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A Great Aridness: Climate Change And The Future Of The American Southwest (2011)

by William deBuys(Favorite Author)

4.17 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0199778922 (ISBN13: 9780199778928)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: This book is about a 4.5 star work. It deals with the American Southwest/Northern Mexico and the effects climate change will have on the region. The chapters follow a theme : forest fires, water, trees etc... so that makes it easy to follow (sometimes the extra of the chapter takes away from it). deBuys did a excellent job of taking this big picture issue of climate change and working with what happens around the area today with people. I really enjoyed it.
review 2: So I guess I will never move to the Southwest. Great book. Lots of insight into what the future holds for the American Southwest as effects of climate change go nonlinear. Pretty grim - massive uncontrollable forest fires, hundreds of thousands of acres of dead forests from beetle infestations, ext... morereme water shortages due to unceasing growth, animals indigenous to "sky island" habitats seeing themselves pushed to extinction, the list goes on. The water shortage implications are astounding - apparently there are reservoir levels below which the Hoover Dam would be unable to produce power, much less allow for a full complement of water to flow down to the Lower Basin of the Colorado River. Good writing too - the passages about what the White Mountain Apaches lose when fire levels their forests are poignant and moving. One slight ding on the border control chapter - well-written and interesting, but linkage to climate change is thin, acknowledging of course that it is a serious pressure point that will be worsened as climate deteriorates. less

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