Wohl, Ellen E. (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: viii + 359 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English
Far from being the serene, natural streams of yore, modern rivers have been diverted, dammed, dumped in, and dried up, all in efforts to harness their power for human needs. But these rivers have also undergone environmental change. The old adage says you can't step in the same river twice, and Ellen Wohl would agree---natural and synthetic change are so rapid on the world's great waterways that rivers are transforming and disappearing right before our eyes. A World of Rivers explores the confluence of human and environmental change on ten of the great rivers of the world. Ranging from the Murray-Darling in Australia and the Yellow River in China to Central Europe's Danube and the United States' Mississippi, the book journeys down the most important rivers in all corners of the globe. Wohl shows us how pollution, such as in the Ganges and in the Ob of Siberia, has affected biodiversity in the water. But rivers are also resilient, and Wohl stresses the importance of conservation and restoration to help reverse the effects of human carelessness and hubris. What all these diverse rivers share is a critical role in shaping surrounding landscapes and biological communities, and Wohl's book ultimately makes a strong case for the need to steward positive change in the world's great rivers.
...MoreReview Cioc-Ortega, Mark (2014) Review of "A World of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World's Greatest Rivers". Comparative Studies in Society and History (p. 244).
Similar Citations
Essay Review
Josephson, Paul;
(2013)
Science and Technology in the International Arena
(/isis/citation/CBB001566265/)
Book
Mauch, Christof;
Zeller, Thomas;
(2008)
Rivers in History: Perspectives on Waterways in Europe and North America
(/isis/citation/CBB000850378/)
Article
Luminita Gatejel;
(October 2018)
Building a Better Passage to the Sea: Engineering and River Management at the Mouth of the Danube, 1829–61
(/isis/citation/CBB779229466/)
Article
Tarr, Joel A.;
(2014)
Toxic Legacy: The Environmental Impact of the Manufactured Gas Industry in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001421227/)
Article
Novosad, E. V.;
(2006)
Pollution of the Volga During the Development of the Russian Petroleum Industry
(/isis/citation/CBB000930298/)
Book
James V. Hillegas-Elting;
(2018)
Speaking for the River: Confronting Pollution on the Willamette, 1920s-1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB486173762/)
Book
Leona J. Skelton;
(2017)
Tyne after Tyne: An Environmental History of a River's Battle for Protection 1529-2015
(/isis/citation/CBB415705049/)
Book
Adam Mandelman;
(2020)
The Place with No Edge: An Intimate History of People, Technology, and the Mississippi River Delta
(/isis/citation/CBB918000641/)
Book
Trimble, Stanley Wayne;
(2013)
Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country
(/isis/citation/CBB001420329/)
Article
Sellers, Christopher;
(2004)
The Artificial Nature of Fluoridated Water: Between Nations, Knowledge, and Material Flows
(/isis/citation/CBB000750327/)
Article
Hoffman, Karen;
(2013)
Unheeded Science: Taking Precaution out of Toxic Water Pollutants Policy
(/isis/citation/CBB001320662/)
Book
Oscar de la Torre;
(2018)
The People of the River: Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835–1945
(/isis/citation/CBB716355605/)
Book
Stippak, Marcus;
(2010)
Beharrliche Provisorien städtische Wasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung in Darmstadt und Dessau 1869--1989
(/isis/citation/CBB001420944/)
Book
Williams, Michael;
(2003)
Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB000301638/)
Article
Ryan Hearty;
(2020)
Redefining Boundaries: Ruth Myrtle Patrick’s Ecological Program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1947–1975
(/isis/citation/CBB420073099/)
Chapter
Lucas, Anton;
Djati, Arief W.;
(2007)
The Politics of Environmental and Water Pollution in East Java
(/isis/citation/CBB000960077/)
Article
Valoree S. Gagnon;
Emma S Norman;
Hugh S Gorman;
(2016)
Local Impacts, Global Sources: The Governance of Boundary-Crossing Chemicals
(/isis/citation/CBB473255033/)
Book
Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted;
(2014)
Rivers, Memory, and Nation-Building: A History of the Volga and Mississippi Rivers
(/isis/citation/CBB114658545/)
Book
Blum, Elizabeth D.;
(2008)
Love Canal Revisited: Race, Class, and Gender in Environmental Activism
(/isis/citation/CBB000954867/)
Thesis
Payne, Sarah R.;
(2010)
Cleaning Up after Sex: An Environmental History of Contraceptives in the United States, 1873--2010
(/isis/citation/CBB001562749/)
Be the first to comment!