Along the River that Flows Uphill

Along the River that Flows Uphill PDF Author: Richard Starks
Publisher: Haus Pub.
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
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.

Along the River that Flows Uphill

Along the River that Flows Uphill PDF Author: Richard Starks
Publisher: Haus Pub.
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The River That Flows Uphill

The River That Flows Uphill PDF Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780792445227
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
A trip through the Grand Canyon provides a format for exploring the evolution of life and the development of consciousness and intelligence

The River that Flows Uphill (Revised Edition)

The River that Flows Uphill (Revised Edition) PDF Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: William H. Calvin
ISBN: 0982916736
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description


Studying Wisconsin

Studying Wisconsin PDF Author: Martha Bergland
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society
ISBN: 0870206494
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
With masterful storytelling, Bergland and Hayes demonstrate how Lapham blended his ravenous curiosity with an equable temperament and a passion for detail to create a legacy that is still relevant today. —John Gurda In this long overdue tribute to Wisconsin’s first scientist, authors Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes explore the remarkable life and achievements of Increase Lapham (1811–1875). Lapham’s ability to observe, understand, and meticulously catalog the natural world marked all of his work, from his days as a teenage surveyor on the Erie Canal to his last great contribution as state geologist. Self-taught, Lapham mastered botany, geology, archaeology, limnology, mineralogy, engineering, meteorology, and cartography. A prolific writer, his 1844 guide to the territory was the first book published in Wisconsin. Asked late in life which field of science was his specialty, he replied simply, “I am studying Wisconsin.” Lapham identified and preserved thousands of botanical specimens. He surveyed and mapped Wisconsin’s effigy mounds. He was a force behind the creation of the National Weather Service, lobbying for a storm warning system to protect Great Lakes sailors. Told in compelling detail through Lapham’s letters, journals, books, and articles, Studying Wisconsin chronicles the life and times of Wisconsin’s pioneer citizen-scientist.

Mississippi River Tragedies

Mississippi River Tragedies PDF Author: Christine A. Klein
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479825387
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
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
ISBN: 1440672822
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 674

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Book Description
“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.

Downriver

Downriver PDF Author: Heather Hansman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022643267X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
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.

A River Flows Through It

A River Flows Through It PDF Author: Selina Ho
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000297942
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
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.

The Chicago River

The Chicago River PDF Author: Libby Hill
Publisher:
ISBN: 080933707X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Originally published: Lake Claremont Press, 2000.

Mythical River

Mythical River PDF Author: Melissa L. Sevigny
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609383931
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
In a lyrical mix of natural science, history, and memoir, Melissa L. Sevigny ponders what it means to make a home in the American Southwest at a time when its most essential resource, water, is overexploited and undervalued. Mythical River takes the reader on a historical sojourn into the story of the Buenaventura, an imaginary river that led eighteenth- and nineteenth-century explorers, fur trappers, and emigrants astray for seventy-five years. This mythical river becomes a metaphor for our modern-day attempts to supply water to a growing population in the Colorado River Basin. Readers encounter a landscape literally remapped by the search for “new” water, where rivers flow uphill, dams and deep wells reshape geography, trees become intolerable competitors for water, and new technologies tap into clouds and oceans. In contrast to this fantasy of abundance, Sevigny explores acts of restoration. From a dismantled dam in Arizona to an accidental wetland in Mexico, she examines how ecologists, engineers, politicians, and citizens have attempted to secure water for desert ecosystems. In a place scarred by conflict, she shows how recognizing the rights of rivers is a path toward water security. Ultimately, Sevigny writes a new map for the future of the American Southwest, a vision of a society that accepts the desert’s limits in exchange for an intimate relationship with the natural world.