Book Description
Dirt, soil, call it what you want--it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are--and have long been--using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil--as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading.......2007-09-15
This should be essential reading for any resource planner, all levels of elected policy makers and anyone that has read Jared Diamond, i. e. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
The demise of soil.......2007-09-13
Policy makers at all levels as well as concerned citizens should take Dave's lessons to heart. In addition, this is THE book for the layman wondering anything about dirt's role in human history and its fate.
With unrelenting precision, Dave builds the case-by-case history of civilizations misusing the dirt to their ultimate misfortune. As a top-flight scientist and admirable philosopher, he lays bare the storyline of people first using dirt modestly, then disturbing and losing their topsoil in dozens of cases spanning the globe and ranging from pre-history to the present.
The progression of dirt degradation becomes very familiar by the end - one wonders how many more times and on what grand scale the failures will again become apparent.
A caveat - Dave is a colleague of mine, as well as an entertaining pop-folk guitar, who leads with guitar and vocals the local band "Big Dirt".
What you never knew about history.......2007-08-28
While David R. Montgomery goes on a bit long and repetitively about how and why and where and how fast soils erode, the more interesting part of the book is the new look at history--why the Romans sought new lands to conquer, how Thomas Jefferson tried and failed to get widespread adoption of contour plowing, how the depletion of the southeast's agricultural soils provided yet more impetus for the Civil War, how even in ancient times writers urged soil husbandry, yet were largely ignored as they still are today, how monoculture, slavery and now industrialized agriculture speed up the process by which land will become unable to sustain growing human populations. It's a sobering message that we ignore at our children's peril.
Unsuitable title - otherwise fine.......2007-08-01
The story of past soil erosion is not glamorous - but why title the book DIRT ? Why not TERRA MATER (mother earth) which is the true topic of this historical story. It is well told though not in a chronological sequence while passing smoothly from one civilization to another; well researched with some 300 references, but these are not cited in the text; with many of the author's direct observation from his trips as a geomorphologist. Revised edition needed. The chapters on North American events are best,
An Amazing Book!.......2007-06-12
Read this book. It will change the way that you relate to civilization as we know it. David Montgomery has put together an emensly interesting, highly readable factual tale of the doom wrought when humans take dirt for granted.
Average customer rating:
- The Best Erosion Information Book Written in Our Time
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Soil Erosion and Conservation
R. P. C. Morgan
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Soil Erosion: Processes, Prediction, Measurement, and Control
ASIN: 1405117818 |
Book Description
Soil Erosion and Conservation provides a comprehensive treatment of the processes of soil erosion, the methods that can be used for their control, and the issues involved in designing and implementing soil conservation programmes.Features include:new material on gully erosion, tillage practices, erosion risk assessment, use of erosion models, incentives for farmers and land users, and community approaches to erosion controlupdated sections on the mechanics of wind erosion, soil erodibility, use of vegetation in erosion control, traditional soil conservation measures, socio-economic issues and the role of governmentdescriptions of the methods used to assess the risk of erosion and predict rates of soil lossoutlines of the social, economic, political and institutional constraints on implementing soil protection measurescoverage of erosion and its control for agriculture, grazing, forestry, mining land, road banks, pipeline corridors and recreationworldwide coverage of the success and failure of erosion control using material from Europe, Africa, Australia, America and Asia.The third edition of this internationally recognized textbook will be invaluable to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying soil conservation or soil erosion in earth science, environmental science and physical geography departments.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Erosion Information Book Written in Our Time.......2001-03-26
This book provided me with enough information to do a complete science report for my professor. It gives a complete description of soil erosion, and some of the best conservation topics I have ever read. I had to find many many books to do my report (around 29 before I came across this one) but as soon as I got this book I found it had all the information that every other book had, plus more. It had all i needed to complete my report. I recommend this book to anybody who needs information on these topics.
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Soil Erosion and Carbon Dynamics (Advances in Soil Science (Boca Raton, Fla.).)
Manufacturer: CRC
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ASIN: 1566706882 |
Book Description
In addition to depleting nutrients necessary for healthy crops, soil erosion processes can affect the carbon balance of agroecosystems, and thus influence global warming.. While the magnitude and severity of soil erosion are well documented, fluxes of eroded carbon are rarely quantified. The most complete, nonpartisan source of information available today on this topic, Soil Erosion and Carbon Dynamics brings together a diverse group of papers and data from the perspectives of world-renowned sedimentologists, soil scientists, and agronomists to resolve whether soil erosion on carbon is a beneficial or destructive process. This book collects quantitative data on eroded carbon fluxes from the scale of the agricultural plot to that of large basins and oceans. It quantifies the magnitude of eroded carbon for different soil management practices as compared to normal carbon sequestration and discusses the fate of the eroded carbon and whether or not it is a source or sink for atmospheric CO2. Finally, the book offers data reflecting the impact of soil erosion on soil, water, and air quality. Other important topics include solubilization, the determination of mineralization rates, carbon transfer, and sediment deposition, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, global warming potential, and the implications of soil erosion on the global carbon cycle and carbon budget. Based on the first symposium of the international colloquium Land Uses, Erosion and Carbon Sequestration held in Montpellier, France, Soil Erosion and Carbon Dynamics provides data that links soil erosion to the global carbon cycle and elucidates the fate of eroded carbon at scales ranging from plot to watershed.
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Soil Erosion, Conservation, and Rehabilitation (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)
Agassi
Manufacturer: CRC
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0824789849 |
Book Description
Discusses the latest information regarding the processes and mechanisms responsible for runoff and erosion by water in arable lands--detailing state-of-the-art water and soil conservation methods. Elucidates the rehabilitation of agricultural lands depleted by human activity.
Book Description
Once the grain basket for South Africa, much of Lesotho has become a scarred and treeless wasteland. The nation's spectacular gullying has concerned environmentalists and conservationists for more than half a century, In Imperial Gullies: Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho, Kate B. Showers documents the truth behind this devastation. Showers reconstructs the history of the landscape, beginning with a history of the soil. She concludes that Lesotho's distinctive erosion chasms, called dongas, often cited as an example of destructive land-use practices by African farmers, actually were caused by colonial and postcolonial practices. The residents of Lesotho emerge as victims of a failed technology. Their efforts to mitigate or resist implementation of destructive soil conservation engineering works were thwarted, and they were blamed for the consequences of policies promoted by international soil conservationists since the 1930s. Imperial Gullies calls for an observational, experimental and, most importantly, a fully consultative and participatory approach to address Lesotho's serious contemporary problems of soil erosion. The first book to bring to center stage the historical practice of colonial soil science and a cautionary tale of western science in unfamiliar terrain it will interest a broad, interdisciplinary audience in African and environmental studies, social sciences, and history. "Showers shows how local people understood that colonial contour conservation methods and road building actually stimulated gully erosion, something colonial scientists failed to realize. Overall it is undoubtedly one of the most important books written to date on any part of the environmental history of Africa. Moreover it stands out in the discipline of environmental history in general as an unusually sophisticated work of great insight and explanatory power."---Richard H. Grove, author of Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600-1860 Kate B. Showers is a visiting research fellow and senior research associate at the Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex, England. She has lived in rural Lesotho and has served as head of research, Institute of Southern African Studies, National University of Lesotho.
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Advances in Soil and Water Conservation
Francis J. Pierce
Manufacturer: CRC
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Binding: Loose Leaf
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ASIN: 1575040832 |
Book Description
Advances in Soil and Water Conservation provides an in-depth, scholarly treatment of the most important developments and influences shaping soil and water conservation in the last 50 years. The book addresses the technological developments of erosion processes, methods for their control, policy and social forces shaping the research agenda, and future directions. Topics covered include: · key governmental agencies and programs · research on processes of soil and water degradation · control practices and soil quality enhancement · conservation tillage · the connection between soil and water conservation and sustainable agriculture · effects of technology and social influences on soil and water conservation in this country The historical foundation, the focus on key developments, the depth of treatment and thorough documentation, and the orientation to the future make Advances in Soil and Water Conservation a superlative resource for all persons in the field.
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An Ecological Approach - Green Version
BSCS Staff
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0840358644 |
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Biological Science: An Ecological Approach (Green Version)
BSCS Staff
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
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ASIN: 0840358679 |
Product Description
4th Edition Student Textbook Biological Sciences Curriculum Study
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- Dispersal Biology of Desert Plants (Adaptations of Desert Organisms)
- Entomology and Pest Management (5th Edition)
- FARM MANAGEMENT POCKETBOOK
- Farming (Scottish Past in Action Series)
- First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Foods
- Fish Vaccination
- Food, Climate, and Carbon Dioxide: The Global Environment and World Food Production
- Forest Trees (Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants) (Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants)
- Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You
- Genetic Resources of PHASEOLUS Beans: Their Maintenance, Domestication, Evolution and Utilization (Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture)
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