Synopses & Reviews
This illuminating overview of human population shifts and their precarious relationship with climate change and geography brings a unique perspective to understanding our age-old natural desire to inhabit picturesque landscapes or to transform once-desolate areas into new gardens of growth, all the while confronted by the dangerous, often life-threatening natural events that test our endurance. The author takes us on a journey along the ancient migration routes of our earliest ancestors and examines why many chose to settle in natural utopias with ample water; lush, fertile lands; and a moderate climate, while others were forced to make the most of far less inviting surroundings. Today, populations still shift. Some people migrate for devoutly religious reasons—outgrowing their surroundings, they move to the next available area, seeking a better life and spreading their religion—potentially instigating social conflict. We also now migrate in order to fulfill our wants and needs. Instead of settling near sources of water as a means for growth and survival, we seek out waterfront areas for their appealing landscape, though these spaces are already teeming with people. In contrast, many others are willing to move to new areas, no matter how inhospitable the clime, to earn a living. While there is still no technology that can protect vulnerable groups against the threatening features of the natural world, this book offers suggestions for how we can better adapt to challenging environments.
Synopsis
As long as the human species has existed, men and women have had to contend with the unpredictable forces of nature. Geographer Barry A. Vann brings a unique perspective to this age-old struggle in this illuminating overview of human population shifts and their precarious relationship with climate change and geography.
Vann takes us on a journey along the migration routes of the earliest modern humans and tells why our ancestors chose to settle down in places that can be best described as natural utopias. In the religiously oriented worldview of ancient peoples, such places took on a sacred aura of divine favor. Similarly, destructive events such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes were interpreted as expressions of divine wrath. Vann shows how the ancient texts of the Bible and the Qur'an offer glimpses of past climates that were distinctly different from the climate of our time.
He also discusses the rise of technology as a means of controlling the threatening features of the natural world. Though technology has enabled humanity to cope with hostile climates, it has also created a false sense of security. Vann notes that population clusters are increasing in dangerous areas and that no technology can protect vulnerable groups from major-category hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes.
Finally, he considers our current anxieties regarding global warming, pointing out that this focus has obscured a good deal of historical and geological evidence for a return of another ice age.
The Forces of Nature offers a challenging perspective on the precarious balance between fragile human communities and their often-threatening environments.
Synopsis
Barry A. Vann is professor of geography and higher education at the University of the Cumberlands. He is the author of Puritan Islam: The Geoexpansion of the Muslim World; Rediscovering the South’s Celtic Heritage; In Search of Ulster-Scots Land: The Birth and Geotheological Imagings of a Transatlantic People; and (with Ellsworth Huntington) Geography toward History: Studies in the Mediterranean Basin and Mesopotamia.