Great Aridness

Staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-bases society of the American Southwest close to the brink of a Dust-Bowl-scale catastrophe. In A Great Aridness, William deBuys paints a compelling picture of what it might look like when the heat turns up and the water runs out. Examining interrelated factors such as vanishing wildlife, forest die-offs, and over-allocation of the Colorado River, deBuys narrates the landscape's history-and future. What happens in the Southwest, deBuys suggests, will provide a glimpse of what other mid-latitude arid lands worldwide-the Mediterranean Basin, southern Africa, and the Middle East-will experience in the coming years.