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A Road Running Southward: Following John Muir's Journey through an Endangered Land
256
by Dan Chapman
Dan Chapman
A Road Running Southward: Following John Muir's Journey through an Endangered Land
256
by Dan Chapman
Dan Chapman
Paperback
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Overview
"Engaging hybrid - part lyrical travelogue, part investigative journalism and part jeremiad, all shot through with droll humor." The Atlanta Journal Constitution In 1867, John Muir set out on foot to explore the botanical wonders of the South, keeping a detailed journal of his adventures as he traipsed from Kentucky southward to Florida. One hundred and fifty years later, on a similar whim, veteran Atlanta reporter Dan Chapman, distressed by sprawl-driven environmental ills in a region he loves, recreated Muir’s journey to see for himself how nature has fared since Muir’s time. Channeling Muir, he uses humor, keen observation, and a deep love of place to celebrate the South’s natural riches. But he laments that a treasured way of life for generations of Southerners is endangered as long-simmering struggles intensify over misused and dwindling resources. Chapman seeks to discover how Southerners might balance surging population growth with protecting the natural beauty Muir found so special. Each chapter touches upon a local ecological problemat-risk species in Mammoth Cave, coal ash in Kingston, Tennessee, climate change in the Nantahala National Forest, water wars in Georgia, aquifer depletion in Floridathat resonates across the South. Chapman delves into the region’s natural history, moving between John Muir’s vivid descriptions of a lush botanical paradise and the myriad environmental problems facing the South today. Along the way he talks to locals with deep ties to the landscientists, hunters, politicians, and even a Muir impersonatorwho describe the changes they’ve witnessed and what it will take to accommodate a fast-growing population without destroying the natural beauty and a cherished connection to nature.A Road Running Southward is part travelogue, part environmental cri de coeur, and paints a picture of a South under siege. It is a passionate appeal, a call to action to save one of the loveliest and most biodiverse regions of the world by understanding what we have to lose if we do nothing.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781642833256 |
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Publisher: | Island Press |
Publication date: | 02/08/2024 |
Pages: | 256 |
Sales rank: | 673,014 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Dan Chapman is a writer, reporter, and lover of the outdoors. He grew up in Washington DC and Tokyo, the son of a newspaperman and an English teacher. He worked for Congressional Quarterly, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Charlotte Observer, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has also reported from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. He currently writes stories about conservation in the South for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Ghosts, Skeeters, and Rye Savannah, GeorgiaMuir spent a half-dozen hungry and desperate, yet historically important, nights in the city’s famed Bonaventure Cemetery. A latter-day visit to the land of the dead underscores the South’s peril, and its promise. Chapter 1: Who Is John Muir? Atlanta, GeorgiaA brief biography of the botanist, inventor, rambler, writer, cofounder of the Sierra Club, father of the national park system, and conscience of the environmental movement. Chapter 2: A New South Reckoning Louisville, KentuckyMuir crosses the Ohio River and into history. The land of bourbon, horses, and highways epitomizes the South’s sprawling environmental problems. Chapter 3: The South’s Incredible Biodiversity Is Threatened and Endangered Cave City, KentuckyMammoth Cave National Park, and the Green River, are filled with natural wonders. Some species are disappearing. Some are already gone. And some are making a comeback. Chapter 4 A Celebration of Muir Turns Toxic Kingston, TennesseeThe annual Muir Fest is overshadowed by the nation’s worst coal ash disaster and the South’s checkered legacy of cheap energy. Chapter 5: “The Mountains are Calling”and They’re Not Happy Coker Creek, TennesseeThe saga of the southern Appalachians as they succumb to the very forces that make them popular with deadly consequences. Chapter 6: More Rain, More Heat, and More Trouble Boone, North CarolinaA warming world forces trees, trout, and rare flowers higher up into the mountains. Climate change hits the hills in unpredictable and alarming ways. Chapter 7: Water Wars Suches, GeorgiaGeorgia, Alabama, and Florida have been fighting for a generation over the Chattahoochee River. Farmers, oystermen, kayakers, and sturgeon are threatened by the loss of this increasingly precious natural resource. Chapter 8: The Deeper the River, the Greater the Pain Augusta, GeorgiaGlobalization demands a deeper Savannah River and compounds the environmental damage done previously by dams, developers, cities, farmers, and factories. Chapter 9: A Coastal Playground Is Disappearing Tybee Island, GeorgiaRising seas. Ghost forests. Sunny-day flooding. Salty tap water. Bigger hurricanes. There’s not enough money to save the coast from a warming world. Chapter 10: Where Hogs Rule and Turtles Tremble Ossabaw Island, GeorgiaInvasive specieswild boar, Burmese pythons, tegu lizards, lionfish, northern snakeheads, melaleuca trees, laurel wiltmarch relentlessly across the South. A marksman aims to save at least one endangered species. Chapter 11: Take My Water, Please High Springs, FloridaThe aquifer running from Savannah to Miami is under siege from overuse, pollution, and saltwater intrusion. Yet Florida all but gives away billions of gallons a year to private profiteers. Chapter 12: The End of the Road Cedar Key, FloridaDevelopment imperils one of Florida’s last wild places. Science, though, offers hope for the future. Acknowledgments Further Readings About the AuthorFrom the B&N Reads Blog
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