From Water | Food | Environment — The Blog of David Guy:
“In a brilliant new display on the intersection between the
natural and human landscape, Butte County photographer Geoff
Fricker explores the essence of the Sacramento Valley and reveals
why the region is a California treasure that is unparalleled
anywhere in the world.”
From the Redding Record Searchlight, in a commentary by Bill
Keep:
“When Carey McWilliams published ‘California: The Great
Exception’ through the University of California Press in 1949, we
were in the midst of a four-year drought. In 1948 rain came in
March — too little, too late. Losses totaled about $100 million,
and only the agricultural giants were likely to survive.”
“Local author Larry Matthews will sign copies of his new book,
‘The Building of the Oroville Dam,’ tonight [March 20] at the
Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County in Yuba City.”
From the Los Angeles Times, in The Reading Life column
by David L. Ulin:
“We are due for a storm, of course — two of them, one this
evening and another beginning tomorrow night — and we all know
how badly California needs the water, in the era of the
Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. …
“Rain is the best thing about Southern California in winter;
about anywhere it falls, really, but especially here.”
“What do the controversy over fracking, desalination costs, and
the growing Syrian civil war have in common? Water. Global
freshwater supply affects a broad range of issues, including
public health, food crises, and environmental catastrophes.
The just-released eighth edition of The World’s Water series,
edited by Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and
the world’s foremost expert on freshwater, shows how water
touches everything.
“The most difficult thing about a water crisis, says Robert
Glennon in ‘Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do
About It’ (445 pages, Island Press, 2009) is convincing folks
there’s a crisis.”
“‘The Fracking War,’ written by [Michael] Fitzgerald, is a book
about the practice of hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred
to as fracking. …
“The events unfold through the main character — a newspaper
reporter who has gotten wind of widespread sickness as a result
of the fracking activities in the community.”
“Gregory Zuckerman’s book ‘The Frackers’ tells the unexpected
story of how a once-obscure method of producing oil and natural
gas from shale rock led to a huge American energy boom – and to a
bitter debate over whether that’s a great thing or an
environmental disaster.”
“The history of oil and natural gas extraction has largely been
the story of men with long straws, as Daniel Day-Lewis
memorably demonstrated in ‘There Will Be Blood,’ trying to
drink one another’s milkshakes.
“Gregory Zuckerman, in his new book ‘The Frackers,’ plants a
less cozy image in your mind.
Author Patrick Betson is a storyteller. … He has handpicked
some of his favorite tales and brought them together in a
12-story collection, ‘The Ghost’s of Lake Tahoe: The Stuff of
Legends.’ …
“Some of Betson’s characters are fictional and others we
recognize: John C.
From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, in a commentary by Eric
Pooley:
“The people who are paid to spread doubt and confusion about our
changing climate have been working overtime this week, because
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body
that includes thousands of the world’s best climate scientists,
has just issued its latest assessment. …
“Phil Garone, an associate professor at California State
University, Stanislaus, will talk about his new book, ‘The Fall
and Rise of Wetlands of California’s Great Central Valley.’”
“Author Bill McKibben, who is an award-winning journalist and a
climate activist, will speak Saturday at Fresno City College as
part of his latest book tour.”
“[Bob] Madgic isn’t a new writer. I own ‘Pursuing Wild
Trout,’ in which he tells some great tales about his family’s
own adventures in the rugged and remote North Fork Mokelumne
River drainage, and elsewhere.
“Then there’s ‘Shattered Air,’ a much different kind of book,
which recreates in stunning and disturbing detail the 1985
tragedy on top of Half Dome in which two hikers were killed by
lightning and three more injured.
