent and practical presentation of the risks we face with both natural and human-contributed disasters that kill, harm and cost us, especially if we do nothing. The takeaway message is: if you love this Earth and want to continue to rely on it, get to know it better and learn what we can do to protect ourselves from future calamities. Dixon explains in understandable fashion how the Earth works geologically; how, historically, we have taken the easy and convenient path to occupy it; and why we are so unprepared for its physical upheavals. Most significantly he provides solutions that make sense for now and for the future. The Earth will never stand still; should we not learn to work with it instead of against it? Our resistance to accommodating physical reality is our own self-destructing problem. Dixon helps us see this without shaming, and provides solutions that can help ourselves and our progeny.'

John Hofmeister - Former President of Shell Oil Company and Founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy

'This book covers risk theory, the basics of natural disasters, uncertainty, and vulnerability of humans. Dixon looks specifically at Fukushima and the more general problem of untoward geological events and nuclear power plants, and other aspects of tsunamis … He makes the point, correctly, that for various reasons the increase in price of fossil fuels that would ultimately drive, through market forces, the development of non-fossil fuel sources of electricity and motion is not going to happen for a very long time on its own. Environmentalists who assume there will be a huge increase in fossil fuel costs any time now are almost certainly mistaken. … [the author] makes valid and important points about science communication, time lags and long-term thinking …'

Greg Laden Source: Greg Laden's Blog, Science Blogs (www.scienceblogs.com)

'This book was written more for the general reader than the specialist. As such, it is a most useful book … [Dixon’s] practical experience supplements his scientific knowledge in demonstrating how better communication about pending threats could have greatly mitigated the dire consequences of natural disasters …[the] book proceeds methodically, structured as a primer, and with due scientific detachment. He is demonstrating, not lecturing. He begins by defining long-term risks and their real-world impacts (e.g., on markets), sets out the practical implications of the differences between natural and man-made disasters, underlines the role scientific uncertainty plays … Th[e] concluding chapter is packed with practical solutions (helpfully summarized on pages 268-69), aimed at demonstrating to the recalcitrant how it would be to their interests in the here-and-now to heed expert advice … As an examination of our own problems at home and their solutions through better communication, this book is the model.'

G. T. Dempsey Source: GeoLounge (www.geolounge.com)

'Dixon covers a wide range of natural (and a few man-made) hazards with recent examples of major disasters as the vehicle to provide context and consequences. The examples are carefully chosen to allow Dixon to explore how societal behaviour did or can make the hazards catastrophic … I see this book serving several important roles. First … it is a recommended read for most geoscientists, and others who have an interest in how the Earth works on human timescales. Second … as a thought provoking read for graduate students, helping them develop a good understanding of the broader impacts of their science. The combination of rigorous science, intriguing perspective, and societal relevance make Curbing Catastrophe a valued addition to the literature of natural hazards.'

Kevin P. Furlong Source: International Geology Review

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

References and Further Reading

*Entries marked with an asterisk have comments by the author.

Chapter 1

Lott, N., and Ross, T. (2006) Tracking and evaluating US billion dollar weather disasters, 1980–2005. NOAA/NCDC Technical Report: Asheville, NC.
Munich Re (2014) Topics GEO: Natural catastrophes 2013. Munich Re: München, Germany.
Nestle, M. (2015) Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning). Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
Protti, M., González, V., Newman, A. V., Dixon, T. H., Schwartz, S. Y., Marshall, J. S., Feng, L., Walter, J. I., Malservisi, R., and Owen, S. E. (2013) Prior geodetic locking resolved the rupture area of the anticipated 2012 Nicoya Earthquake. Nature Geoscience, 7, 117121, doi:10.1038/ngeo2038.
Strunk, W. Jr., and White, E. B. (1959) The Elements of Style. MacMillan: New York.
Taleb, N. N. (2010) The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Random House: New York.

Chapter 2

Bhattacharya, S. (2003) European heat wave caused 35,000 deaths. New Scientist, 10 October.
Chaline, E. (2013) History’s Worst Disasters. New Burlington Books: London.
Chase, T. N., Wolter, K., Pielke, R. A. Sr., and Rasool, I. (2006) Was the 2003 European summer heat wave unusual in a global context? Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L23709, doi: 10.1029/2006GL027470.
Keller, R. C. (2015) Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
*Kolbert, E. (2014) The Sixth Extinction. Holt and Company: New York. An engaging description of the mass extinction of species, caused by habitat loss and environmental degradation that is currently underway.
Reid, H. F. (1910) The Mechanics of the Earthquake, The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906, Report of the State Investigation Commission, Vol. 2. Carnegie Institution of Washington: Washington, DC.
Robine, J.-M., Cheung, S. L. K., Roy, S. L., Oyen, H. V., Griffiths, C., Michel, J.-P., and Herrmann, F. R. (2008) Death toll exceeded 70,000 in Europe during the summer of 2003. Comptes Rendus Biologies, 331, 2, 171178.
Sella, G. F., Dixon, T. H., and Mao, A. (2002) REVEL: A model for recent plate velocities from space geodesy. Journal of Geophysical Research, 107, B4, doi: 10.1029/2000JB000033.
Sigma (2014) Natural Catastrophes and Man-Made Disasters in 2013. Swiss Re: Zurich.
Stein, S. (2010) Disaster Deferred: A New View of Earthquake Hazards in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, Columbia University Press: New York.
Stern, R. J., Scholl, D. W., and Fryer, G. (2016) An Introduction to Convergent Plate Margins and their Natural Hazards. American Geophysical Union/Wiley Blackwell: Washington, DC.

Chapter 3

Boschi, E. (2013) L’Aquila’s aftershocks shake scientists. Science, 341, 1451.
Calais, E., Freed, A., Mattioli, G., Jonsson, S., Amelung, F., Jansma, P., Hong, S.-H., Dixon, T. H., Prepetit, C., and Momplaisir, R. (2010) Transpressional rupture of an unmapped fault during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Nature Geosciences, doi: 10.1038/NGEO992.
Dixon, T. H., Farina, F., DeMets, C., Jansma, P., Mann, P., and Calais, E. (1998) Relative motion between the Caribbean and North American plates based on a decade of GPS observations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 103, 1515715182.
Hall, S. S. (2011) At fault? Nature, 477, 264269.
Hough, S. E., Armbruster, J., Seeber, L., and Hough, J. (2000) On the Modified Mercalli Intensities and magnitudes of 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, 2383923864.
Jackson, D. D., Aki, K., Cornell, C. A., Dieterich, J. H., Henyey, T. L., Mahdyiar, M., Schwartz, D., and Ward, S. N. (1995) Seismic hazards in southern California: Probable earthquakes, 1994 to 2024. Bulletin of the Seismoloogical Society of America, 85, 379439.
Johnston, A. C. (1996) Seismic moment assessment of earthquakes in stable continental regions, III: New Madrid, 1811–1812, Charleston, 1886, and Lisbon, 1755. Geophysical Journal International, 126, 314344.
Kolbe, A. R., Hutson, R. A., Shannon, H., Trzcinski, E., Miles, B., Levitz, N., Puccio, M., James, L., Noel, J. R., and Muggah, R. (2010) Mortality, crime and access to basic needs before and after the Haiti earthquake: A random survey of Port-au-Prince households. Medicine, Conflict, Survival, 26, 281297.
Manaker, D. M., Calais, E., Freed, A. M., Ali, S. T., Przybylski, P., Mattioli, G., Jansma, P., Prepetit, C., and De Chabalie, J. B. (2008) Interseismic plate coupling and strain partitioning in the Northeastern Caribbean. Geophysical Journal International, 174, 889903.
Pritchard, C. (2012) L’Aquila ruling: Should scientists stop giving advice? BBC News Magazine, October 28.
Reid, H. F. (1910) The Mechanics of the Earthquake, The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906, Report of the State Investigation Commission, Vol. 2. Carnegie Institution of Washington: Washington, D.C.
Ropeik, D. (2012) The L’Aquila verdict: A judgement not against science, but against a failure of science communication. Scientific American, Guest Blog, October 22.
*Scherer, J. (1912) Great earthquakes in the island of Haiti. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 2, 161180. One of the earliest warnings concerning earthquake hazards for Haiti.
Schumpeter, J. (1942) Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper: New York.
Stein, S. (2010) Disaster Deferred: A New View of Earthquake Hazards in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Columbia University Press: New York.
Stein, S., and Stein, J. (2013) Playing against Nature: Integrating Science and Economics for Cost-Effective Natural Hazard Mitigation. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester, UK.
Sykes, L. R., McCann, W. R., and Kafka, A. L. (1982) Motion of the Caribbean Plate during the last 7 million years and implications for earlier Cenozoic movements. Journal of Geophysical Research, 87, 1065610676.
Taber, S. (1922) The great fault troughs of the Antilles. Journal of Geology, 30, 89114.
Weldon, R., Scharer, K., Fumal, T., and Biasi, G. (2004) Wrightwood and the earthquake cycle: What the long recurrence record tells us about how faults work. GSA Today, 14, 410, doi: 10.1130/1052–5173(2004)014.
Weldon, R. J., Fumal, T. E., Biasi, G. P., and Scharer, K. M. (2005) Past and future earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. Science, 308, 966967.

Chapter 4

*Bailly du Bois, P., Laguionie, P., Boust, D., Korsakissok, I., Didier, D., and Fiévet, B. (2012) Estimation of marine source-term following Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 114, 29. An important reference describing measurement of the marine contamination from Fukushima.
Buesseler, K. O. (2012) Fishing for answers off Fukushima. Science, 338, 480482.
Buesseler, K. O., Jayne, S. R., Fisher, N. S., Rypina, I. I., Baumann, H., Baumann, Z., Breier, C. F., Douglass, E. M., George, J., Macdonald, A. M., Miyamoto, H., Nishikawa, J., Pike, S. M., and Yoshida, S. (2012) Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 59845989.
Charette, M. A., Breier, C. F., Henderson, P. B., Pike, S. M., Rypina, I. I., Jayne, S. R., and Buesseler, K. O. (2013) Radium-based estimates of cesium isotope transport and total direct ocean discharges from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Biogeosciences, 10, 21592167, doi:10.5194/bg-10-2159-2013.
Connor, C. B. (2011) A quantitative literacy view of natural disasters and nuclear facilities. Numeracy, 4, 2, Article 2, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.4.2.2.
Daniell, J.E., Vervaeck, A., and Wenzel, F., (2011) A timeline of the socio-economic effects of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake with emphasis on the development of a new worldwide rapid earthquake loss estimation procedure. Australian Earthquake Engineering Society Conference, November.
Dvorak, P., and Landers, P. (2011) Japanese plant had barebones risk plan. Wall Street Journal, March 31.
Fackler, M. (2011a) Japan: 3 damaged reactors may take 40 years to decommission, officials say. New York Times, December 22, A15.
Fackler, M. (2011b) More radioactive water leaks at Japanese plant. New York Times, December 5, A11.
Fackler, M. (2011c) Tsunami warnings for the ages, carved in stone. New York Times, April 21, A6.
Fackler, M. (2012). Japan power company admits failings on plant precautions. New York Times, October 13, A4.
Fackler, M. (2015) Japan: Leak is disclosed at nuclear plant. New York Times, February 25, A8.
Funabashi, Y., and Kitazawa, Kay (2012) Fukushima in review: A Complex disaster, a disastrous response. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 68, March/April, 1314.
Geller, R. J. (2011) Shake-up time for Japanese seismology. Nature, 472, 407409.
Gilhooly, R. (2011) Quake prediction myth debunked: Professor’s new book blows cover off panic-driven ¥10 trillion industry. Special to Japan Times, December 27.
Kanamori, H. (1972) Mechanism of tsunami earthquake. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 6, 346359.
Keefe, P. R. (2007) The Jefferson bottles. The New Yorker, September 3.
Kiger, P. J. (2013) Fukushima’s radioactive water leak: What you should know. National Geographic News, August 9.
Kim, V. (2011) Japan damage could reach $235 billion, World Bank estimates. Los Angeles Times, March 21.
McCaffrey, R. (2007) The next great earthquake. Science, 315, 16751676.
McCaffrey, R. (2008) Global frequency of magnitude 9 earthquakes. Geology, 36, 263266.
McCalpin, J. (2009) Paleoseismology, 2nd edn. Academic Press: Burlington, MA.
Minoura, K., and Nakaya, S. (1991) Traces of tsunami preserved in inter-tidal lacustrine and marsh deposits: Some examples from northeast Japan. Journal of Geology, 99, 265287.
Minoura, K., Imamura, F., Sugawara, D., Kono, Y., and Iwashita, T. (2001) The 869 Jogan tsunami deposit and recurrence interval of large-scale tsunami on the Pacific coast of northeast Japan. Journal of Natural Disaster Science, 23, 8388.
Nöggerath, J., Geller, R. J., and Gusiakov, V. K. (2011) Fukushima: The myth of safety, the reality of geoscience. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 67, 3746.
Rypina, I. I., Jayne, S. R., Yoshida, S., Macdonald, A. M., Douglass, E., and Buesseler, K. (2013) Short-term dispersal of Fukushima-derived radionuclides off Japan: Modeling efforts and model-data intercomparison. Biogeosciences Discussion, 10, 15171550, doi: 10.5194/bgd-10-1517-2013.
Sieh, K. E. (1978) Prehistoric large earthquakes produced by slip on the San Andreas Fault at Pallett Creek, California. Journal of Geophysical Research, 83, 39073939.
Stein, J. L., and Stein, S. (2014) Gray swans: Comparison of natural and financial hazard assessment and mitigation. Natural Hazards, 72, 12791297.
Stein, S., and Okal, E. (2005) Seismology: Speed and size of the Sumatra earthquake. Nature, 434, 581582, doi: 10.1038/434581a
Stein, S., and Okal, E. (2007) Ultralong period seismic study of the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and implications for regional tectonics and the subduction process, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 97, S279S295.
Stohl, A., Seibert, P., Wotawa, G., Arnold, D., Burkhart, J. F., Eckhardt, S., Tapia, C., Vargas, A., and Yasunari, T. J. (2012) Xenon-133 and caesium-137 releases into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: Determination of the source term, atmospheric dispersion, and deposition. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 12, 23132343.
UNSCEAR (2008) Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atmospheric Radiation. United Nations: New York.
Wallace, B. (2008) The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine. Random House: New York.
Watanabe, H. (1998) Comprehensive List of Tsunamis that Struck the Japanese Islands, 2nd edn. (in Japanese). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
Yamaguchi, M. (2012) Japan utility agrees nuclear crisis was avoidable. Associated Press, October 12.
Yeats, R. (2012) Active Faults of the World. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

Chapter 5

Adams, J. (1984) Active deformation of the Pacific northwest continental margin. Tectonics, 3, 449472.
Adams, J. (1990) Paleoseismicity of the Cascadia subduction zone: Evidence from turbidites off the Oregon-Washington margin. Tectonics, 9, 569583.
Ansal, A., Akinci, A., Cultrera, G., Erdik, M., Pessina, V., Tönük, G., and Ameri, G. (2009) Loss estimation in Istanbul based on deterministic earthquake scenarios of the Marmara Sea region (Turkey). Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 29, 699709.
Atwater, B. F. (1987) Evidence for great Holocene earthquakes along the outer coast of Washington State. Science, 236, 942944.
Atwater, B. F., and Yamaguchi, D. K. (1991) Sudden, probably co-seismic submergence of Holocene trees and grass in coastal Washington State. Geology, 19, 706709.
Atwater, B. F., Musumi-Rokkaku, S., Satake, K., Tsuji, Y., Ueda, K., and Yamaguchi, D. K. (2005) The Orphan Tsunami of 1700. University of Washington Press: Seattle.
Barka, A. (1996) Slip distribution along the North Anatolian fault associated with the large earthquakes of the period 1939–1967. Seismological Society of America Bulletin, 86, 12381254.
Bouma, A. H. (1962) Sedimentology of Some Flysch Deposits. Elsevier: Amsterdam.
Erdik, M. (2013) Earthquake risk in Turkey. Science, 341, 724725.
Goldfinger, C., Nelson, C. H., and Johnson, J. E. (2003) Holocene earthquake records from the Cascadia subduction zone and northern San Andreas fault based on precise dating of offshore turbidites. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science, 31, 555577.
Goldfinger, C., Nelson, C. H., Morey, A., Johnson, J. E., Gutierrez-Pastor, J., Eriksson, A. T., Karabanov, E., Patton, J., Gracia, E., Enkin, R., Dallimore, A., Dunhill, G., and Vallier, T. (2012) Turbidite Event History: Methods and Implications for Holocene Paleoseismicity of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. USGS Professional Paper 1661-F. U.S. Geological Survey: Reston, VA, http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1661f/.
Goldfinger, C., Ikeda, Y., Yeats, R. S., and Ren, J. (2013) Superquakes and supercycles. Seismological Research Letters, 84, 2432.
Griggs, G. B., and Kulm, L. D. (1970) Sedimentation in Cascadia deep-sea channel. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 81, 13611384, doi: 10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[1361: SICDC]2.0.CO;2.
Heaton, T. H., and Kanamori, H. (1984) Seismic potential associated with subduction in the northwestern United States. Seismological Society of America Bulletin, 74, 933941.
Heezen, B. C., and Ewing, M. (1952) Turbidity currents and submarine slumps, and the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake. American Journal of Science, 250, 849–73
Houtz, R. E., and Wellman, H. W. (1962) Turbidity Current at Kadavu Passage, Fiji. Geological Magazine, 99, 5762.
Jacoby, G. C., Bunker, D. E., and Benson, B. E. (1997) Tree-ring evidence for an A.D. 1700 Cascadia earthquake in Washington and northern Oregon. Geology, 25, 9991002.
Kastens, K. A. (1984) Earthquakes as a triggering mechanism for debris flows and turbidites on the Calabrian Ridge. Marine Geology, 55, 1333.
Ketin, I. (1948) Uber die tektonisch.mechanischen Folgerungen aus den groflenanatolischen Erdbeben des letzten Dezenniums. Geologische Rundschau, 36, 7783.
Kremer, K., Simpson, G., and Girardclos, S. (2012) Giant Lake Geneva tsunami in AD 563. Nature Geoscience 5, 756757, doi:10.1038/ngeo1618.
Kremer, K., Marillier, F., Hilbe, M., Simpson, G., Dupuy, D., Yrro, B. J. F., Rachoud-Schneider, A.-M., Corboud, P., Bellwald, B., Wildi, W., and Girardclos, S. (2014) Lake dwellers occupation gap in Lake Geneva (France–Switzerland) possibly explained by an earthquake–mass movement–tsunami event during Early Bronze Age. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 385, 2839.
McClusky, S., Balassanian, S., Barka, A., Demir, C., Ergintav, S., Georgiev, I., Gurkan, O., Hamburger, M., Hurst, K., Kahle, H., Kastens, K., Kekelidze, G., King, R., Kotzev, V., Lenk, O., Mahmoud, S., Mishin, A., Nadariya, M., Ouzounis, A., Paradissis, D., Peter, Y., Prilepin, M., Reilinger, R., Sanli, I., Seeger, H., Tealeb, A., Toksöz, M. N., and Veis, G. (2000) Global Positioning System constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105, 56955719.
Morner, N. A. (1985) Paleoseismicity and geodynamics in Sweden. Tectonophysics, 117, 139153.
Parsons, T. (2004) Recalculated probability of M>7 earthquakes beneath the Sea of Marmara, Turkey. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, B05304, doi: 10.1029/2003JB002667.
Pilkey, O. H. (1988) Basin Plains: Giant sedimentation events. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 229, 9399.
Pondard, N., Armijo, R., King, G. C. P., Meyer, B., and Flerit, F. (2007) Fault interactions in the Sea of Marmara pull-apart (North Anatolian Fault): Earthquake clustering and propagating earthquake sequences. Geophysical Journal International, 171, 11851197.
Richter, C. (1958) Elementary Seismology, 1st edn. W. H. Freeman and Co.: San Francisco.
Satake, K, Shimazaki, K., Tsuji, Y., and Ueda, K. (1996) Time and size of a giant earthquake in Cascadia inferred from Japanese tsunami records of January, 1700. Nature, 379, 246249.
Savage, J. C., Lisowski, M., and Prescott, W. H. (1981) Geodetic strain measurements in Washington. Journal of Geophysical Research, 86, 49294940.
Sims, J. D. (1975) Determining earthquake recurrence intervals from deformational structures in young lacustrine sediments. Tectonophysics, 29, 141152.
Stein, R. S., Barka, A. A., and Dieterich, J. H. (1997) Progressive failure on the North Anatolian fault since 1939 by earthquake stress triggering. Geophysical Journal International, 128, 594604.
Thompson, J. (2012) Cascadia’s Fault: The Coming Earthquake and Tsunami that Could Devastate North America. Counterpoint: Berkeley, CA.
Uzel, T., Eren, K., and Dindar, A. A. (2010) Monitoring Plate Tectonics and Subsidence in Turkey by CORS-TR and InSAR. FIG Congress: Sydney, Australia.
Yamaguchi, D.K., Atwater, B. F., Bunker, D. E., Benson, B. E., and Reid, M. S. (1997) Tree-ring dating the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. Nature, 389, 922923
Yeats, R. (2012) Active Faults of the World. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
Yeats, R. (2015) Earthquake Time Bombs. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

Chapter 6

Brown, L. R., Larsen, J., Roney, J. M., and Adams, E. E (2015) The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy. W. W. Norton and Co.: New York and London.
*Bryson, B. (2004), A Short History of Nearly Everything. Broadway Books: New York. His chapter “Getting the Lead Out” is an excellent summary of the history of leaded gasoline.
*Davidson, C. I., ed. (1999) Clean Hands: Clair Patterson’s Crusade against Environmental Lead Contamination. Nova Science: Hauppauge, NY. A great read about a great person.
Deffeyes, K. (2001) Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.
Dekok, D. (2009) Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire, Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, CT.
*Denworth, L. (2009) Toxic Truth: A Scientist, A Doctor, and the Battle over Lead. Beacon Press: Boston. A comprehensive account of the battles over lead pollution.
Flight, D. M. A., and Scheib, A. J. (2011) Soil geochemical baselines in the UK urban centres: the G-BASE project. In: Mapping Chemical Environments in Urban Areas, eds. Johnson, C. C., Demetriades, A., Locatura, J., and Otteson, R. T., Ch. 13. John Wiley and Sons: Chichester, UK.
Greenpeace (2006) The Chernobyl Catastrophe: Consequences on Human Health. Greenpeace: Netherlands.
Hodes, G. (2013) Perovskite-Based Solar Cells. Science, 342, 6156, 317318, doi: 10.1126/science.1245473
Hightower, J. (2011) Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison. Island Press: Washington, DC.
Hofmeiseter, J. (2011) Why We Hate the Oil Companies. Palgrave/MacMillan: New York.
Kunstler, J. H. (2006) The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. Grove Press: New York.
Lomburg, B. (2014) A report card for humanity: 1900–2050. The Atlantic, January.
Mason, R. P., Choi, A. L., Fitzgerald, W. F., Hammerschmidt, C. R., Lamborg, C. I. H., Soerensen, A. L., and Sunderland, E. M. (2012) Mercury biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and policy implications. Environmental Research, 119, 101117.
Mayer, J. (2015) Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday: New York, Toronto.
McGrayne, S. B. (2001) Prometheans in the Lab. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Mielke, H. (1999) Lead in the inner-cities. American Scientist, 87, 6273.
Murray, J. W. (2013) Peak oil and energy independence: myth and reality. EOS: Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 94, 245246.
National Academy (2010) Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use. National Academy Press: Washington, DC.
Needleman, H. L. (2008) The case of Deborah Rice: Who is the Environmental Protection Agency protecting? PLoS Biology, 6, 5, 09400942, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.006012.
Needleman, H. L., Gunnoe, C., Leviton, A., Reed, R., Peresie, H., Maher, C., and Barrett, P. (1979) Deficits in psychological and classroom performance of children with elevated dentine lead levels. New England Journal of Medicine, 300, 689695.
Needleman, H. L., Schell, A., Bellinger, D., Leviton, A., and Allred, E. N. (1990) The long-term effects of exposure to low doses of lead in childhood. An 11-year follow-up report. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 8388.
Needleman, H. L., Tuncay, O., and Shapiro, I. M. (1972) Lead levels in deciduous teeth of urban and suburban American children. Nature, 235, 111112.
Nesheim, M. C., and Yaktine, A. L. (2007) Seafood Choices: Balancing Benefits and Risks. National Academies Press: Washington, DC.
Oreskes, N., and Conway, E. M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Bloomsbury Press: New York, London.
Palus, S. (2015) Humans greatly increase mercury in the ocean. EOS: Earth and Space Science News, 96 (10), 28.
Patterson, C. (1956) Age of meteorites and the Earth. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 10 (4), 230237.
*Patterson, C. (1965) Contaminated and natural lead environments of man. Archives of Environmental Health, 11, 344360. This paper was the first to show that high lead levels in industrial nations are both widespread and man-made.
Patterson, C., Ericson, J., Manea-Krichten, M., and Shirahata, H. (1991) Natural skeletal levels of lead in Homo sapiens sapiens uncontaminated by technological lead. Science of the Total Environment, 107, 205236.
Quiqley, J. (2007) The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy. Random House: New York.
Ropeik, D. (2010) How Risky is it Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Scheib, C., Flight, D., Lister, T. R., Scheib, A., and Breward, N. (2011) Lead (Pb) in topsoil. G-BASE Geochemical Map, British Geological Survey.
Simon, S. L. (2002) Radiation doses to local populations near nuclear weapons test sites worldwide. Health Physics, 82, 706725.
Simon, S. L., Bouville, A., and Land, C. E. (2006) Fallout from nuclear weapons tests and cancer risks. American Scientist, 94, 4857.
Streets, D. G., Devane, M. K., Lu, Z., Bond, T. C., Sunderland, E. M., and Jacob, D. J. (2011) All-time releases of mercury to the atmosphere from human activities. Environmental Science and Technology, 45, 1048510491.
UNSCEAR (2008) Sources and effects of ionizing radiation, United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes, Volume 2, Scientific Annexes C, D, and E. United Nations: New York.
Wall Street Journal (1965) Controversy flares over amount of lead absorbed by humans. September 9, 11.
Wenar, L. (2015) Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules That Run the World. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
Xu, L. Q., Liu, X.-D., Sun, L., Chen, Q.-Q., Yan, H., Liu, Y., Luo, Y.-H., and Huang, J. (2011) A 700-year record of mercury in avian eggshells of Guangjin Island, South China Sea. Environmental Pollution, 159, 889896.
Zhang, Y., Jaegle, L., Thompson, L., and Streets, D. G. (2014) Six centuries of changing oceanic mercury. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 28, 12511261.

Chapter 7

American Geophysical Union (2006) Hurricanes and the U.S. Gulf Coast: Science and Sustainable Rebuilding. AGU Special Report, Washington, DC.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2007) The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why. A Report by the American Society of Civil Engineers Hurricane Katrina External Review Panel, Reston, VA.
Bonin, J., and Chambers, D. (2013) Uncertainty estimates of a GRACE inversion modelling technique over Greenland using a simulation. Geophysical Journal International, 194, 212229.
Chaussard, E., Amelung, F., Abidin, H., and Hong, S.-H. (2013) Sinking cities in Indonesia: ALOS PALSAR detects rapid subsidence due to groundwater and gas extraction. Remote Sensing of Environment, 128, 150161, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2012.10.015.
Dixon, T. H. (2015) Ten years after Katrina: What have we learned? Eos, Earth and Space Science News, 96, doi:10.1029/2015EO034703.
Dixon, T. H., and Parke, M.E. (1983) Bathymetry estimates in the southern oceans from SEASAT radar altimetry. Nature, 304, 406411.
Dixon, T. H., Naraghi, M., McNutt, M. K., and Smith, S. M. (1983) Bathymetic prediction from SEASAT altimeter data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 88, 15631571.
Dixon, T. H., and Dokka, R. K. (2008) Earth scientists and public policy: Have we failed New Orleans? EOS: Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 89, 10, 96.
Dixon, T. H., Amelung, F., Ferretti, A., Novali, F., Rocca, F., Dokka, R., Sella, G., Kim, S.-W., Wdowinski, S., and Whitman, D. (2006) New Orleans subsidence: Rates and spatial variation measured by permanent scatterer interferometry. Nature, 441, 587588.
Fink, S. (2013) Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital. Crown: New York.
Fu, L. L., and Cazenave, A. (2001) Satellite Altimetry and Earth Sciences. International Geophysics Series, v. 69. Academic Press: New York, London, Tokyo.
Glass, A. and Pilkey, O. (2013) Denying Sea Level Rise: How 100 Centimeters Divided the State of North Carolina. Earth, 58, 5, 2633.
Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) (2007–2009), Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System: Final Report of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, 9 vols. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Vicksburg, MS.
Karegar, M. A., Dixon, T. H., and Malservisi, R. (2015) A three-dimensional surface velocity field for the Mississippi Delta: Implications for coastal restoration and flood potential. Geology, 43, 519522.
Karegar, M. A., Dixon, T. H., and Engelhart, S. E. (2016) Subsidence along the Atlantic coast of North America: Insights from GPS and late Holocene relative sea level data. Geophysical Research Letters, 43, doi: 10.1002/2016GL068015.
Larson, E. (2000) Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Vintage Books: New York, Toronto.
Ludden, J. (2013) A Hot Topic: Climate Change Coming to Classrooms. Morning Edition, March 27.
Machiavelli, N. (1532) The Prince, translated by Mansfield, H. C. Jr., 1985 edition, University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Moore, M. (1989) Roger & Me. Documentary film on Roger Smith, former chairman of GM, by filmaker Michael Moore. Preserved in the US National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 2013.
Nocquet, J.-M., Calais, E., and Parsons, B. (2005) Geodetic constraints on glacial isostatic adjustment in Europe. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L06308.
Parris, A., Bromirski, P., Burkett, V., Cayan, D., Culver, M., Hall, J., Horton, R., Knuuti, K., Moss, R., Obeysekera, J., Sallenger, A., and Weiss, J. (2012) Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the US National Climate Assessment. NOAA Tech Memo OAR CPO-1: Washington, DC.
Pfeffer, W. T., Harper, J. T., and O’Neel, S. (2008) Kinematic constraints on glacier contributions to 21st-century sea level rise. Science, 321, 13401343.
Pilkey, O.H., and Young, R. (2009) The Rising Sea. Island Press: Washington, DC.
Riggs, S. R., Ames, D. V., Culver, S. J., and Mallinson, D. J. (2011) The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast. University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC.
Rohling, E. J., Grant, K., Hembleen, CH., Siddall, M., Hoogakker, B. A. A., Bolshaw, M., and Kucera, M. (2008) High rates of sea level rise during the last interglacial period. Nature Geoscience, 1, 3842.
Sella, G., Stein, S., Dixon, T. H., Craymer, M., James, T., Mazzotti, S., and Dokka, R. K. (2007) Observation of glacial isostatic adjustment in “stable” North America with GPS. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L02306, doi:10:1-29/2006GL027081.
Sigma (2009) Natural Catastrophes and Man-Made Disasters in 2008. Swiss Re: Zurich.
Tapley, B. D., Bettadpur, S., Watkins, M., and Reigber, C. H. (2004) The gravity recovery and climate experiment: Mission overview and early results. Geophysical Research Letters, 31, L09607, doi:10.1029/2004GL019920.
Trenberth, K. (2012) Opinion: Super Storm Sandy: What role did climate change play in this week’s massive hurricane. The Scientist, October 31.
Trenberth, K. E., Davis, C. A., and Fasullo, J. (2007) Water and energy budgets of hurricanes: Case studies of Ivan and Katrina. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, D23106, doi:10.1029/2006JD008303.
*US Army Corps of Engineers (2006) Performance Evaluation, Status and Interim Results, Report 2 of a Series, Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System, Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). Note: a modified version of this report was published in 2009 by the National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
*Van Houten, C. (2016) The first official climate refugees in the U.S. race against time. National Geographic (published online, May 25). A poignant story of a Mississippi Delta community losing its land due to subsidence and sea level rise.
Wdowinski, S., Bray, R., Kirtman, B. P., and Wu, Z. (2016) Increasing flooding hazard in coastal communities due to rising sea level: Case study of Miami Beach, Florida. Ocean & Coastal Management, 126, 18.
*Wendel, J. (2016) Dirty water: Unintended consequences of climate resiliency. EOS: Earth and Space Science News, 97, doi:10.1029/2016EO047061. An interesting story of what happens when you pump urban floodwater into a nearby bay (warning – its not pretty).
Wouters, B., Chambers, D., and Schrama, E. J. O. (2008) GRACE observes small-scale mass loss in Greenland. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L20501, doi: 10.1029/2008GL034816.
Yang, Q., Dixon, T. H., Myers, P. G., Bonin, J., Chambers, D., and van den Broeke, M. R. (2016) Recent increases in Arctic freshwater flux affects Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning circulation. Nature Communications, 7, 10525, doi: 10.1038/ncomms10525.

Chapter 8

*Arrhenius, S. (1896) On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. Philosophical Magazine, 41, 237276. Carbonic acid is the old name for carbon dioxide.
Associated Press (2016) Migrant toll over 1,000 in a week: Deaths in the Mediterranean come amid a rise in bids to reach Europe. June 1.
Barnett, C. (2015) Rain: A Natural and Cultural History. Crown: New York.
Bowden, M. (1999) Black Hawk Down: a Story of Modern War. Grove Press: New York.
*Brandt, N. (2016) Inherit the Dust. Edwynn Houk Gallery: New York. A stark portrayal of environmental degradation and habitat loss, in pictures.
Chatterjee, R. (2016) Occupational hazard: Farm workers are dying in southern India as an epidemic of a mysterious kidney disease goes global. Science, 352, 2427.
Cornwall, W. (2015) Ghosts of oceans past. Science, 350, 752755
Davenport, C. (2013) The cost of inaction. National Journal, 45, 6, 813
*Diamond, J. (2004) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin: New York, Toronto. Fascinating studies of how and why various societies have failed through the ages (environmental problems are a surprisingly common cause).
*Dutton, A., Carlson, A. E., Long, A. J., Milne, G. A., Clark, P. U., DeConto, R., Horton, B. P., Rahmstorf, S., and Raymo, M. E. (2015) Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods. Science, 349, doi: 10.1126/science.aaa4019-1 – 4019-9. This article shows that sea level was at least 6 meters higher in previous periods of earth history when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were similar to today.
Ehrlich, P., and Ehrlich, A. (2004) One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future. Island Press/Shearwater: Washington, DC.
Foster, G. L., and Rohling, E. J. (2013) Relationship between sea level and climate forcing by CO2 on geological time scales. Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences, 110, 12091214.
Hammer, J. (2013) Is a lack of water to blame for the conflict in Syria? Smithsonian Magazine, 44, 3, 18.
Hansen, J., Sato, M., and Ruedy, R. (2012) Perception of climate change. Proceedings, National Academy of Science, e2415e2423, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1205276109.
Hassol, S. J. (2008) Improving how scientists communicate about climate change. Eos: Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 89, 11, 106107.
Hoerling, M., Kumar, A., Dole, R., Nielsen-Gammon, J. W., Eischeid, J., Perlwitz, J., Quan, X-W., Zhang, T., Pegion, P., and Chen, M. (2013) Anatomy of an extreme event. Journal of Climate, 26, 28112832.
Houghton, J. (2015) Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, 5th edn. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
Hudson, V. M., Ballif-Spanvill, B., Caprioli, M., and Emmett, C. F. (2014) Sex and World Peace. Columbia University Press: New York.
Keeling, C. D. (1960) The concentration and isotopic abundances of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Tellus, 12, 2, 200203.
Kolbert, E. (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing: New York and London.
Kolbert, E. (2014) The Sixth Extinction. Henry Holt and Company: New York.
Kunstler, J. H. (2006) The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. Grove Press: New York.
Lachapelle, E., Dinan, S., Borick, C., Rabe, B., and Mills, S. (2015) Mind the Gap: Climate Change Opinions in Canada and the United States. Published jointly by the National Survey on Energy and the Environment (US) and National Survey of Canadian Public Opinion (Canada). Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Washington, DC.
Mann, M. E., Bradley, R. S., and Hughes, M. K. (1998) Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries. Nature, 392, 779787.
Mann, M. E., Bradley, R. S., and Hughes, M. K. (1999) Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 759762.
Mann, M. E., Zhang, Z., Hughes, M. K., Bradley, R. S., Miller, S. K., Rutherford, S., and Ni, F. (2008) Proxy-based reconstructions of hemispheric and global surface temperature variations over the past two millennia. Proceedings, National Academy of Science, 105, 1325213257.
Mann, M. E. (2012) The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. Columbia University Press: New York.
Martinez, O. (2016) A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America. Verso Books: London, New York.
Mayer, J. (2013) A word from our sponsor. New Yorker Magazine, May 27.
Mao, A., Harrison, C. G. A., and Dixon, T. H. (1999) Noise in GPS coordinate time series. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104, 27972816.
Marcott, S. A., Shakun, J. D., Clark, P. U., and Mix, A. C. (2013) A reconstruction of regional and global temperature for the past 11,300 years. Science, 339, 11981201, doi: 10.1126/science.1228026.
National Assessment Synthesis Team (2000) Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. US Global Change Research Program: Washington, DC.
Oreskes, N., and Conway, E. M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Bloomsbury Press: New York.
Piguet, E., and Laczko, F. (eds.) (2014) People on the move in a changing climate. Global Migration Issues, 2, doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-6985-4.
Plass, G. N. (1959) Carbon dioxide and climate. Scientific American, 201, 1, 4147.
Proulx, A. (2016) Barkskins: A Novel. Scribner: New York, London, Toronto.
Rahmstorf, S., and Coumou, D. (2011) Increase of extreme events in a warming world. Proceedings, National Academy of Science, 108, 17, 905917.
Raymo, M. E., and Mitrovica, J. X. (2012) Collapse of polar ice sheets during the stage 11 interglacial. Nature, 483, 453, doi: 10.1038/nature10891.
Robbins, S. (2015) New wave of migrant children travelling alone: US flooded with children fleeing Central America. Associated Press, December 25.
Ruddiman, W. F. (2013) The Anthropocene. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, 41, 4568.
Schwartz, R. D. (2012) An astrophysicist looks at global warming. GSA Today, 22, 4445.
Somerville, R. C. J. (2008) The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change, 2nd edn. AMS Books: Boston.
Somerville, R. C. J., and Hassol, S. J. (2011) Communicating the science of climate change. Physics Today, 64, 48.
Vallis, G. K. (2012) Climate and the Oceans. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.
Wasdin, H. E., and Templin, S. (2011) Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper. St Martin’s Press: New York.
Wolff, M. (2008) The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch. Broadway/Random House: New York.
Yang, Q., Dixon, T. H., Myers, P. G., Bonin, J., Chambers, D., and van den Broeke, M. R. (2016) Recent increases in Arctic freshwater flux: impacts on Labrador Sea Convection and Atlantic overturning circulation. Nature Communications, 7, 10525, doi: 10.1038/ncomms10525.

Chapter 9

Dixon, T. H., Jiang, Y., Malservisi, R., McCaffrey, R., Voss, N., Protti, M., and Gonzalez, V. (2014) Earthquake and tsunami forecasts: Relation of slow slip events to subsequent earthquake rupture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 48, 1703917044.
Hofmeister, J. (2010) Why We Hate the Oil Companies. St Martin’s Press/Palgrave Macmillan: New York.
Jiang, Y., Dixon, T. H., and Wdowinski, S. (2010) Accelerating uplift in the North Atlantic region as an indicator of ice loss. Nature Geoscience, 3, 404407, doi:10.1038/ngeo845.
Krabbenhoft, D. P., and Sunderland, E. M. (2013) Global change and mercury. Science, 341, 1457.
Lubick, N. and Malakoff, D. (2013) With pact’s completion, the real work begins. Science, 341, 1443.
Newman, AV (2011) Hidden depths. Nature, 474, 441443.
Service, R. F. (2015) Tailpipe to tank. Science, 349, 11581160.
Streets, D. G., Devane, M. K., Lu, Z., Bond, T. C., Sunderland, E. M., and Jacob, D. J. (2011) All time releases of Mercury to the atmosphere from human activities. Environmental Science and Technology, 45, 1048510491
Toffler, B. L., and Reingold, J. (2003) Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen. Currency/Doubleday/Random House: New York, London, Toronto.

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.