The WEST WITHOUT
WATER traces the geological history of water and drought in the Northern, Central and Southern parts of California
back through millennia. Professors Ingram and Roam-Malmud
warn that the accelerated human development of the twentieth-century took place during an unusually wet period and therefore
under-predicts potential disasters.
What is to come will be a far more difficult climate. The parts of the country described in THE
WEST WITHOUT WATER supply much of American’s food, and its prosperity supports much of our wealth. No one can
afford to let the environment fail. As the authors state :
Above
all, we hope this book provides a much-needed wake-up call for the American West, a region now poised for a "perfect storm".
Continued warming will increase the drying of this already arid region, leading to severe water shortages. Our research,
and that of others, shows that extended droughts (often followed by catastrophic floods) have plagued the West during past
periods of warmth. . . . And while the West and its human landscapes have been temporarily buffered from such harsh
climate swings by artificial hydrologic systems, these have been maintained only with dwindling underground water reserves.
A reckoning is on the horizon and we must face the realities of the past and future and begin to act today.
This is a vivid and compelling
narrative of the West’s tumultuous climate told through stories of California’s
past droughts and deluges, fires and floods, mudslides and dry lakebeds.
Using their original research
which examines trends well before and beyond the 20th Century, the authors make practical, evidence-based predictions
for California’s future, because they write both as scientists interested in the history of our current environment
and as researchers who continue to look for physical traces of ancient wetlands which go deep into the ground beneath us.
About the authors:
Dr. B. Lynn Ingram studies the history of climate change along the Pacific
Rim, including California, Mexico, China, Tahiti, and the Great Barrier Reef. Dr. Ingram was recently elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Science, and is a Senior Fulbright
recipient. She has been a Professor in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Geography at UC Berkeley since 1995.
She is the author of more than forty published scientific articles on past climate change in California, the West, and other regions across the Pacific.
Dr. Malamud-Roam received her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D in the Department of
Geography at UC Berkeley. She has published or presented over thirty scientific
papers on the subject of climate history in California.
Dr. Malamud-Roam has also taught courses in earth science and physical geography at U.C. Berkeley, Sonoma State University
and at local community colleges.
