Gary B. (gourdhedd) -
Helpful Score: 1
Marc Reisner has a writing style that keeps the reader riveted from sentence to sentence. This book is about his homeland, California. The book discusses California's lack of water and its earthquakes, and then concludes to show what will happens when an earthquake disrupts the precious flow of water to the huge desert metropolis in Southern California. Lots of great history on the state.
I consider Reisner's previous book, Cadillac Desert, the best book I've ever read, and this later book does not disappoint. If you like 19th and 20th century western history, you'll love this one.
I consider Reisner's previous book, Cadillac Desert, the best book I've ever read, and this later book does not disappoint. If you like 19th and 20th century western history, you'll love this one.
This is a thriller beyond thrillers. But it is a true story.What a great guy Marc Reisner was. He wrote A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate as he was dying of cancer, and it's not just a benchmark of California's environmental history but also a profound and emotional valedictory effort. Living as I have on the grumbling and growling Hayward Fault, I found Reisner's projections of the cataclysmic effects of the Big One to be more than unsettling. Those of us who have been privileged or now doomed to live in this glorious state cannot fail to take heed of the picture he paints of the likely events surrounding our upcoming tectonic hiccups, belches, and sneezes.In case you did not get It , I moved out of California. I went through a number of earthquakes and I had enough of living on the edge.
The book is divided into 3 sections. The first retells California's environmental history from the era of Junipeo Serra's mission system right up to our own freeway system. The middle section deals with the fundamentals of plate tectonics. But it's that 3rd section that looks forward to (shudder) a hypothetical eruption of the Hayward Fault in 2005 that is most gripping. It is just plain scary!
I salute a great environmentalist and author.
The book is divided into 3 sections. The first retells California's environmental history from the era of Junipeo Serra's mission system right up to our own freeway system. The middle section deals with the fundamentals of plate tectonics. But it's that 3rd section that looks forward to (shudder) a hypothetical eruption of the Hayward Fault in 2005 that is most gripping. It is just plain scary!
I salute a great environmentalist and author.
John O. (buzzby) -
I guess we shouldn't be razzing Ted Cruz and the Texas congressional delegation just yet. I'm reading this to tide me over between hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
