Download or read book Cadillac Desert written by Marc Reisner and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1993-06-01 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I’ve been thinking a lot about Cadillac Desert in the past few weeks, as the rain fell and fell and kept falling over California, much of which, despite the pouring heavens, seems likely to remain in the grip of a severe drought. Reisner anticipated this moment. He worried that the West’s success with irrigation could be a mirage — that it took water for granted and didn’t appreciate the precariousness of our capacity to control it.” – Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times, January 20,2023 "The definitive work on the West's water crisis." --Newsweek The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden--an Eden that may only be a mirage. This edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.
Download or read book Reclamation of Arid Lands written by Mohammad Jafari and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview of arid and semi-arid lands conditions, their general characteristics, methods of management, conservation, exploitation and reclamation. It also focuses on how to utilize the potential of arid lands with the minimum manipulation and alteration. Arid and semi-arid areas represent a major part of natural ecosystems not only in Iran, but around the world, and mismanagement and inappropriate exploitation of these areas may lead to further gradual degradation. As such, an understanding of the characteristics of these areas is vital if they are to be conserved and reclaimed.
Download or read book Sustainable Land Use in Deserts written by Siegmar-W. Breckle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Changing desert areas for land use implies a lot of ecological problems. These and related ones are dealt with in this book covering various interdisciplinary and international aspects. Large areas in arid and semi-arid regions are already polluted in various ways. One of the biggest problems is the anthropogenic salinization by inadequate means of agriculture and irrigation. Additionally, most arid areas in the world are dramatically overgrazed. Methods and practices of a sustainable land use in deserts are urgently needed in many arid regions. This book gives a broad survey on some of the affected regions of the world as well as some case studies from elsewhere (Aral Sea, Negev desert, Namib desert etc.). Thus, basic and applied sciences are brought together. Water management in deserts, grazing systems or reclamation of desertified areas are among the topics of this book, as well as social and economic aspects.
Download or read book A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration written by David A. Bainbridge and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2012-09-26 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dryland degradation and desertification now affect almost a billion people around the world. Tragically, the biological resources and productivity of millions of acres of land are lost to desertification each year because people remain unaware of strategies and techniques that could improve yields, reduce risk, and begin healing the world's deserts. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first book to offer practical, field-tested solutions to this critical problem. Author David Bainbridge has spent more than 25 years actively involved in restoring lands across the American Southwest. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration presents the results of his years of fieldwork, as well as research and experience from scientists and practitioners around the globe. The book discusses the ecology of desert plants, explores the causes of desertification and land abuse, and outlines the processes and procedures needed to evaluate, plan, implement, and monitor desert restoration projects. It sets forth economical and practical field-tested solutions for understanding site characteristics, selecting and growing plants, and ensuring that they survive with a minimal amount of water and care. Each chapter represents a guide to a critical topic for environmental restoration; extensive photographs, diagrams and drawings give detailed information for immediate application, and additional resources are included in appendixes. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first comprehensive book focused on restoring arid regions, and clearly demonstrates that arid lands can be successfully rehabilitated. In addition to restorationists, the book will be an invaluable resource for anyone working in arid lands, including farmers, ranchers, gardeners, landscapers, outdoor recreation professionals, and activists.
Download or read book Desert Problems and Desertification in Central Asia written by Agajan G. Babaev and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1962 the Desert Institute of the former Academy of Science of the USSR has been conducting research work in the arid and semi-arid zones of central Asia. This outstanding experience in desert and desertification problems, and the possibilities of sustainable land use under difficult environmental conditions is summarized here. The book also gives an overview of the Institute's consulting work within the framework of international projects. This is the first publication allowing readers outside the Russian-speaking world to obtain concise information about the specific constraints and development possibilities of central Asian drylands.
Download or read book Desertification written by Michael H. Glantz and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-03-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United Nations Water Conference (in Argentina in March 1977) and the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification (in Kenya in August 1977) reflect the worldwide attention that recent global food shortages and growing populations have drawn to the destruction of arable and potentially arable land. This collection of articles focuses on a primary form of such destruction: desertification—the creation of desert-like conditions in arid or semiarid regions either by changes in climate patterns or by human mismanagement, or both. The contributors—representing a range of disciplines—examine and evaluate the social, political, economic, environmental, and technical problems related to the causes and effects of desertification.
Download or read book The Arid Lands written by Diana K. Davis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that the perception of arid lands as wastelands is politically motivated and that these landscapes are variable, biodiverse ecosystems, whose inhabitants must be empowered. Deserts are commonly imagined as barren, defiled, worthless places, wastelands in need of development. This understanding has fueled extensive anti-desertification efforts—a multimillion-dollar global campaign driven by perceptions of a looming crisis. In this book, Diana Davis argues that estimates of desertification have been significantly exaggerated and that deserts and drylands—which constitute about 41% of the earth's landmass—are actually resilient and biodiverse environments in which a great many indigenous people have long lived sustainably. Meanwhile, contemporary arid lands development programs and anti-desertification efforts have met with little success. As Davis explains, these environments are not governed by the equilibrium ecological dynamics that apply in most other regions. Davis shows that our notion of the arid lands as wastelands derives largely from politically motivated Anglo-European colonial assumptions that these regions had been laid waste by “traditional” uses of the land. Unfortunately, such assumptions still frequently inform policy. Drawing on political ecology and environmental history, Davis traces changes in our understanding of deserts, from the benign views of the classical era to Christian associations of the desert with sinful activities to later (neo)colonial assumptions of destruction. She further explains how our thinking about deserts is problematically related to our conceptions of forests and desiccation. Davis concludes that a new understanding of the arid lands as healthy, natural, but variable ecosystems that do not necessarily need improvement or development will facilitate a more sustainable future for the world's magnificent drylands.
Download or read book Wet Desert written by Gary Hansen and published by WetDesert. This book was released on 2007-05 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grant Stevens, a mid-level manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, only wanted to build dams. He never imagined he would be swept into a desperate race against an environmental terrorist bent on restoring the Colorado River by blowing up the dams. Left temporarily in charge of the Bureau, Grant must react when the first dam is attacked. He faces the unthinkable task of mitigating the massive flood roaring down the Colorado. The flood will eventually threaten the mighty Hoover Dam, and if Hoover fails, the other dams downstream will fall like dominos. Working with the FBI, Grant uses his engineering skills, river knowledge, and plenty of gut instinct in an attempt to outmaneuver the terrorist. The chase will lead all the way downstream to the Gulf of California in a cat and mouse game where the stakes are high and the potential for destruction is enormous.
Download or read book Vision in the Desert written by Jack L. August, Jr. and published by Texas Christian University Press. This book was released on 1999-02 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in both the arid lands of Arizona and the political backdrop of Washington, D.C., Vision in the Desert documents the life and career of longtime Arizona senator, Carl Hayden. One of the most powerful figures in the United States Congress, Hayden's public service career, centered on water and its distribution, is inseparable from the history of the West and the development of arid lands. Carl Hayden became acquainted with reclamation and irrigation issues at an early age through his work with his father in Arizona's arid Salt River Valley. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1911, Hayden began a fifty-seven-year-long stint in the U.S. Congress, serving as a Democratic House Representative for fifteen years, and then in the Senate from 1927 until 1969. The issues of the development of the Colorado River occupied the majority of Hayden's congressional work. The authorization of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) in 1968, at the end of the senator's long career, highlights all of Hayden's efforts concerning this lifestream of the Southwest. Combining Hayden's childhood hopes and congressional endeavors, the CAP secured future economic and population growth of the West by making possible the distribution of water to the growing urban areas of Phoenix and Tucson.
Download or read book Egypt s Desert Dreams written by David Sims and published by American University in Cairo Press. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Egypt has placed its hopes on developing its vast and empty deserts as the ultimate solution to the country’s problems. New cities, new farms, new industrial zones, new tourism resorts, and new development corridors, all have been promoted for over half a century to create a modern Egypt and to pull tens of millions of people away from the increasingly crowded Nile Valley into the desert hinterland. The results, in spite of colossal expenditures and ever-grander government pronouncements, have been meager at best, and today Egypt’s desert is littered with stalled schemes, abandoned projects, and forlorn dreams. It also remains stubbornly uninhabited. Egypt’s Desert Dreams is the first attempt of its kind to look at Egypt’s desert development in its entirety. It recounts the failures of governmental schemes, analyzes why they have failed, and exposes the main winners of Egypt’s desert projects, as well as the underlying narratives and political necessities behind it, even in the post-revolutionary era. It also shows that all is not lost, and that there are alternative paths that Egypt could take.
Download or read book Reclaiming the American West written by Alan Berger and published by Princeton Architectural Press. This book was released on 2002-10-25 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Berger (design, Harvard U.) provides an overview of what possibilities are offered by converting abandoned mines, as well as the physical, philosophical, technological, environmental, political, regulatory and ethical issues involved. In the opening chapters, he addresses the history, size, scope, and various forms of reclamation projects. Subsequent topics cover more speculative and theoretical discussions of aesthetics, space, nature, time and revaluing, together with photographic evidence. The book contains 199 color illustrations and is oversize: 11.25x9.5". Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Plant Nutrients in Desert Environments written by Arden D. Day and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant nutrients are found in a relatively thin layer of soil materials that covers all of the continents of the entire world. These plant nutrients provide the necessary food, clothing, and shelter for human existence. As the population of the world increases, the plant nutrients in desert environments become more and more important for the survival of mankind. Plant Nutrients in Desert Environments is a general information book for both professionals and laymen. The common plant nutrients present in deserts are identified, and detailed instructions are given on how to effectively utilize them in commercial agriculture, home gardening, home landscaping, for disturbed land reclamation and for recreational purposes. Outstanding photographs illustrate the topics.
Download or read book The Bureau of Reclamation written by Brit Allan Storey and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Developments in Soil Salinity Assessment and Reclamation written by Shabbir A. Shahid and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 827 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers assembled here cover topics such as technological advances in soil salinity mapping and monitoring, management and reclamation of salt-affected soils, use of marginal quality water for crop production, salt-tolerance mechanisms in plants, biosaline agriculture and agroforestry, microbiological interventions for marginal soils, opportunities and challenges in using marginal waters, and soil and water management in irrigated agriculture.
Download or read book The Mystic Mid Region The Deserts of the Southwest written by Arthur J. Burdick and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-06-02 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Mystic Mid-Region" by Arthur J. Burdick is a travelogue about Southwest Deserts including the Great Mojave Desert (Death Valley), the Colorado Desert near Coachella, the Black Rock Desert (Nevada), Salt Lake in Utah, and many more. Excerpt: "Between the lofty ranges of mountains which mark the western boundary of the great Mississippi Valley and the chain of peaks known as the Coast Range, whose western sunny slopes look out over the waters of the placid Pacific, lies a vast stretch of country once known as the "Great American Desert." A few years ago, before the railroad had pierced the fastness of the great West, explorers told of a vast waste of country devoid of water and useful vegetation, the depository of fields of alkali, beds of niter, mountains of borax, and plains of poison-impregnated sands. The bitter sage, the thorny cacti, and the gnarled mesquite were the tantalizing species of herbs said to abound in the region, and the centipede, the rattlesnake, tarantula, and Gila monster represented the life of this desolate territory."
Download or read book Prosopis as a Heat Tolerant Nitrogen Fixing Desert Food Legume written by Maria Cecilia Puppo and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prosopis describes the enormous historical importance of these trees as a human food source and reviews the contemporary food science of the fruit derived from these trees. As well, this treatise reviews the native genetic resources of this genus on 4 continents and classical genetic and horticultural techniques that could help stabilize the environment and alleviate human suffering on some of the world's most destitute agro-ecosystems. This book is an essential read for researchers interested in forestry and plant science, environmental science, and functional foods. The legume family (Fabaceae) contains many genera and species that through their nitrogen fixing process provide high protein food and feed for humans and animals. As evidenced by its presence in Death Valley, California, which holds the record for the highest temperatures in the world, these types of plants can thrive in extreme environments. - Edited by the world's leading experts on Prospis species with globally recognized contributors - Covers the different perspectives surrounding the advantages and disadvantages of planting different Prosopis species - Discusses the applications of Prosopis species, including how the fruits of this tree can be used as a raw food material
Download or read book Reclamation Handbook written by United States. Bureau of Reclamation and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
