Droughts have lurked behind Australia’s major nation-shaping moments from European settlement at Port Jackson to Federation. They have caused catastrophic damage to Aboriginal, colonial and modern societies and, of course, to the very land itself. Indeed, by depriving us of water, that element most fundamental to life, droughts cut to the very essence of living in Australia.
Weaving historical accounts with scientific theory, Robert Godfree will take you on a journey through the most brutal Australian droughts of the past three centuries, encountering mythmaking, colonialism, smallpox, economic depression, a ‘dust bowl’, heatwaves, ecosystem collapse and the coming of the second ‘age of coal’. With analysis and insights informed by his childhood in rural Australia and career in research science, he reflects on the choices made during each of these crises and looks to the future of what is becoming a more volatile and human-dominated continent.
Drought Country is a timely exploration of this continent’s harsh climate, providing useful insights for land managers, the scientific community, environmentalists and general readers.
Spis treści
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Cultural sensitivity warning
Introduction: A land fertile for drought
Part 1: Big feller dry
1: Legends
2: Calamity on the
Coquun
3: Vanishing waters
Part 2: An ingratious country
4: Unsettling times
5: The summer of discontent
6: An uncommon and tedious drought
7: Bass and the South Coast drought
Part 3: A sky untroubled by clouds
8: The poverty of confinement
9: The stillness of death
10: Depressed times
11: Transitions
Part 4: Hell’s half century
12: The Titan’s grip
13: The living drought
14: Niobe’s ruin
15: Crucified
16: The desert of dry bones
Part 5: Life in the Anthropocene
17: River of tears
18: The great divide
19: What lies beneath
20: Day zero
21: Hung out to dry
Conclusion: Obscured horizons
Index
O autorze
Robert Godfree is an ecologist who developed a passion for understanding the history and environmental impacts of drought while growing up in northern New South Wales. He has worked as a Research Scientist at CSIRO since 2000.
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