The Control of Nature

This is 3 long essays on different attempts by humans to control nature.
The first is to keep the Mississippi river from changing where it connects to the Gulf, the second on controlling a newly developed volcano in Iceland and the third on handling landslides in Los Angeles.

The Mississippi story had too many literary references that I think were just there to show off the authors intellectual prowess. While they all would have benefited greatly by having some pictures and diagrams, this one really needed them. I had to look at maps and diagrams on Wikipedia to really follow what was happening.

The Iceland story was amazing. I am visiting Iceland later this year and will see about visiting the areas described here. It also talks about Kilauea on Hawaii which was interesting as it is erupting as I was reading this.

The last one on Los Angeles mountain fires and landslides points up the foolishness of spending many millions of dollars so people can continue to live in an area where they shouldn't be living in the first place.

Very enjoyable book. A friend recommended it at lunch and while we were talking, I ordered a cheap used copy off the Internet. We live in a time of miracles and wonders.

Three long articles originally published in The New Yorker.

1. If you do nothing, most of the Mississippi’s water flow would go into Atchafalaya. This would be bad for everyone near both rivers, and people have been controlling these water flows for more than a century.

2. If lava flows slowly, and it is close to a water source, and you have good pumps lying around, you can cool the lava enough to prevent it from flowing further and destroying your town and its bay. This has been done in 1973 on the island of Heimaey in Iceland.

3. If you live close to the San Gabriel mountains in Los Angeles, your house might get destroyed by a debris flow. You can dig a place for these flows to go into, but these places can turn out to be too small. And since many people move in and out, they are not ready: you couldn’t have seen that worst-in-20-years storm if you've only lived here for five years.

Loved it.