SMH Home Home   >   World News   >   Article Monday July 8,
2002      When disaster strikes...  July 6 2002  Anticipating
the end of the world is all in a day's work for Bill McGuire.
Catherine Keenan talks to the vulcanologist known as
Disasterman.  Bill McGuire is remarkably cheerful for someone
often called "Disasterman". He doesn't wear tights, or rescue
damsels in distress, but earned his nickname because he spends
his time researching and writing about various natural
disasters. He is a vulcanologist by training, but also looks at
earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, droughts, floods, the
consequences of Earth being hit by an asteroid or comet, and the
many and varied effects of global warming. His latest book has
the uplifting title A Guide to the End of the World: Everything
You Never Wanted to Know.  Speaking from his office at
University College London, where he is the Benfield Greig
Professor of Geophysical Hazards, McGuire says his avuncular
disposition has caused difficulties in the past. In 1999,