What are the main issues in The Control of Nature?

One of the main issues presented in, The Control of Nature, is the ongoing struggle that exists between man and nature to control conditions of life on earth. The struggle becomes intense when an area is more populated or economically valuable. For example, Kilauea is an erupting volcano for several years and has active lava flows. Six lava research camps are consumed by lava. The volcanologists have no attachment to a specific camp. Consequently they just move camp like any early settler. Mauna Loa has occasional eruptions so the port city of Hilo is developed in the path of a typically dormant Mauna Loa. When an eruption threatens, the Hawaiian Research Association calls the U.S. Army Air Corps to bomb an erupting vent. Similarly citrus growers on the alluvial floodplain of Los Angeles plant new trees in the debris flows that knock down old trees. When trees are replaced by housing developments Flood tries to control debris flows with debris basins at the origin on the San Gabriel mountainside. Mississippi River flows both create and destroy by flooding southern Louisiana and the Atchafalaya Basin.