Mirage: The False Promise of Desert Agricultures

Description

Author: Clemings, Russell

Publisher: Sierra Club Books

Pub Date: 1996

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Book: Fair.  Binding tight.  No tears, bends or folds.  One small spot, about the size of a pin-head, on side text block.  There’s a spot on the upper rear pastedown where something was spilled (hidden by dust jacket).  Very light edge and corner wear.  Dust Jacket: Fair.  NOT price clipped.  Upper rear cover corner has an approx. 1/2″ x 2″ water (?) mark, extends to upper rear flap (and is the cause of the stain on the upper rear pastedown corner.  Very light edge and corner wear.  In mylar.

Notes: This story of desert agriculture begins with the British in India and reaches its climax in the deserts of the American southwest.  Massive dams, massive irrigation projects, the Salton Sea, massive saline and fertilizer poisoning, the California Aqueduct, the Central Arizona Project.  You only have to drive on Interstate-10 south of Phoenix to see how this story is playing out–the growth of cotton and alfalfa by irrigation, for clothing and cattle feed.  Great idea, bad execution.