A Great Aridness

Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Ecology, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book A Great Aridness by William deBuys, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William deBuys ISBN: 9780199912247
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: November 25, 2011
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: William deBuys
ISBN: 9780199912247
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: November 25, 2011
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

With its soaring azure sky and stark landscapes, the American Southwest is one of the most hauntingly beautiful regions on earth. Yet staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-based society close to the brink of a Dust-Bowl-scale catastrophe. In A Great Aridness, William deBuys paints a compelling picture of what the Southwest might look like when the heat turns up and the water runs out. This semi-arid land, vulnerable to water shortages, rising temperatures, wildfires, and a host of other environmental challenges, is poised to bear the heaviest consequences of global environmental change in the United States. Examining interrelated factors such as vanishing wildlife, forest die backs, and the over-allocation of the already stressed Colorado River--upon which nearly 30 million people depend--the author narrates the landscape's history--and future. He tells the inspiring stories of the climatologists and others who are helping untangle the complex, interlocking causes and effects of global warming. And while the fate of this region may seem at first blush to be of merely local interest, what happens in the Southwest, deBuys suggests, will provide a glimpse of what other mid-latitude arid lands worldwide--the Mediterranean Basin, southern Africa, and the Middle East--will experience in the coming years. Written with an elegance that recalls the prose of John McPhee and Wallace Stegner, A Great Aridness offers an unflinching look at the dramatic effects of climate change occurring right now in our own backyard.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

With its soaring azure sky and stark landscapes, the American Southwest is one of the most hauntingly beautiful regions on earth. Yet staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-based society close to the brink of a Dust-Bowl-scale catastrophe. In A Great Aridness, William deBuys paints a compelling picture of what the Southwest might look like when the heat turns up and the water runs out. This semi-arid land, vulnerable to water shortages, rising temperatures, wildfires, and a host of other environmental challenges, is poised to bear the heaviest consequences of global environmental change in the United States. Examining interrelated factors such as vanishing wildlife, forest die backs, and the over-allocation of the already stressed Colorado River--upon which nearly 30 million people depend--the author narrates the landscape's history--and future. He tells the inspiring stories of the climatologists and others who are helping untangle the complex, interlocking causes and effects of global warming. And while the fate of this region may seem at first blush to be of merely local interest, what happens in the Southwest, deBuys suggests, will provide a glimpse of what other mid-latitude arid lands worldwide--the Mediterranean Basin, southern Africa, and the Middle East--will experience in the coming years. Written with an elegance that recalls the prose of John McPhee and Wallace Stegner, A Great Aridness offers an unflinching look at the dramatic effects of climate change occurring right now in our own backyard.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Still Life by William deBuys
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance by William deBuys
Cover of the book The Structure of Theological Revolutions by William deBuys
Cover of the book Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. by William deBuys
Cover of the book Financial Behavior by William deBuys
Cover of the book The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat by William deBuys
Cover of the book Burdened Virtues : Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles by William deBuys
Cover of the book China Goes Global: The Partial Power by William deBuys
Cover of the book Moses Maimonides by William deBuys
Cover of the book Buddhist Biology by William deBuys
Cover of the book Darwin and His Children by William deBuys
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Strategy Implementation by William deBuys
Cover of the book Inequality and Instability by William deBuys
Cover of the book Power, Prose, and Purse by William deBuys
Cover of the book Let the People See by William deBuys
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy