Disastrous droughts are striking widespread areas of the world, from South Africa to American West. Benjamin Cook, a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has written a primer on everything one needs to know about the subject. “Drought: An Interdisciplinary Perspective,” just out from Columbia University Press, ranges from the physics of hydroclimate to the environmental and social consequences of severe drying events. Perhaps the most pressing issue: will these events become more common in a warming world, and if so, what will be the consequences? Some of Cook’s lessons are drawn from the past: among them, the drought-driven falls of the ancient Anasazi, Maya and Angkor civilizations. The book cites the latest studies on how climate change may have fed recent droughts, and how it may shift the map in the future. Cook is definitely the person to explain all this; he is author of many of the studies he cites, which have been some of the most influential and news-making of the last 10 years. We spoke with Cook recently.