Human beings have exerted enormous control over the earth, particularly in modern times. But there's a bit of hubris in thinking that we are mightier than the world beneath our feet. The forces of nature are always showing us who's the boss. In 1929, the authorities in Sugarloaf Key, Florida, thought they would conquer mosquitoes by bringing in bats. How? By building the world's largest bat tower, which they did. They planned to attract 100,000 bats with a special bait made by bat expert Charles Campbell. Their tower was up for one day before a hurricane hit. No, it didn't destroy the tower, which survived for close to a century, but no bats ever lived in it because the bait was washed away.
Read the details of that story and four others concerning the folly of man vs. nature at Cracked. As Chiffon margarine once said, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."
(Image credit: Ebyabe)
I don't think it was, for thousands of years at least... A few years of bad weather/drought, and huge numbers of people died off. Clustering together in cities caused widespread deaths from diseases like cholera, and created ideal conditions for massive plagues that killed off many, many millions of people, too.
Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!