Download or read book Wonders of the Desert written by Louis Sabin and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the animals and plants to be found in the deserts of the world.
Download or read book Wonders of the Desert World written by Judith E. Rinard and published by . This book was released on with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gathering the Desert written by Gary Paul Nabhan and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the history and uses of plants of the Sonoran Desert, including creosote, palm trees, mesquite, organpipe cactus, amaranth, chiles, and Devil's claw
Download or read book The Desert Remembers My Name written by Kathleen Alcal‡ and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My parents always told me I was Mexican. I was Mexican because they were Mexican. This was sometimes modified to ÒMexican American,Ó since I was born in California, and thus automatically a U.S. citizen. But, my parents said, this, too, was once part of Mexico. My father would say this with a sweeping gesture, taking in the smog, the beautiful mountains, the cars and houses and fast-food franchises. When he made that gesture, all was cleared away in my mindÕs eye to leave the hazy impression of a better place. We were here when the white people came, the Spaniards, then the Americans. And we will be here when they go away, he would say, and it will be part of Mexico again. Thus begins a lyrical and entirely absorbing collection of personal essays by esteemed Chicana writer and gifted storyteller Kathleen Alcal‡. Loosely linked by an exploration of the many meanings of Òfamily,Ó these essays move in a broad arc from the stories and experiences of those close to her to those whom she wonders about, like Andrea Yates, a mother who drowned her children. In the process of digging and sifting, she is frequently surprised by what she unearths. Her family, she discovers, were Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition who took on the trappings of Catholicism in order to survive. Although the essays are in many ways personal, they are also universal. When she examines her family history, she is encouraging us to inspect our own families, too. When she investigates a family secret, she is supporting our own search for meaning. And when she writes that being separated from our indigenous culture is Òa form of illiteracy,Ó we know exactly what she means. After reading these essays, we find that we have discovered not only why Kathleen Alcal‡ is a writer but also why we appreciate her so much. She helps us to find ourselves.
Download or read book The Desert Between Us written by Phyllis Barber and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2020 Reading the West Book Awards, Longlist for Fiction 2020 Association for Morman Letters Finalist, Fiction The Desert Between Us is a sweeping, multi-layered novel based on the U.S. government’s decision to open more routes to California during the Gold Rush. To help navigate this waterless, largely unexplored territory, the War Department imported seventy-five camels from the Middle East to help traverse the brutal terrain that was murderous on other livestock. Geoffrey Scott, one of the roadbuilders, decides to venture north to discover new opportunities in the opening of the American West when he—and the camels—are no longer needed. Geoffrey arrives in St. Thomas, Nevada, a polygamous settlement caught up in territorial fights over boundaries and new taxation. There, he falls in love with Sophia Hughes, a hatmaker obsessed with beauty and the third wife of a polygamist. Geoffrey believes Sophia wants to be free of polygamy and go away with him to a better life, but Sophia’s motivations are not so easily understood. She had become committed to Mormon beliefs in England and had moved to Utah Territory to assuage her spiritual needs. The death of Sophia’s child and her illicit relationship with Geoffrey generate a complex nexus where her new love for Geoffrey competes with societal expectations and a rugged West seeking domesticity. When faced with the opportunity to move away from her polygamist husband and her tumultuous life in St. Thomas, Sophia becomes tormented by a life-changing decision she must face alone.
Download or read book D is for Desert written by Barbara Gowan and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: D is for Desert: A World Deserts Alphabet uses the alphabet to explore desert regions around the world, explaining the science behind what determines a desert and showcasing fascinating features and desert inhabitants. Budding scientists will traverse the rocky deserts of Mongolia astride the Bactrian camel, spy on the poisonous Gila monster and other lizards in the Sonoran Desert, discover geological wonders in Bryce Canyon National Park, and learn about desert weather phenomena such as dust storms and flash floods, and much more. A glossary of key desert-science terms and concepts is included.
Download or read book Desert Navigator written by Rüdiger Wehner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences A world-renowned researcher of animal behavior reveals the extraordinary orienteering skills of desert ants, offering a thrilling account of the sophisticated ways insects function in their natural environments. Cataglyphis desert ants are agile ultrarunners who can tolerate near-lethal temperatures when they forage in the hot midday sun. But it is their remarkable navigational abilities that make these ants so fascinating to study. Whether in the Sahara or its ecological equivalents in the Namib Desert and Australian Outback, the Cataglyphis navigators can set out foraging across vast expanses of desert terrain in search of prey, and then find the shortest way home. For almost half a century, Rüdiger Wehner and his collaborators have devised elegant experiments to unmask how they do it. Through a lively and lucid narrative, Desert Navigator offers a firsthand look at the extraordinary navigational skills of these charismatic desert dwellers and the experiments that revealed how they strategize and solve complex problems. Wehner and his team discovered that these insect navigators use visual cues in the sky that humans are unable to see, the Earth’s magnetic field, wind direction, a step counter, and panoramic “snapshots” of landmarks, among other resources. The ants combine all of this information to steer an optimal course. At any given time during their long journey, they know exactly where to go. It is no wonder these nimble and versatile creatures have become models in the study of animal navigation. Desert Navigator brings to light the marvelous capacity and complexity found in these remarkable insects and shows us how mini brains can solve mega tasks.
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 Desert Trip written by Barbara A. Steiner and published by Sierra Club Juveniles. This book was released on 1996 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates the experiences of a young girl and her mother as they backpack in the desert where the child learns about the plants, animals, birds, and rock formations.
Download or read book A Guide to Plants of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert written by Carolyn Dodson and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2012-02-15 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chihuahuan desert is the second largest in North America and its northern, or United States, portion occupies southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and Texas west of the Pecos River. Hot, dry, and windy, the desert is home to a unique community of plants that have adapted to its harsh environment. Visitors to the area will find this volume a practical identification guide, offering descriptions of seventy-five representative species of northern Chihuahuan Desert plants. Each illustrated profile includes the plant’s common and Latin name and a brief description, as well as its role in human history, its relationship to the surrounding flora and fauna, medicinal uses, nutritional value, habitat, toxicity, and other interesting facts.
Download or read book The Desert written by Michael Welland and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From endless sand dunes and prickly cacti to shimmering mirages and green oases, deserts evoke contradictory images in us. They are lands of desolation, but also of romance, of blistering Mojave heat and biting Gobi cold. Covering a quarter of the earth’s land mass and providing a home to half a billion people, they are both a physical reality and landscapes of the mind. The idea of the desert has long captured Western imagination, put on display in films and literature, but these portrayals often fail to capture the true scope and diversity of the people living there. Bridging the scientific and cultural gaps between perception and reality, The Desert celebrates our fascination with these arid lands and their inhabitants, as well as their importance both throughout history and in the world today. Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.
Download or read book Deserts of the Earth written by Michael Martin and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Rub al-Khali and the Sinai to the Great Sandy, the Great Basin and the Kalahari, Michael Martin, an internationally renowned photographer, has travelled through every desert on Earth, crossing Asia, Australia, the Americas and Africa, to compile this beautifully photographed volume. Far from being bleak and barren wastelands, these deserts boast natural features of staggering beauty. Afghanistan’s Bamian region is notable for its deep turquoise lakes set amidst towering, rocky mountains. The Danakil’s unnamed volcanoes glow in the Ethiopian night, while Chile’s Atacama region harbours geysers that can erupt at any moment. In addition to these awe-inspiring landscapes, Martin introduces us to the stoic peoples who eke out an existence in such inhospitable environments.
Download or read book Desert Neighbors written by Edith Marion Patch and published by . This book was released on 1941 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book I Am the Desert written by Anthony D. Fredericks and published by Rio Nuevo Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The living desert tells about its quiet beauty, the plants and animals that it sustains, people who have sought water in its vast expanse, and how it continues to change. Includes facts about the Sonoran Desert.
Download or read book Sahara Desert written by Megan Lappi and published by Natural Wonders of the World. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sahara Desert is 3.3 million square miles (8.6 million square kilometers) in size. It is so large that the entire continental United States could fit inside it. Discover more in Sahara Desert, one of the titles in the Natural Wonders of the World series.
Download or read book Living in the Desert written by Phaidon Editors and published by Phaidon Press. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A carefully curated and beautifully photographed selection of 50 architect-designed houses that reflects contemporary concerns about the unique challenges presented by life in the desert's sensitive environment The desert provides a sense of mystery and rugged beauty that attracts architects, home owners, vacationers, and anyone looking for an escape within its arid climate. This book showcases 50 works of residential architecture from across the last few decades, each with a unique connection to the desert in which it's situated from the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and beyond. Each building, designed by established and well-known contemporary stars as well as emerging architects, includes a short text and several exterior and interior images of its structure and surroundings. From the publisher of Living on Water, Elemental Living and California Captured.
Download or read book Harlots of the Desert written by Benedicta Ward and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beauty consuming itself like incense burnt before God in solitude: these stories of penitent women from the fourth- century egyptian desert fascinated Christians in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages.
