Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania

The book surveys remote and often inhospitable regions worldwide—deserts, polar zones, mountain highlands, swamps, and Pacific islands—describing their physical features, mineral and biological resources, and the human adaptations and uses associated with them. It links natural processes to economic value, showing how barren-seeming areas produce nitrates, metals, oil, and fisheries and how landforms and oceanic systems affect climate and agriculture elsewhere. A substantial section treats Oceania and the islands of the Pacific, outlining reefs, settlement patterns, and resource exploitation. Descriptive travel accounts, geological explanation, and illustrative examples emphasize the interdependence of these regions and more fertile lands.