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Chargement... Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Countrypar Jared Farmer
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Growth is a major issue in the contemporary American West, especially as more and more towns and states turn to tourism to spark their economies. But growth has a flip side--loss--about which we seldom think until something is irrevocably gone. Where once was Glen Canyon, with its maze of side-canyons leading to the Colorado River, now is Lake Powell, second largest reservoir in America, attracting some three million visitors a year. Many who come here think they have found paradise, and for good reason: it's beautiful. However, the loss of Glen Canyon was monumental--to many, a notorious event that remains unresolved. Focusing on the saddening, maddening example of Glen Canyon, Jared Farmer traces the history of exploration and development in the Four Corners region, discusses the role of tourism in changing the face of the West, and shows how the "invention" of Lake Powell has served multiple needs. He also seeks to identify the point at which change becomes loss: How do people deal with losing places they love? How are we to remember or restore lost places? By presenting Glen Canyon as a historical case study in exploitation, Farmer offers a cautionary tale for the future of this spectacular region. In assessing the necessity and impact of tourism, he questions whether merely visiting such places is really good for people's relationships with each other and with the land, suggesting a new ethic whereby westerners learn to value what remains of their environment. Glen Canyon Dammed was written so that the canyon country's perennial visitors might better understand the history of the region, its legacy of change, and their complicity in both. A sobering book that recalls lost beauty, it also speaks eloquently for the beauty that may still be saved. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)627.8Technology Engineering and allied operations Hydraulic Engineering DamsClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Still, one's arguments can only benefit from an effective challenge, and Farmer provides this in spades. An impassioned environmentalist, Farmer nonetheless points out that artificial environments are pretty much what we live in, and that if we look only to "untrammeled wilderness" as the source of our connection with nature, we're likely to run out of that wilderness in short order.
This book is an effective history of Glen Canyon, but it's also a critical analysis of wilderness tourism in the whole of Southern Utah, and a cogent deconstruction of our attitudes toward built versus natural landscapes. And unlike many such tomes (Stephen Pyne's valuable if turgid How the Canyon Became Grand comes to mind) Farmer writes his critique in a personable, approachable voice. It's rare to see a capable writer approach such a multifaceted subject without fear of using the first person singular pronoun. Eminently readable.