For the past six months, I have been trying to read Goodbye to a River
by John
Graves. There are others buried beneath magazines, last Sunday’s New
York
Times, newspaper clippings and press releases. Half a dozen books I
was
supposed to review last year still sit on my shelf. Another half dozen
new
arrivals rest nearby.
That’s a roundabout way of saying that I get a lot of books and I
rarely get
to read them. But over the past few days, I’ve made time. Here are a
few
reviews:
THE RIVER STOPS HERE: How One Man’s Battle to Save His Valley
Changed
the Fate of California by Ted Simon, published by Random House, 380
pp., $23.
It was to be called the Dos Rios Dam. Seventy stories tall, it was
to be built
on the Eel River in California by the Army Corps of Engineers, a a
quasi-military federal agency whose primary reason for existence has
been
massive public work projects, like dams. Proposed during the peak of
dam-building fervor in the West, Dos Rios was supposed to be a flood
control
project. It also would have created one of the largest lakes in the
western
U.S. But preventing occasional floods downstream meant permanent
flooding of
the Round Valley, where Richard Wilson owned land.
A devout opponent of the dam, Wilson perhaps more than any other
person, was
responsible for stopping the Dos Rios project. His obstinacy and fervor
were
mentioned in Marc Reisner’s epic book of water in the west, Cadillac
Desert.
Now, Ted Simon, a British journalist who lives in the region, has
written an
entire book focusing on Wilson and the Dos Rios project. In the book,
Simon
lets attorney Lewis Butler describe his first encounter with Wilson:
“This guy
comes to the building and knocks on my door, and I let him in, and I
remember
this very well too, he’s got on a dirty hat, a short brimmed Stetson,
stained,
very carefully stained, and a dirty shirt and dirty pants and dirty
boots and
he said his name was Richard Wilson.”
He said he had a problem. Had I heard of the Dos Rios Dam? No. Had
I heard of
the Round Valley? No. He got out a map and showed me.” Butler and
Wilson were
later to become close allies in the fight against the dam.
Simon’s book presents a case study of water in California and how the
state’s
water policy has been dominated by the Corps of Engineers and
metropolitan
areas (like Los Angeles) which have continually sought ways to steal
water from
rural residents.
Simon told me that he didn’t want his book to be characterized as
an
environmental book. It isn’t. Rather, his book is about the politics of
water,
the politics of federal bureaucracies and one man’s fight to stop a
project
that should have never been started.
California may seem like a long way from Texas. But if you have been
following
the machinations of the fight over the water in the southern portion of
the
Edwards Aquifer, you know that San Antonio is now looking to steal
water from
other parts of the state. If you are familiar with that fight, you will
see
similar themes in The River Stops Here. Anyone interested in the
politics of water should read this book.
The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding The Tragedy of the Commons by
Garrett
Hardin, published by the Federation for American Immigration Reform,
140pp.,$5.
Available from FAIR, 1666 Connecticut Ave, NW #400, Washington, DC
20009.
A collection of essays written by Garrett Hardin, a professor at
the
University California-Santa Barbara, this short book argues for
restraints on
immigration and family size. The heart of the book (and the subtitle)
come from
an essay Hardin wrote in 1968. At the beginning of his treatise, Hardin
quotes
two security analysts, who concluded that the nuclear weapons race
could not be
won. “It is our considered professional judgement that this dilemma has
no
technical solution,” they said. Hardin takes this quote to launch a
far-
ranging essay that covers everything from Adam Smith’s economic theory
to noise
pollution.
Almost thirty years after it was published, Hardin’s essay seems
particularly
prescient. “The National Parks present another instance of the working
out of
the Tragedy of the Commons,” Hardin writes. “At present, they are open
to all,
without limit…Plainly, we must soon cease to treat the parks as
commons or
they will be of no value to anyone.” Over the past few years, the
National Park
Service has begun restricting access to Yosemite Valley, the Grand
Canyon and
other parks to prevent the parks from being degraded by the horde of
tourists
who visit them every year.
Of noise pollution, he writes, “There is almost no restriction on
the
propagation of sound waves in the public medium. The shopping public is
assaulted with mindless music, without its consent. Our government is
paying
out billions of dollars to create a supersonic transport which will
disturb
50,000 people for every one person who is whisked from coast to coast
three
hours faster.”
Hardin’s book also contains chapters like “Free Immigration, The
Enemy of Free
Enterprise,” in which he writes “So long as we cannot reduce
unemployment to
zero, we should reduce immigration to zero.” Hardin’s publisher, FAIR,
advocates a similar strategy. They propose an end to illegal
immigration and a
cap on legal immigration at no more than 300,000 people per year.
Whether or not you agree with FAIR’s views on immigration, Hardin’s
1968 essay
has much to say about global population. He also appears to advocate
some sort
of global population cop, but he offers no recipe for limiting family
size and
enforcing his ideal of limited breeding. “We must now recognize…the
necessity
of abandoning the commons in breeding. No technical solution can rescue
us from
the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to
all.”
A study just released by Population Action International appears to
confirm
Hardin’s essay. PAI says that world population is now growing eight
times
faster than cultivated land area. The result, says PAI, could be food
scarcity
for one billion people within the next 30 years. PAI says one in three
Africans
is already malnourished and that “Continued population growth could
result in
unsustainable demands on the earth’s agricultural land and water
resources in
the coming decades.”
Hardin’s pronouncements are stark and unapologetic. In the wake of
the Cairo
conference, which tried to deal with the global population boom, this
book
offers a hard line approach. Whether that approach is the right one can
be
argued.
The State of the World, 1995: A Worldwatch Institute Report on
Progress
Toward a Sustainable Society, published by W.W. Norton, 255 pp.,
$11.95.
The State of the World comes out every year, but every year
the folks
at Worldwatch address some of the globe’s most pressing problems. This
year,
the issues covered include: fisheries, solar energy, mountain
ecosystems,
sustainable materials, budgeting for disarmament and China.
One of my favorite sections was written by Christopher Flavin, an
energy
policy analyst. A condensed version of Power Surge: Guide to the Coming
Energy
Revolution by Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen, Flavin’s chapter details the
future
of wind, solar and hydrogen power. While touting the gains made by the
solar
and wind industries, he projects that hydrogen will be the fuel that
replaces
natural gas. “Over time, solar and wind-derived hydrogen could become
the
foundation of a new global energy economy.”
He predicts that one of keys to that new economy will be the fuel
cell. Used
on the Gemini and Apollo space flights, the fuel cell turns hydrogen
and air
into oxygen, water and electricity. Now being marketed by Houston-based
Enron
and United Technologies, the fuel cell could be the machine that
replaces the
internal combustion engine. Flavin says the fuel cell can produce
electricity
from hydrogen at an efficiency as high as 65 percent. He writes,
“Indeed, the
fuel cell may one day be thought of as the silicon chip of the hydrogen
economy.”
The new State of the World also discusses the problems faced
by China.
“If recent growth patterns continue, China’s use of coal will double in
the
next 16 years and it’s consumption of grain will rise by 40 percent.”
Those
factors alone should be cause for concern for the rest of the world. As
noted
above, Population Action International is predicting a shortage of
arable land,
which could also mean a global grain shortage.
But the authors of the section on China, Megan Ryan and Christopher
Flavin,
show that China can take another path. By embracing energy efficiency,
farm
land conservation and fish farming, the authors believe China can
reduce its
demand for additional resources. With one fifth of the world’s
residents the
authors say that “One thing is clear: China simply will not be able to
follow
for long any of the development paths blazed to date. Its abundance of
people,
shortage of resources and collision with the technologies and political
philosophies of the twenty-first century will force the country to
chart a new
and different course.”
Those are just short bits from this fact-packed tome. Check it
out.
MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MEETINGS: Two events are coming up that sound
interesting.
First, the Transportation Efficiency Roundtable will be held this
Friday (the
28th) to discuss energy efficiency in the transportation sector. One of
the
highlights of the meeting will be the demonstration of the Ballard Fuel
Cell
Bus, a fuel cell-powered bus designed for public transport. The
commercialization of the fuel cell may the single most exciting
development in
the energy sector, as it creates virtually no pollution. To get more
info on
the conference, call Jeff Long or Ron Calhoun at 463-5339, or just show
up at
the Four Seasons Hotel at 8:30am.
Next Friday, the Green Building Conference ’95 returns for a three
day stint.
Always an interesting event, this meeting will feature a mini-film
festival, a
speech by green guru Ian McHarg, and dozens of other cool happenings.
This
event gets bigger every year and this year promises to be the most
comprehensive one to date. Discussion topics include the green lessons
learned
from building the new Whole Foods Market at 6th and Lamar, energy
efficient
lighting and the green kitchen. The conference which runs Friday
through
Sunday, will be held at Palmer Auditorium and includes an exhibit hall.
The
cost is $50 for all three days, $5 for just Saturday or Sunday. To
register or
for more info, call Laurence Doxsey at 499-3504.
This article appears in April 28 • 1995 and April 28 • 1995 (Cover).