Book excerpt: Unraveling Environmental Disasters covers the major environmental threats facing our world, focusing on rigorous scientific investigations to better understand why the disasters occurred. Two prominent scientists, physical chemist Trevor Letcher and environmental engineer Daniel Vallero, look at natural and human-induced disasters to analyze ways that they could have been prevented and offer predictions on possible future disasters based upon scientific evidence. This book: Considers the societal impact on environmental disasters Describes concisely why these disasters occurred, with understandable explanations of the underlying scientific principles Applies "failure analysis" to recent environmental catastrophes, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico Explains how to minimize the risk of potential disasters similar to those of the past