Climate change is producing profound changes globally. Yet we still know little about how it affects real people in real places on a daily basis because most of our knowledge comes from scientific studies that try to estimate impacts and project future climate scenarios. This book is different; illustrating in vivid detail how people in the Andes have grappled with the effects of climate change and ensuing natural disasters for more than half a century. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range; global climate change has generated the world's most deadly glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches; killing 25;000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved; they formed community organizations to learn about precarious glacial lakes while they sent priests to the mountains; hoping that God could calm the increasingly hostile landscape. Meanwhile; Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of the most unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But adaptation to global climate change was never simply about engineering the Andes to eliminate environmental hazards. Local urban and rural populations; engineers; hydroelectric developers; irrigators; mountaineers; and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier melting differently-based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development; state authority; race relations; class divisions; cultural values; the evolution of science and technology; and shifting views of nature. Over time; the influx of new groups to manage the Andes helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders in the high Andes-and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region; triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be ignored in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.
#738461 in Books Oxford University Press; USA 2012-07-11Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.40 x .80 x 9.40l; .90 #File Name: 0195383982208 pages
Review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Thoughtful.By R. PearmanI cannot afford this book...maybe it will come to my library but based on what I can read here; it challenges the reader to examine their heart; not something most people run towards. I am reminded of a friend who asked me; "Do you think of yourself as a white woman?" and I said; "No; I'm just me." and she said; "I always think of myself as a black woman." Mr. Terrence L. explains why. I think this must lead to other examinations of other peoples and what is "white' anyway? My ancestors are Irish and were glad to leave the name McCready to the history books and were relieved to use the name Hall in order to escape the prejudice against the Irish. I didn't even know we were Irish until I was in my 40's. Our accent had vanished.I think of the history of the state of Alaska and how very many years people 'in the lower 48' were confident that the native population was incapable of governing themselves. They were deemed 'not sufficiently developed'. So is the residue of the black man's anguish attributable to the depth of his skin color or the physical abuse of his slavery experience?? And can it even BE changed? My father was born in 1927 (the French side of my family) and if I had used any derogatory slang word referring to any other race or nationality; I'd have been in 'hot water' reserved for the F bomb! But aside from do-unto-others now; what can I do??? We have Black History Month....has it done NO good??
