Can I read The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge (History for a Sustainable Future) on EtoBox?

The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge (History for a Sustainable Future) by Diana K. Davis, Michael Egan is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge (History for a Sustainable Future) about?

**An argument that the perception of arid lands as wastelands is politically motivated and that these landscapes are variable, biodiverse ecosystems, whose inhabitants must be empowered.** Deserts are commonly imagined as barren, defiled, worthless places, wastelands in need of development. This understanding has fueled extensive anti-desertification efforts -- a multimillion-dollar global campaign driven by perceptions of a looming crisis. In this book, Diana Davis argues that estimates of desertification have been significantly exaggerated and that deserts and drylands -- which constitute about 41% of the earth's landmass -- are actually resilient and biodiverse environments in which a great many indigenous people have long lived sustainably. Meanwhile, contemporary arid lands development programs and anti-desertification efforts have met with little success. As Davis explains, these environments are not governed by the equilibrium ecological dynamics that apply in most other regions. Davis shows that our notion of the arid lands as wastelands derives largely from politically motivated Anglo-European colonial assumptions that these regions had been laid waste by "traditional" use

Who reads The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge (History for a Sustainable Future)?

Author

Diana K. Davis, Michael Egan

Publisher

The MIT Press

Published

2016

Language

EN

ISBN

9780262333528

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Science, Nature, History