Synopses & Reviews
Eco-disasters such as coal-mining accidents, oil spills, and food-borne diseases appear regularly in the news, making them seem nearly commonplace. These ecological crises highlight the continual tensions between human needs and the environmental impact these needs produce. Contemporary documentaries and feature films explore environmental-human conflicts by depicting the consequences of our overconsumption and dependence on nonrenewable energy.
Film and Everyday Eco-disasters examines changing perspectives toward everyday eco-disasters as reflected in the work of filmmakers from the silent era forward, with an emphasis on recent films such as Dead Ahead, an HBO dramatization of the Exxon Valdez disaster; Total Recall, a science fiction action film highlighting oxygen as a commodity; The Devil Wears Prada, a comment on the fashion industry; and Food, Inc., a documentary interrogation of the food industry. The authors evaluate not only the success of these films as rhetorical arguments but also their rhetorical strategies. This interdisciplinary approach to film studies fuses cultural, economic, and literary critiques in articulating an approach to ecology that points to sustainable development as an alternative to resource exploitations and their associated everyday eco-disasters.
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and#8220;A solid primer on the history of use of Colorado River water and the science of climate change.and#8221;
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and#8220;A suspense thriller, a history . . . and an informed warning. . . . Deserves to be read now, before we make even more mistakes.and#8221;
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and#8220;A must read for Colorado River buffs, as well as anyone who wants a glimpse of what lies ahead for water.and#8221;
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and#8220;A historically important, well-timed, and memorable addition to the growing library of books about water and the West.and#8221;
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"Saturated with facts, March's account of this threatened river forces readers to reconsider water as a commodity that requires protection."and#8212;Kirkus Reviews
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"In sharing its struggle so effectively, River in Ruin joins a stream of other exquisitely researched and vividly written books about collapsing western watersheds, works we ignore at our peril."and#8212;Colleen Mondor, Booklistand#160;
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"The Carmel River and its importance in providing water to the residents of the Monterey Peninsula is a topic all locals should be interested in. March does an excellent job of chronicling the ins and outs of how the river's role has changed over the years, just as its course has sometimes been altered by nature. This very readable and informative paperback is well worth reading."and#8212;Robert Walch, The Californian
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"March's treatment of the history, the politics and the personalities involved is heartfelt and personal; several times he consults diaries and includes individual stories (including his own), making the Carmel's story resonate with his readers."and#8212;Shelf Awareness
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"March has put forward a clear explanation of how the Carmel River's problems developed and made a convincing case for urgent action to fix them."and#8212;Eric Brazil, SFGate
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"March may not believe he has the answers, but by detailing a 410-year history we shouldn't forget, he's certainly showing us some of them. It took him 10 years to write River in Ruin, but the river's story over the next five years may prove even more compelling."and#8212;Kera Abraham, Monterey County Weekly
Synopsis
Where will the water come from to sustain the great desert cities of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix? In a provocative exploration of the past, present, and future of water in the West, James Lawrence Powell begins at Lake Powell, the vast reservoir that has become an emblem of this story. At present, Lake Powell is less than half full. Bathtub rings ten stories tall encircle its blue water; boat ramps and marinas lie stranded and useless. To refill it would require surplus waterand#151;but there is no surplus: burgeoning populations and thirsty crops consume every drop of the Colorado River. Add to this picture the looming effects of global warming and drought, and the scenario becomes bleaker still. Dead Pool, featuring rarely seen historical photographs, explains why America built the dam that made Lake Powell and others like it and then allowed its citizens to become dependent on their benefits, which were always temporary. Writing for a wide audience, Powell shows us exactly why an urgent threat during the first half of the twenty-first century will come not from the rising of the seas but from the falling of the reservoirs.
Synopsis
""Dead Pool "is the best book I know about the current state of the Colorado River and the policy issues facing it."--Donald Worster, author of "Rivers of Empire"
Synopsis
"
Dead Pool is the best book I know about the current state of the Colorado River and the policy issues facing it."and#151;Donald Worster, author of
Rivers of Empire "Dead Pool offers a powerful epitaph to the era of big dams. Carefully researched and cogently argued, it shows how the self-serving promoters of the Colorado River's dams have consistently ignored natural limits imposed by water supply, silt, and salt, creating a long-term crisis that may make ghost towns out of many of the overpopulated cities of the American West."and#151;Jacques Leslie, author of Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment
Synopsis
The thin ribbon of the Carmel River is just thirty-six miles long and no wider in most places than a child can throw a stone. It is the primary water supply for the ever-burgeoning presence of tourists, agriculture, and industry on Californiaand#8217;s Monterey Peninsula. It is also one of the top ten endangered rivers in North America. The riverand#8217;s story, which dramatically unfolds in this book, is an epic tale of exploitation, development, and often unwitting degradation reaching back to the first appearance of Europeans on the pristine peninsula.
River in Ruin is a precise weaving of water historyand#8212;local and largerand#8212;and a natural, social, and environmental narrative of the Carmel River. Ray A. March traces the riverand#8217;s misuse from 1879 and details how ever more successful promotions of Monterey demanded more and more water, leading to one dam after another. As a result the river was disastrously depleted, cluttered with concrete rubble, and inhospitable to the fish prized by visitors and residents alike.
Marchand#8217;s book is a cautionary tale about squandering precious water resourcesand#8212;about the ultimate cost of a ruined river and the slim but urgent hope of bringing it back to life.
About the Author
Robin L. Murray is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University. Joseph K. Heumann is a professor emeritus of communication studies at Eastern Illinois University. Murray and Heumann are the coauthors of Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge; Thatand#8217;s All Folks: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features (Nebraska, 2011); and Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment.