David Liverman was born in Accra, Ghana, and is a geologist with the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador, specializing in environmental geology. He is also an adjunct professor of geography at Memorial University. He and his colleagues have been researching geological hazards in the province for over a decade. He holds degrees from the universities of Edinburgh and Alberta, and has been a St. John’s resident since 1988. He has published numerous scientific papers and reports, and this is his first book.