Wall Street analysts are thrilled by the discovery of vast new oil fields deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. But the oil companies will have to cope with the threat of hurricanes and underwater earthquakes.
When the glaciers melt, all that water has to go somewhere. In the mountain fastnesses of Nepal and Bhutan, it is forming thousands of new lakes -- with potentially catastrophic consequences.
I'm constantly encountering the unexpected, and there are numerous splendid examples in these pages. For instance, who would have thought that ranchers in Montana would dedicate themselves to the protection of the grizzly bear, an omnivore with a taste for cattle and sheep?