Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Not So Golden State: California's Environmental Challenges

4/5 ( ratings)

In Not So Golden State, leading environmental historian Char Miller looks below the surface of California's ecological history to expose some of its less glittering conundrums. In this necessary book, he asks the tough questions as we stand on the edge of a human-induced natural disaster in the region and beyond. He details policy steps and missteps in public land management, examines the impact of recreation on national forests, parks, and refuges, and assesses efforts to restore wild land habitat, riparian ecosystems, and endangered species.

Why, during a devastating five-year drought, Miller asks, is the Central Valley’s agribusiness still irrigating its fields as if it's business as usual? Why are northern counties rich in groundwater selling it off to make millions while draining their aquifers toward eventual mud? Why, when contemporary debate over oil and gas drilling questions reasonable practices, are extractive industries targeting Chaco Canyon National Historic Park and its ancient sites, which are of inestimable value to Native Americans? How do we begin to understand “local,” a concept of hope for modern environmentalism?

To inhabit a place requires placed-based analyses, whatever the geographic scope—examinations that are rooted in a precise, physical reality. To make a conscientious life in a suburb, floodplain, fire zone, or coastline requires a heightened awareness of these landscapes’ past so we can develop an intensified responsibility for their present condition and future prospects.

Miller explores these issues and more in Not So Golden State, and understanding them will be critical in our creation of more resilient, habitable, and equitable communities for California's future.

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Release: September 13, 2016

ISBN: 1595347828

ISBN 13: 9781595347824

Not So Golden State: California's Environmental Challenges

4/5 ( ratings)

In Not So Golden State, leading environmental historian Char Miller looks below the surface of California's ecological history to expose some of its less glittering conundrums. In this necessary book, he asks the tough questions as we stand on the edge of a human-induced natural disaster in the region and beyond. He details policy steps and missteps in public land management, examines the impact of recreation on national forests, parks, and refuges, and assesses efforts to restore wild land habitat, riparian ecosystems, and endangered species.

Why, during a devastating five-year drought, Miller asks, is the Central Valley’s agribusiness still irrigating its fields as if it's business as usual? Why are northern counties rich in groundwater selling it off to make millions while draining their aquifers toward eventual mud? Why, when contemporary debate over oil and gas drilling questions reasonable practices, are extractive industries targeting Chaco Canyon National Historic Park and its ancient sites, which are of inestimable value to Native Americans? How do we begin to understand “local,” a concept of hope for modern environmentalism?

To inhabit a place requires placed-based analyses, whatever the geographic scope—examinations that are rooted in a precise, physical reality. To make a conscientious life in a suburb, floodplain, fire zone, or coastline requires a heightened awareness of these landscapes’ past so we can develop an intensified responsibility for their present condition and future prospects.

Miller explores these issues and more in Not So Golden State, and understanding them will be critical in our creation of more resilient, habitable, and equitable communities for California's future.

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Release: September 13, 2016

ISBN: 1595347828

ISBN 13: 9781595347824

More books from Char Miller

Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Breaking New Ground

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Death Valley National Park: A History

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Public Lands, Public Debates: A Century of Controversy

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Water in the West: A High Country News Reader

3.8/5 ( ratings)

On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Forty Years a Forester

4.2/5 ( ratings)

America's Great National Forests, Wildernesses, and Grasslands

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Fifty Years of the Texas Observer

3.8/5 ( ratings)

On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest

4.3/5 ( ratings)

300 Years of San Antonio and Bexar County

Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene: Science, Policy, and Practice

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Powering a City: How Energy and Big Dreams Transformed San Antonio

The Nature of Hope: Grassroots Organizing, Environmental Justice, and Political Change

Forks in the Trail: A Conservationist's Trek to the Pinnacles of Natural Resource Leadership

Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot

Hetch Hetchy: A History in Documents

Gifford Pinchot: Selected Writings

Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel

Taylored Citizenship: State Institutions and Subjectivity

Rate this book!

Write a review?