Great British Weather Disasters Author:Philip Eden Here is a popular book with big set-piece descritpions accompanied by illustrations at its core, but with enough science to attract both the specialoist reader and to educate the lay reader without scaring him off. Disaster books tradtionally feed on hype, sensationalism and bad science. Eden redresses the balance What then is the place of we... more »ather disasters in our climate? Are they freaks or a necessary part of tghe whoole. How rare are meteoroligcal event does it take to cause chaos in our day-to-day lives? Arde we becoming more at risk and less capable of dealing with them. Or do we just complain more. These days we try and mitigate the effects of different hazards, by acquiring personal and property protection- individually, personally and politically. So what is the role of local and central government, the insurance industry, the media and the public. And how do we actually measure disaster? By rarity, insurance cost, death toll, recovery times or what? Can we merge all these so we can compare-say- the 1976 drought with the 1891 blizzard. Can we rank disasters. 15,000 died in last year's European heatwave. Is this the shape of things to come. What will happpen when the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift stops flowing. Here are just a few of Philip Eden's topics in a book which will be riveting to readers.« less