Read the following excerpt from alan weisman's "the city without us": in an abandoned city, there would be no one like paul schuber and peter briffa to race from station to flooded station whenever more than two inches of rain falls - as happens lately with disturbing frequency - sometimes snaking hoses up stairways to pump to a sewer down the street, sometimes navigating these tunnels in inflatable boats. with no people, there would also be no power. the pumps will go off and stay off. "when this pump facility shuts down," says schuber, "in half an hour water reaches a level where trains can't pass anymore." briffa removes his safety goggles and rubs his eyes. "a flood in one zone would push water into the others. within 36 hours, the whole thing could fill." now read the following excerpt from jared diamond's "the ends of the world as we know them": why weren't these problems obvious to the maya kings, who could surely see their forests vanishing and their hills becoming eroded? part of the reason was that the kings were able to insulate themselves from problems afflicting the rest of society. by extracting wealth from commoners, they could remain well fed while everyone else was slowly starving. what's more, the kings were preoccupied with their own power struggles. they had to concentrate on fighting one another and keeping up their images through ostentatious displays of wealth. by insulating themselves in the short run from the problems of society, the elite merely bought themselves the privilege of being among the last to starve. consider how each passage approaches the theme of the power of nature and explain how each author develops that theme. be sure to use specific details from the text to support your answer.