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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I expected more of a scientific/anthropological perspective, something more like Rising by Elizabeth Rush, rather than something that is half-personal family history.
Audio Book: Thought this was a more standard non fiction book about aquifer. Turns out to be more of a personal: family memoir about how depletion has been part of his story. Interesting way of relating environmental change to individual people.
This book is kind of hard to listen to as it clearly describes how screwed up the environment is.
Painted an amazing picture of what once existed in western Kansas as far as prairie and cimmarron river.
This book is kind of hard to listen to as it clearly describes how screwed up the environment is.
Painted an amazing picture of what once existed in western Kansas as far as prairie and cimmarron river.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A lot of really incredible parallel stories of exploitation, avarice, and depletion - deftly woven together. I think some of the personal reflections of the author could have been cut down, but overall this was an incredibly moving portrait of a pressing problem. It was especially evocative because I read it before and after a trip to a Western Kansas GMD meeting!
Really great story telling and unique perspective on groundwater depletion in western Kansas
informative
reflective
fast-paced
A deep look into the complex problem of aquifer depletion in the Plains. A native of southwest Kansas, and an anthropologist by training, Bessire seeks to unravel why depletion continues despite many stakeholders actively working toward different outcomes. He puts depletion in its historical context finding to it be the latest in a series of depletions- colonization, genocide, over hunting. He also learns that despite many farmers seeking solutions, current economic structures reinforce the practice of depletion. Part memoir, he uses his grandmother’s research as a jumping off point; and despite a previously strained relationship, he leverages his father’s rights as a landowner to gain access to various water governing bodies. At 180 pages this is a short but powerful book, I highly recommend it.
This is one of the best books about climate change I've read. It explores the cultural and ecological roots of water depletion on the Great Plains with compassion, humility, and nuance.
I was not expecting this book to take the form it was. An almost ethnographic report, it did manage to include the historical context and scientific numbers I was hoping to gain, but in a much more personal telling than usual.
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced