Table of Contents
Images 11
Maps 13
Tables 15
Chapter1 The Power of Environmental Perceprions 17
Introduction 17
Historical Perspectives on Human-Environmental Interactions 23
Human Values and Environmental Perception 33
The Importance of Environmental Perception 35
Summary 36
Chapter 2 Living on The Edge of The World 39
Introduction 39
Forming the Human Ecumene 39
The Edge of the World 44
Rural to Rural Migration 48
Building on the Old 51
Summary 57
Chapter 3 Settling The Ancient Ecumene 59
Introduction 59
Accommodating Population Growth 60
Our Ecumene 64
Where Life Is Hard, Few People Are Found 70
Summary 77
Chapter 4 Geotheology The Cradle of Civilzation 79
Introduction 79
Geotheology 81
Cosmology and Geoeschatology 83
Geotheokolasis and Geotheomisthosis 90
Sacred Images of Weather and Climate with Inferences for Climate Change 100
Summary 100
Chapter 5 Geokolasis: The Cases of Donora, Lakeerie, And The Dust Bowl 103
Introduction 103
Asia Fills the Production Void 105
Deaths in the Fog 108
"Death and Rebirth of Lake Erie" 110
Grapes of Draft 114
Summary 123
Chapter 6 Erosion And Dispossession in The Cumberland Gap Area, 1933-1939 127
Introduction 127
Framing a Perspective on Life in the Cumberland Gap Area 131
Tennessee Valley Authority and Norris Dam 133
Life of the Nondispossessed 137
Lingering Legacy of the TVA in the Cumberland Gap Area 143
Summary 145
Chapter 7 Life And Death in Hurricane Alley 147
Introduction 147
Geography of Hurricanes 150
The Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900 163
Summary 170
Chapter 8 Life And Death in America's Tornado Alleys 173
Introduction 173
Predicting Tornadoes 175
Classifying Tornadoes 179
Geography of Tornadoes 181
The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 188
Mossy Grove and the Outbreak of November 11, 2002 195
Summary 198
Chapter 9 Life And Death in Quake Zones 201
Introduction 201
Predicting the Next Big One 206
Measuring Quakes 210
New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 212
Summary 215
Chapter 10 Challenges of Climate Change 217
Introduction 217
When Human Ecology Approaches Geotheology 220
Stigmatization of Carbon 223
The Imprecision of Predicting Global Warming and Climate Change 224
The Historicity of Climate Change 232
Summary 241
Chapter 11 The East's Human Tsunami 243
Introduction 243
Demographic Adaptations in Mid-Atlantic Coastal Areas 245
Ecological Forces behind International Migrations 250
Carrying Capacity in the Near East, Middle East, and Southern Asia 253
The East's Expanded Carrying Capacity and the Declining Pull of the West 260
Living in the Eastern Hazard Zone 262
Summary 263
Chapter 12 The Americas in 2060 265
Introduction 265
Lands of Contrasting Environmental Features 268
Population Change in the Americas 270
The Fatal Attraction of North America 273
The Need for Development in the Americas 276
Summary 278
Appendix: Cumberland Gap Survey 281
Acknowledgments 283
Notes 285
Bibliography 321
Index 335