Pikkukuvaa napsauttamalla pääset Google Booksiin.
|
Ladataan... Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American LandscapeTekijä: Brad Tyer
   - Ei tämänhetkisiä Keskustelu-viestiketjuja tästä kirjasta.  slavenrm | Apr 7, 2013 |  ei arvosteluja | lisää arvostelu
Palkinnot
A memoir-meets-expose that examines our fraught relationship with the West and our attempts to clean up a toxic environmental legacy In 2002, Texas journalist Brad Tyer strapped a canoe on his truck and moved to Montana, a state that has long exerted a mythic pull on America's imagination as an unspoiled landscape. The son of an engineer who reclaimed wastewater, Tyer was looking for a pristine river to call his own. What he found instead was a century's worth of industrial poison clotting the Clark Fork River, a decades-long engineering project to clean it up, and a forgotten town named Opportunity. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Montana exploited the richest copper deposits in the world, fueling the electric growth of twentieth-century America and building some of the nation's most outlandish fortunes. The toxic by-product of those fortunes-what didn't spill into the river-was dumped in Opportunity. In the twenty-first century, Montana's draw is no longer metal but landscape- the blue-ribbon trout streams and unspoiled wilderness of the nation's "last best place." To match reality to the myth, affluent exurbanites and well-meaning environmentalists are trying to restore the Clark Fork River to its "natural state." In the process, millions of tons of toxic soils are being removed and dumped-once again-in Opportunity. As Tyer investigates Opportunity's history, he wrestles with questions of environmental justice and the ethics of burdening one community with an entire region's waste. Stalled at the intersection of a fading extractive economy and a fledgling restoration boom, Opportunity's story is a secret history of the American Dream and a key to understanding the country's-and increasingly the globe's-demand for modern convenience. As Tyer explores the degradations of the landscape, he also probes the parallel emotional geography of familial estrangement. Part personal history and part reportorial narrative,Opportunity, Montanais a story of progress and its price- of copper and water, of father and son, and of our attempts to redeem the mistakes of the past. Kirjastojen kuvailuja ei löytynyt. |
Current Discussions-Suosituimmat kansikuvat
 Google Books — Ladataan...LajityypitMelvil Decimal System (DDC)304.2Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Factors affecting social behavior Human ecologyKongressin kirjaston luokitusArvio (tähdet)Keskiarvo: (2)
Oletko sinä tämä henkilö? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
In a nutshell, this book is the story of a small town in Montana that, in the author's words, was "shit upon" and plundered by local industry over the course of decades in the pursuit of economic progress.
The author brings to light an important aspect of American culture and history. Much of the "progress" of yesteryear, was, let's face it, brought about at the cost of total disregard for the environment of the area and the people who worked there. This is an important and not at all unique story of the costs of industrialization. The author gives us boundless detail and history on the area and the men who exploited it...
... but with it he provides a lot of information that is completely irrelevant. As much as I adore a good environmental tragedy, this one is simply too broad in its scope. It focuses quite specifically geographically, but goes on about history all the way back to the first natives to hammered copper into axes 12,000 years ago. More alarmingly, the author's personal history is woven into the story with far too much emphasis and is potently distracting.
In summary, I really wanted this book to be a grand expose about industrial abuse of natural resources. Unfortunately, it was far too unfocused and seemed to be padded with personal and historical tidbits. I have a clear sense of the tragedy of the area but I can't help but feel that I learned far too much about the author and pre-historic use of copper in the process. A great idea poorly executed.
PS: It is my endeavor to provide reviews that are succinct, honest, balanced and above all help the potential reader to answer the simple question, "Do I want to read this or not?" Any feedback you can provide about how you feel I have accomplished those goals (or not) is immensely appreciated. (