Earth scientists reduce risk.
The need to curb manmade climate change has the world's attention. Humans can't curb volcanic eruptions, earthquake shaking, or natural climate change. But they can reduce the risk to themselves through land-use planning, building codes, and community preparedness. The underlying question, Dr. Fink says, is how to maintain public attention to this when destructive events happen only once in two decades or so. A geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, Fink joined fellow scientists to highlight this concern during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last month in San Francisco.