Download or read book Betting the Farm on a Drought written by Seamus McGraw and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book takes a survey of climate change today: it lays out for the everyman what is happening, why it's happening, and what some people are doing about it. But rather than get mired in polemics or scientific jargon, as so many other books have done, Tempest tackles the issue through the people who are dealing with it--scientists, yes, but also fishermen and farmers who, even if they're not ready to concede global warming is a manmade problem, are adapting to a world of stronger storms and more intense droughts in creative ways. By telling such human stories, McGraw hopes to move readers beyond partisan divisions and into the much-needed common ground. Otherwise, as he says, "if the melting ice caps and rising oceans don't get us, we're all going to drown in the viscera of each other's gored oxen.""--

Download or read book Bet the Farm written by Beth Hoffman and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.

Download or read book The End of Country written by Seamus McGraw and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A rare, honest, beautiful, and, yes, sometimes heartbreaking examination of the echoes of water-powered natural gas drilling—or fracking—in the human community . . . vivid, personal and emotional.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune Susquehanna County, in the remote northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, is a community of stoic, low-income dairy farmers and homesteaders seeking haven from suburban sprawl—and the site of the Marcellus Shale, a natural gas deposit worth more than one trillion dollars. In The End of Country, journalist and area native Seamus McGraw opens a window on the battle for control of this land, revealing a conflict that pits petrodollar billionaires and the forces of corporate America against a band of locals determined to extract their fair share of the windfall—but not at the cost of their values or their way of life. Rich with a sense of place and populated by unforgettable personalities, McGraw tells a tale of greed, hubris, and envy, but also of hope, family, and the land that binds them all together. “To tell a great story, you need a great story. Seamus McGraw . . . has lived a great story. . . . [He] is just one of its many characters—very real characters—caught up in a very human story in which they must make tough, life-altering decisions for themselves, their community, and ultimately their country.”—Allentown Morning Call “Compelling . . . The End of Country is like a phone call from a close friend or relative living smack-dab in the middle of the Pennsylvania gas rush. . . . Anyone with even a passing interest in the [fracking debate should] read it.”—Harrisburg Patriot-News “This cautionary tale should be required reading for all those tempted by the calling cards of easy money and precarious peace of mind.”—Tom Brokaw “A page-turner . . . McGraw brings us to the front lines of the U.S. energy revolution to deliver an honest and humbling account that could hardly possess greater relevance.”—The Humanist

Download or read book A Thirsty Land written by Seamus McGraw and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An important story not just about [Texas’s] water history, but also about its social, economic, and political identity” (Western Historical Quarterly). As a changing climate threatens the whole country with deeper droughts and more furious floods that put ever more people and property at risk, Texas has become a bellwether state for water debates. Will there be enough water for everyone? Is there the will to take the steps necessary to defend ourselves against the sea? Is it in the nature of Americans to adapt to nature in flux? The most comprehensive—and comprehensible—book on contemporary water issues, A Thirsty Land delves deep into the challenges faced not just by Texas but also by the nation, as we struggle to find a way to balance the changing forces of nature with our own ever-expanding needs. Part history, part science, part adventure story, and part travelogue, this book puts a human face on the struggle to master that most precious and capricious of resources, water. Seamus McGraw goes to the taproots, talking to farmers, ranchers, businesspeople, and citizen activists, as well as to politicians and government employees. Their stories provide chilling evidence that Texas—and indeed the nation—is not ready for the next devastating drought, the next catastrophic flood. Ultimately, however, A Thirsty Land delivers hope. This deep dive into one of the most vexing challenges facing Texas and the nation offers glimpses of the way forward in the untapped opportunities that water also presents. “A hard look at a hard problem: finding sufficient water to live in a place without much of it. . . . McGraw’s fine book serves as a useful guide. Observers of Western waterways will want to have this on their shelves alongside the likes of Marc Reisner and Charles Bowden.” —Kirkus Reviews “In stark prose that often gleams like a bone pile bleached in the sun, McGraw travels back and forth across Texas to give a free-ranging but deadeye view of the crisis on the horizon.” —Texas Monthly “It’s hard to write about the slow creep of environmental crises like drought without resorting to shock tactics or getting lost in the weeds . . . [McGraw] draws out the conflicts in compelling ways by drilling into the plight of individual water users. Even if you feel no connection to Texas, these stories are relevant to every part of the country.” —Outside “Interviewing both scientific experts and everyday water users, [McGraw] clearly delineates the competing interests, describes political and geological reality, and makes a compelling argument for statewide water policy that utilizes modern technology and fairly weighs parochial needs against the good of the whole.” —Arizona Daily Star, Southwest Books of the Year

Download or read book From a Taller Tower written by Seamus McGraw and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the American mass shooter since 1966, and an analysis of how the nation makes sense of the senseless violence. We, as a nation, have become desensitized to the shock and pain in the wake of mass shootings. In the bottomless silence between gunshots, as political stalemate ensures inaction, the killing continues; the dying continues. From a Taller Tower attends to the silence that has left us empty in the aftermath of these atrocities. Veteran journalist Seamus McGraw chronicles the rise of the mass shooter to dismantle the myths we have constructed around the murderers and ourselves. In 1966, America’s first mass shooter, from atop the University of Texas tower, unleashed a new reality: the fear that any of us may be targeted by a killer, and the complicity we bear in granting these murderers the fame or infamy they crave. Addressing individual cases in the epidemic that began in Austin, From a Taller Tower bluntly confronts our obsession with the shooters?and explores the isolation, narcissism, and sense of victimhood that fan their obsessions. Drawing on the experiences of survivors and first responders as well as the knowledge of mental health experts, McGraw challenges the notion of the “good guy with a gun,” the idolization of guns (including his own), and the reliability of traumatized memory. Yet in this terrible history, McGraw reminds us of the humanity that can stop the killing and the dying. “An important and extraordinary book that takes us into the mind of the mass shooter and also explores our own complicity in the numbing tragedies that have become far too routine in America. Still, Seamus McGraw manages to leave us with hope that there’s a way out of the despair.” —Perri Pelitz, director and producer, Axios on HBO “A meditative history of mass murder by gunfire. . . . A memorable, necessary contribution to the national conversation on gun violence.” —Kirkus Reviews “[From a Taller Tower] traces the history of the American mass shooter and the troubling ways we make sense of senseless violence . . . There’s a tragic timeliness to McGraw’s book.” —InsideHook “One of the most important books you can read this or any year. It’s impossible to read this work without nodding or wincing or even crying.” —Patrick Skinner, detective, Savannah, Georgia “From a Taller Tower is a careful, even cathartic, look at mass shooters and the culture that ushers them forth. McGraw dispels the myths “forged in gunfire” with a riveting examination of the before, during, and after of mass shootings.” —Amye Archer, co-editor, If I Don’t Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings

Download or read book Sowing Seeds in the Desert written by Masanobu Fukuoka and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that the Earth's deteriorating condition is man-made and outlines a way for the process to be reversed by rehabilitating the deserts using natural farming.

Download or read book Interpreting Agriculture at Museums and Historic Sites written by Debra A. Reid and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-01-23 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interpreting Agriculture in Museums and Historic Sites orients readers to major themes in agriculture and techniques in education and interpretation that can help you develop humanities-based public programming that enhance agricultural literacy. Case studies illustrate the ways that local research can help you link your history organization to compelling local, national (even international) stories focused on the multidisciplinary topic. That ordinary plow, pitch fork, and butter paddle can provide the tangible evidence of the story worth telling, even if the farm land has disappeared into subdivisions and agriculture seems as remote as the nineteenth century. Other topics include discussion of alliances between rural tourism and community-supported agriculture, farmland conservation and stewardship, heritage breed and seed preservation efforts, and antique tractor clubs. Any of these can become indispensable partners to history organizations searching for a new interpretive theme to explore and new partners to engage.

Download or read book Out of the Dust Scholastic Gold written by Karen Hesse and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma. Out of the Dust joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ."A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma -- and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.

Download or read book Windfall written by Mckenzie Funk and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-01-27 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating investigation into how people around the globe are cashing in on a warming world McKenzie Funk has spent the last six years reporting around the world on how we are preparing for a warmer planet. Funk shows us that the best way to understand the catastrophe of global warming is to see it through the eyes of those who see it most clearly—as a market opportunity. Global warming’s physical impacts can be separated into three broad categories: melt, drought, and deluge. Funk travels to two dozen countries to profile entrepreneurial people who see in each of these forces a potential windfall. The melt is a boon for newly arable, mineral-rich regions of the Arctic, such as Greenland—and for the surprising kings of the manmade snow trade, the Israelis. The process of desalination, vital to Israel’s survival, can produce a snowlike by-product that alpine countries use to prolong their ski season. Drought creates opportunities for private firefighters working for insurance companies in California as well as for fund managers backing south Sudanese warlords who control local farmland. As droughts raise food prices globally, there is no more precious asset. The deluge—the rising seas, surging rivers, and superstorms that will threaten island nations and coastal cities—has been our most distant concern, but after Hurricane Sandy and failure after failure to cut global carbon emissions, it is not so distant. For Dutch architects designing floating cities and American scientists patenting hurricane defenses, the race is on. For low-lying countries like Bangladesh, the coming deluge presents an existential threat. Funk visits the front lines of the melt, the drought, and the deluge to make a human accounting of the booming business of global warming. By letting climate change continue unchecked, we are choosing to adapt to a warming world. Containing the resulting surge will be big business; some will benefit, but much of the planet will suffer. McKenzie Funk has investigated both sides, and what he has found will shock us all. To understand how the world is preparing to warm, Windfall follows the money.

Download or read book Droughts and Crop Failure written by Linda Ivancic and published by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the twenty-first century, droughts have become more common and more prolonged in many areas around the world. Among other effects, droughts have a significant impact on the crops that feed us. This book explores the topics of drought and crop failure throughout history and in modern times. Through detailed photographs, sidebars, and Did You Know boxes, it presents a vivid overview of droughts and crop failure around the world, examines the causes of such events, and studies key people and organizations creating new technologies that battle droughts and crop failure. Finally, this book delves into the technologies themselves, exploring their usefulness today and considering how they might be improved upon in the future.

Download or read book This Changes Everything written by Naomi Klein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With strong first-hand reporting and an original, provocative thesis, Naomi Klein returns with this book on how the climate crisis must spur transformational political change

Download or read book The Fault Lines of Farm Policy written by Jonathan Coppess and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the intersection of the growing national conversation about our food system and the long-running debate about our government's role in society is the complex farm bill. American farm policy, built on a political coalition of related interests with competing and conflicting demands, has proven incredibly resilient despite development and growth. In The Fault Lines of Farm Policy Jonathan Coppess analyzes the legislative and political history of the farm bill, including the evolution of congressional politics for farm policy. Disputes among the South, the Great Plains, and the Midwest form the primordial fault line that has defined the debate throughout farm policy's history. Because these regions formed the original farm coalition and have played the predominant roles throughout, this study concentrates on the three major commodities produced in these regions: cotton, wheat, and corn. Coppess examines policy development by the political and congressional interests representing these commodities, including basic drivers such as coalition building, external and internal pressures on the coalition and its fault lines, and the impact of commodity prices. This exploration of the political fault lines provides perspectives for future policy discussions and more effective policy outcomes.

Download or read book Big Picture Perspectives and A Pursuit of Social Activism written by Tiffany Twain and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Book Eight of the Earth Manifesto contains incisive essays, including "The True State of the Union" and "A Clarion Call for Common Sense Action and "Climate Change Considerations," along with provocative Pope Francis-inspired "Views on High from an Angular Unconformist," and "Sad Implications of the Two Dueling Santa Claus Strategies in Political Economics." It also contains renewed assessments of optimum economic and social planning for the United States and nations around the world. And it contains an interesting Open Letter to President Obama and the American People, written back when he was president, which articulates ways to achieve political reforms that would contribute to the common good over the long run. And there is a provisional Film Script for this manifesto.

Download or read book The Dreamt Land written by Mark Arax and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.

Download or read book America in a Trance written by and published by Damiani Limited. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niko J. Kallianiotis first monograph, America in a Trance dives into the heart and soul of the Pennsylvania industrial regions, where the notion of small town values exist and sustainable small businesses once thrived under the sheltered wings of American Industry. A mode to promote American values, industrialism provided a place where immigrants from tattered European countries crossed the Atlantic for a better future. The project isn't just about the flushing out of industry and the towns suffering, but something more. Something as deep rooted as these values and traditions of hard work, family, faith, and an attitude of trying to make the best out of a little less as much of the world passes by or looks in with a skew. Kallianiotis, born and raised in Greece but seemingly Northeastern Pennsylvania bred, has called this place home for roughly twenty years. He believes in this place with a whole heart and it's the element of the experience that drives his concept. Although the sway and beliefs from both sides of the fence in the current political climate have a direct effect and interest in these towns, Kallianiotis achieves a certain level of neutrality within the work. Whether it is the hard Pennsylvania coal towns to the East, the shadows of looming steel stacks to the West or every faded American dream in between. Through the use of light and color, an illumination of hope, the photographer explores his own relationship with the land. Within America in a Trance there is the silhouette of what once was, streets and storefronts thriving, and the echo of that time still ringing in the bricks of the houses and churches.

Download or read book Color Blind written by Tom Dunkel and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking readers back in time to 1947, an award-winning journalist chronicles an integrated baseball team in Bismarck, North Dakota that rose above a segregated society to become champions, delving into the history of the players, the town and baseball itself.

Download or read book Odds Against Tomorrow written by Nathaniel Rich and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While working for a financial consulting firm that offers insurance against catastrophic events, a young mathematician becomes increasingly obsessed with doomsday scenarios until one of his worst-case scenarios unfolds in Manhattan.