Along the River that Flows Uphill

Along the River that Flows Uphill PDF

Author: Richard Starks

Publisher: Haus Pub.

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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Along The River that Flows Uphill weaves the story of an Amazon journey with science, math and reason to explore the risks that are inherent in adventure travel. In 2005, Geographical - the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society in London - commissioned authors Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt to write an article about a strange river in Venezuela called the Casiquiare. This river - once the source of great controversy until it was explored by Alexander von Humboldt - is like no other, since it joins two, otherwise-separate river systems, the Orinoco and the Amazon, by apparently flowing up and over the watershed that divides them.Rivers are not meant to do that. For Richard Starks - an award-winning journalist, author and traveler - the writing commission offered a chance to test himself against the standards set by his childhood explorer-heroes - men like Burton, Speke, Livingstone and Stanley. For Miriam Murcutt - a writer, editor and former marketing executive - it represented a chance for adventure. The two writers hired a boat and a guide to take them 1,000 miles up the Orinoco and along the Casiquiare to the Rio Negro, which flows into the Amazon. They expected to travel only with their guide, but once on board his boat, they found he'd brought along his extended family, as well as a group of researchers that included a young and overly persistent entomologist. A few days into the journey, the boat took on another passenger - a Yanomami Indian from a primitive tribe that is reputedly among 'the most violent people on Earth'. Further up river, FARC guerillas tried to hold the authors for ransom when they strayed over the border into Columbia. Along the River that Flows Uphill is more than an account of the authors' journey. It blends their travels with the contentious history and peculiar geography of the Casiquiare. And it examines the society and culture of the Yanomami Indians who live alongside it. The book is also a story of self-discovery. And it assesses risk - not just the risk that's part of all adventure travel, but also, by extension, the risk that's inherent in the adventure of life.

Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill

Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill PDF

Author: Jeremy Taylor

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 1993-02-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780446394628

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Based on intensive study and thousands of case histories, this remarkable guide opens up the world of dreams by showing readers how to remember and interpret dreams, establish a dream group, learn the universal symbolism of dreaming, and change their lives using their dreams.

Mississippi River Tragedies

Mississippi River Tragedies PDF

Author: Christine A Klein

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1479856169

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Read a free excerpt here! American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.” Authors Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer present a sympathetic account of the human dreams, pride, and foibles that got us to this point, weaving together engaging historical narratives and accessible law stories drawn from actual courtroom dramas. The authors deftly uncover the larger story of how the law reflects and even amplifies our ambivalent attitude toward nature—simultaneously revering wild rivers and places for what they are, while working feverishly to change them into something else. Despite their sobering revelations, the authors’ final message is one of hope. Although the acknowledgement of human responsibility for unnatural disasters can lead to blame, guilt, and liability, it can also prod us to confront the consequences of our actions, leading to a liberating sense of possibility and to the knowledge necessary to avoid future disasters.

Cadillac Desert

Cadillac Desert PDF

Author: Marc Reisner

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1993-06-01

Total Pages: 674

ISBN-13: 1440672822

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“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.

Mythical River

Mythical River PDF

Author: Melissa L. Sevigny

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1609383931

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"As population growth and climate upheaval strain the Southwest's water resources, Mythical River uncovers the folly of modern water policies and illuminates a way forward: recognizing the rights of ecosystems"--Provided by publisher.

Downriver

Downriver PDF

Author: Heather Hansman

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 022643267X

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The Green River, the most significant tributary of the Colorado River, runs 730 miles from the glaciers of Wyoming to the desert canyons of Utah. Over its course it meanders through ranches, cities, national parks, endangered fish habitats, and some of the most significant natural gas fields in the country, as it provides water for 33 million people. Stopped up by dams, slaked off by irrigation, and dried up by cities, the Green is crucial, overused, and at risk, now more than ever. Fights over the river’s water, and what’s going to happen to it in the future, are longstanding, intractable, and only getting worse as the West gets hotter and drier and more people depend on the river with each passing year. As a former raft guide and an environmental reporter, Heather Hansman knew these fights were happening, but she felt driven to see them from a different perspective—from the river itself. So she set out on a journey, in a one-person inflatable pack raft, to paddle the river from source to confluence and see what the experience might teach her. Mixing lyrical accounts of quiet paddling through breathtaking beauty with nights spent camping solo and lively discussions with farmers, city officials, and other people met along the way, Downriver is the story of that journey, a foray into the present—and future—of water in the West.

Timefulness

Timefulness PDF

Author: Marcia Bjornerud

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-02-11

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 069120263X

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Explains why an awareness of Earth's temporal rhythms is critical to planetary survival and offers suggestions for how to create a more time-literate society.

A River Flows Through It

A River Flows Through It PDF

Author: Selina Ho

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-17

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1000297942

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A River Flows Through It: A Comparative Study of Transboundary Water Disputes and Cooperation in Asia explores water disputes in Asia and addresses the question of how states sharing a river system can be incentivized to cooperate. Water scarcity is a major environmental, societal, and economic problem around the world. Increasing demand for water as a result of rapid economic development, high population growth and density has depleted the world’s water resources, leading to floods, droughts, environmental disasters, and societal displacement. Shared river basins are therefore often a source of tension and conflict between states. In regions where relations between countries have historically been conflictual, scarce river water resources have exacerbated tensions and have even sparked wars. Yet, more often than not, states sharing a river basin are able to come to some form of agreement, whether they are far-reaching ones such as water-sharing agreements or those that are more limited such as the sharing of hydrological data. Why do riparian states cooperate, especially when power asymmetries between upstream and downstream countries are characteristic of transboundary river basins? How do non-state actors affect the management of international rivers? What are the conditions that facilitate or hinder cooperation? This book wrestles with these questions by exploring water disputes and cooperation in the major river systems in Asia, and by comparing them with cases in Africa, Europe, and the United States. This book will be of great value to scholars, students, and policymakers interested in transboundary water disputes and cooperation, hydro-diplomacy, and river activism. It was originally published as special issues of Water International.