We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,771,235.49 | Books Available: 721,855 | Members Online: 92

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle for America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast

Holding Back the Sea The Struggle for America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast
Author: Christopher Hallowell

Americans continue to coexist with nature only warily, in spite of our vaunted environmental stewardship. Nowhere is this complex relationship more visible than in the Mississippi River delta in South Louisiana, the country's largest unpreserved wetland. Here, more than three million acres of marshes and swamps nurture more seafood and produce m... more »ore oil and gas than any other region of the country except Alaska. Yet this expanse of raw natural beauty, almost unknown outside the region, is in danger of collapse. New Orleans is in particular danger as sea levels rise and the city sinks, leaving tens of thousands of inhabitants to face the consequences if a horrific storm should strike.Holding Back the Sea intimately and eloquently exposes the vulnerability of this stark land that spreads along the Gulf Coast, as it literally vanishes -- at rate of twenty-five square miles per year, an area the size of Manhattan -- so starved for lack of nutrients, so eroded away by ever more severe storms, and so dredged for canals that it is on the verge of being swallowed by the rising Gulf of Mexico. Holding Back the Sea bears witness to an environmental crisis of staggering proportions that not only threatens this coast but has plunged the people who depend on it into a moral quagmire.Christopher Hallowell uses this crisis as a window through which to clearly and comprehensively examine a cultural characteristic, or flaw, that Americans have historically exhibited: the reluctance to recognize the finiteness of nature -- as much a part of this country's history as is its people's independence -- while at the same time proclaiming their devotion to it. In Louisiana, this emotional split of using while abusing threatens the entire region's economic foundations and has profound implications for the rest of the country. Louisiana is not alone; its predicament stands beside an array of environmental case studies: clear-cutting in Virginia and Tennessee, exhausting water resources in the Southwest, polluting Chesapeake Bay, filling in wetlands around San Francisco Bay and Long Island Sound, and fouling the Great Lakes.Through the varied use of narrative voice and rich description, Hallowell, a journalist, writer, and educator, brings into focus South Louisiana's dilemma through the people involved -- from engineers to politicians to scientists to fishermen -- to show both the marsh's and the people's fragility and vitality. There is no more important topic than the way we use nature and our natural resources and our willingness to defer to nature. Holding Back the Sea is at the heart of that conversation.

ISBN-13: 9780060194468
ISBN-10: 0060194464
Publication Date: 7/1/2001
Pages: 288
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Sandra M. (Nanny) reviewed Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle for America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast on 3/4/2006 + 27 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is the book that should have been required reading for everyone
who had a responsible position concerning the Gulf Coast prior to
Katrina.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All 1 Book Reviews of "Holding Back the Sea The Struggle for Americas Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast"

Genres:

Business & Money >> Industries >> Real Estate >> General
Science & Math >> Nature & Ecology >> Oceans & Seas >> General
Outdoors & Nature >> Environment >> Conservation
Outdoors & Nature >> Conservation >> General
Outdoors & Nature >> Ecosystems >> Wetlands

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle for America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast

Top Member Book Reviews

Loading...