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The human impact: Man's role in environmental change
Book Reviews
483
tation, space heating, and energy-intensive agriculture. Population growth will only exacerbate this trend. Alternative fuels face severe economic, technical, and social obstacles that will limit their widespread use. The argument is buttressed at many points by adumbrations from the industrialized nations of Europe and southeast Asia. In short, the private automobile must undergo a fundamental transformation in both design and role. One can dispute the time scale of this transformation, but one cannot dispute its inevitability. The book is not without its shortcomings, however, and indeed one could scarcely expect comprehensive treatment of so complex a topic within the space of a hundred pages. The principal failing is that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Problems are identified, and technological solutions to a few of them are briefly discussed, but the difficult issues of social and political implementation are never seriously addressed. Gasoline r a t i o n i n g - a self-evident political solution if ever there was o n e - r e c e i v e s no mention, and less draconian measures in the realm of behavior modification, such as incentives to ride-sharing, go largely unremarked. More fundamentally still, the capitalist premise that the automobile is and must forever remain an item of private property is never examined, despite the obvious advantages o f shared conveyances (shopping carts!) in highdensity conurbations. Readers of this journal will be disappointed in the scant treatment of environmental and ecological concerns, including the most immediate public health issues such as death and injury rates. And the argument is marred by an occasional piece of voodoo physics, such as the assertion that tires are being redesigned "to cut down drag from road surfaces." Nevertheless, this is a useful little volume. It provides an admirably concise historical summary of the automobile's rise to dominance in the transportation sector. The main outlines o f the forthcoming Age of Oil Depletion are sketched with clarity and insight. The narrative is dense with facts, most o f which retain their relevance and all of which are thoroughly documented. And at $7.95 in h a r d c o v e r s - l e s s than the price of a calendar these d a y s - it is a great bargain. Let us show our appreciation by welcoming it to our shelves, and above all, let us heed the lessons it offers. Edward A. Fagen Department of Electrical Engineering University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 19711
The Human Impact: Man's Role in Environmental Change (1982) by Andrew Goudie. The MIT Press,
Cambridge, MA (316 pp., U.S. $22.50 cloth, $10.00 paper) As the title suggests, this is an overview of human impact on the environment. The author, Andrew Goudie, is a
lecturer in Geography at Oxford University and the book is a product of his research and teaching there. Apparently, much of the material has been used in undergraduate lectures for several years at Oxford, but some of it has been especially prepared for the text. The book presents a careful and balanced view of human impact on the environment. Organized in eight chapters, the coverage extends to" vegetation, animals, soil, water, the landscape, the atmosphere, and the climate. There is an introductory chapter to put into perspective the development of the human race and its capability to impact the environment, and a final chapter to put a summary perspective on the issue. As with other interdisciplinary treatments the coverage on any single topic is limited to an overview, but the presentation of ideas and the transmission of information is excellent for a work of this nature. The text is well illustrated and filled with tables and quantitative data. The list of references is excellent, constituting an overview of the general literature in the field, and the index seems well prepared. With these features in mind, this reviewer would be glad to use the book as a text in an introductory undergraduate course on environmental problems. The coverage of the main topics is balanced in terms of pages devoted to each subject, and the author presents many interesting and illustrative examples. For example, in the chapter on animals, there is an interesting diagram showing the decline of the range of the bison in North America from pre- 1800 to the present. In the chapter on soils there is a discussion of the desertification effects of unwise soils management, with illustrations from areas with current problems, such as the African continent. In the chapter on water there is a discussion of water pollution with data and illustrations from several countries. The chapter on climate and the atmosphere contains a discussion of several important topics such as the carbon dioxide problem and air pollution. The inevitable consequence of such broad treatment of many topics is the disappointment the reader will feel in a search for really meaty information on specific subjects. The author has apparently drawn most of his material from other general works rather than from his own original research, or in most cases, original sources. The result of this is inadequate treatment of some important topics which would be desirable in an introductory text on the problems of the environment. One subject that needs more attention, for example, is acid rain and chemical deposition. Another is the general problem of toxic substances in water. The author concludes with some interesting observations and discussion. He points out that, although we tend to think that environmental problems began in the 20th century, early civilizations had significant effects, particularly by the use of fire. In fact, the author seems to suggest that the general and cumulative effects of agriculture are o f extraordinary importance, compared to industrial effects, in the overall impact on humans. The
484
BookReviews
author is rather optimistic about the ability of the human race to reverse the adverse effects of human activities on the environment, although there are no discussions of barriers to implementation of conservation programs and the realities of reducing human impacts through regulation and control or of difficulties in international environmental management. All in all, the book is quite well done and should be an asset to the bookshelves of students and workers needing a general, across-the-board introduction to environmental problems. Neil S. Grigg Department of Civil Engineering Colorado State University Ft. Collins, Colorado 80523
Water Shortage: Lessons in Conservation from the Great California Drought, 1976-1977 (1981) by R. A. Berk, C. J. LaCivita, K. Sredl, and T. F. Cooley, Abt Books, Cambridge, MA (218 pp., U.S. $20.00) Water Shortage is an excellent and important book. Its thrust is on policy and what can and cannot be accomplished to minimize the effects of drought. It deals not with physical science or with water technology but with sociology, psychology, economics, and political science. In spite of the U.S. precipitation map on the dust jacket, the book spends little time on hydrology, and virtually none on meteorology, or the engineering of water conservation. The book examines how local communities can adjust their activities to account for meteorologically induced water shortage. The authors outline the various alternatives and strategies local governments and water districts have at their disposal when faced with excess water demand and insufficient water resources. They evaluate these alternatives in terms of palatability to the water consumer and potential for achieving results. They quantify water demand and its sensitivity to two meteorological factors and to a range of conservation strategies. The study is accomplished within the context of the California drought of 1976-1977 and the experience of over fifty communities and regions to that crisis. Water Shortage is written in six chapters and three appendices. The first two chapters are introductory. They put the California drought in historical perspective, discuss what constitutes water shortage, explain how data for this book were obtained, and then provide needed sociological and economic background for non-specialists in these fields. A major topic, both here and in Appendix 2, is the theory of water pricing. Chapter 3 describes what happened during the California drought and how local communities responded to it. Of great value are the summaries of ten different regions, how severe the drought was to each, what specific conserva-
tion measures each invoked, and qualitatively what the results of those measures were. The tremendous variety of water surplus or shortage, of water district policy, of emergency and long-term conservation policies, and of outcome, is astonishing. Chapters 4 and 5, titled "What W o r k s . . . " and "What Works Better . . . . "respectively, present and discuss the statistical analysis of the California data. From the analysis, the authors can quantify the anticipated decrease in water usage for an enactment of a specific conservation procedure. They can ascertain whether it is better to educate, to raise prices, or to interdict. The analysis stratified the data by user type (residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial), by geographical region (desert, city, farm), and even by social strata (educational level, mean income). Great care was taken to quantify data that were provided, in many cases, in only descriptive terms. The only major flaw in the book occurs with the detailed discussion of statistical time series analysis in Chapter 4. If one understands the type of analysis described, the presentation is superfluous; if one is unfamiliar with it, the discussion will not help. Fortunately, this section can be omitted without losing continuity. The final chapter provides a summary and a set of conclusions and policy recommendations. This chapter is the best of a good book and can be read independently from the rest of the book. In fact, the authors suggest that it be read first; I concur. People who need to know something about water policy, but have little time, can learn a great deal skimming only these twenty pages. The three appendices cover the data gathering format, a micro-course on water pricing, and details of the statistical analysis calculations. The first appendix is good, if only to show how difficult water data are to collect, synthesize, and interpret. Appendix 2 is good because it is simple. The book concludes with a bibliography of about 75 references and an index. The reference list is not particularly helpful because most of the citations deal with statistical theory, game theory, and similar topics; only a few references deal with water policy. The book is well written on two planes: First, it is written as a technical report, describing a massive data gathering and evaluation effort. It is technically precise, well explained and documented, and thorough in both its analysis and interpretation. Its numerous conclusion and summary sections aid in understanding and extracting important facts. Second, and equally important, the authors are interesting. The book requires no specific technical background and, with the exception of the section on statistics, is free of technical jargon. The book can be read with enjoyment by anyone curious about the issue of water shortage. This book would definitely broaden the perspective of hydrologists, meteorologists, and other physical scientists involved with water and the environment. I recommend this book especially to my meteorological colleagues; it helps to know what the needs of policymaking agencies are for climatological data and to what uses that data might be put.
483
tation, space heating, and energy-intensive agriculture. Population growth will only exacerbate this trend. Alternative fuels face severe economic, technical, and social obstacles that will limit their widespread use. The argument is buttressed at many points by adumbrations from the industrialized nations of Europe and southeast Asia. In short, the private automobile must undergo a fundamental transformation in both design and role. One can dispute the time scale of this transformation, but one cannot dispute its inevitability. The book is not without its shortcomings, however, and indeed one could scarcely expect comprehensive treatment of so complex a topic within the space of a hundred pages. The principal failing is that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Problems are identified, and technological solutions to a few of them are briefly discussed, but the difficult issues of social and political implementation are never seriously addressed. Gasoline r a t i o n i n g - a self-evident political solution if ever there was o n e - r e c e i v e s no mention, and less draconian measures in the realm of behavior modification, such as incentives to ride-sharing, go largely unremarked. More fundamentally still, the capitalist premise that the automobile is and must forever remain an item of private property is never examined, despite the obvious advantages o f shared conveyances (shopping carts!) in highdensity conurbations. Readers of this journal will be disappointed in the scant treatment of environmental and ecological concerns, including the most immediate public health issues such as death and injury rates. And the argument is marred by an occasional piece of voodoo physics, such as the assertion that tires are being redesigned "to cut down drag from road surfaces." Nevertheless, this is a useful little volume. It provides an admirably concise historical summary of the automobile's rise to dominance in the transportation sector. The main outlines o f the forthcoming Age of Oil Depletion are sketched with clarity and insight. The narrative is dense with facts, most o f which retain their relevance and all of which are thoroughly documented. And at $7.95 in h a r d c o v e r s - l e s s than the price of a calendar these d a y s - it is a great bargain. Let us show our appreciation by welcoming it to our shelves, and above all, let us heed the lessons it offers. Edward A. Fagen Department of Electrical Engineering University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 19711
The Human Impact: Man's Role in Environmental Change (1982) by Andrew Goudie. The MIT Press,
Cambridge, MA (316 pp., U.S. $22.50 cloth, $10.00 paper) As the title suggests, this is an overview of human impact on the environment. The author, Andrew Goudie, is a
lecturer in Geography at Oxford University and the book is a product of his research and teaching there. Apparently, much of the material has been used in undergraduate lectures for several years at Oxford, but some of it has been especially prepared for the text. The book presents a careful and balanced view of human impact on the environment. Organized in eight chapters, the coverage extends to" vegetation, animals, soil, water, the landscape, the atmosphere, and the climate. There is an introductory chapter to put into perspective the development of the human race and its capability to impact the environment, and a final chapter to put a summary perspective on the issue. As with other interdisciplinary treatments the coverage on any single topic is limited to an overview, but the presentation of ideas and the transmission of information is excellent for a work of this nature. The text is well illustrated and filled with tables and quantitative data. The list of references is excellent, constituting an overview of the general literature in the field, and the index seems well prepared. With these features in mind, this reviewer would be glad to use the book as a text in an introductory undergraduate course on environmental problems. The coverage of the main topics is balanced in terms of pages devoted to each subject, and the author presents many interesting and illustrative examples. For example, in the chapter on animals, there is an interesting diagram showing the decline of the range of the bison in North America from pre- 1800 to the present. In the chapter on soils there is a discussion of the desertification effects of unwise soils management, with illustrations from areas with current problems, such as the African continent. In the chapter on water there is a discussion of water pollution with data and illustrations from several countries. The chapter on climate and the atmosphere contains a discussion of several important topics such as the carbon dioxide problem and air pollution. The inevitable consequence of such broad treatment of many topics is the disappointment the reader will feel in a search for really meaty information on specific subjects. The author has apparently drawn most of his material from other general works rather than from his own original research, or in most cases, original sources. The result of this is inadequate treatment of some important topics which would be desirable in an introductory text on the problems of the environment. One subject that needs more attention, for example, is acid rain and chemical deposition. Another is the general problem of toxic substances in water. The author concludes with some interesting observations and discussion. He points out that, although we tend to think that environmental problems began in the 20th century, early civilizations had significant effects, particularly by the use of fire. In fact, the author seems to suggest that the general and cumulative effects of agriculture are o f extraordinary importance, compared to industrial effects, in the overall impact on humans. The
484
BookReviews
author is rather optimistic about the ability of the human race to reverse the adverse effects of human activities on the environment, although there are no discussions of barriers to implementation of conservation programs and the realities of reducing human impacts through regulation and control or of difficulties in international environmental management. All in all, the book is quite well done and should be an asset to the bookshelves of students and workers needing a general, across-the-board introduction to environmental problems. Neil S. Grigg Department of Civil Engineering Colorado State University Ft. Collins, Colorado 80523
Water Shortage: Lessons in Conservation from the Great California Drought, 1976-1977 (1981) by R. A. Berk, C. J. LaCivita, K. Sredl, and T. F. Cooley, Abt Books, Cambridge, MA (218 pp., U.S. $20.00) Water Shortage is an excellent and important book. Its thrust is on policy and what can and cannot be accomplished to minimize the effects of drought. It deals not with physical science or with water technology but with sociology, psychology, economics, and political science. In spite of the U.S. precipitation map on the dust jacket, the book spends little time on hydrology, and virtually none on meteorology, or the engineering of water conservation. The book examines how local communities can adjust their activities to account for meteorologically induced water shortage. The authors outline the various alternatives and strategies local governments and water districts have at their disposal when faced with excess water demand and insufficient water resources. They evaluate these alternatives in terms of palatability to the water consumer and potential for achieving results. They quantify water demand and its sensitivity to two meteorological factors and to a range of conservation strategies. The study is accomplished within the context of the California drought of 1976-1977 and the experience of over fifty communities and regions to that crisis. Water Shortage is written in six chapters and three appendices. The first two chapters are introductory. They put the California drought in historical perspective, discuss what constitutes water shortage, explain how data for this book were obtained, and then provide needed sociological and economic background for non-specialists in these fields. A major topic, both here and in Appendix 2, is the theory of water pricing. Chapter 3 describes what happened during the California drought and how local communities responded to it. Of great value are the summaries of ten different regions, how severe the drought was to each, what specific conserva-
tion measures each invoked, and qualitatively what the results of those measures were. The tremendous variety of water surplus or shortage, of water district policy, of emergency and long-term conservation policies, and of outcome, is astonishing. Chapters 4 and 5, titled "What W o r k s . . . " and "What Works Better . . . . "respectively, present and discuss the statistical analysis of the California data. From the analysis, the authors can quantify the anticipated decrease in water usage for an enactment of a specific conservation procedure. They can ascertain whether it is better to educate, to raise prices, or to interdict. The analysis stratified the data by user type (residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial), by geographical region (desert, city, farm), and even by social strata (educational level, mean income). Great care was taken to quantify data that were provided, in many cases, in only descriptive terms. The only major flaw in the book occurs with the detailed discussion of statistical time series analysis in Chapter 4. If one understands the type of analysis described, the presentation is superfluous; if one is unfamiliar with it, the discussion will not help. Fortunately, this section can be omitted without losing continuity. The final chapter provides a summary and a set of conclusions and policy recommendations. This chapter is the best of a good book and can be read independently from the rest of the book. In fact, the authors suggest that it be read first; I concur. People who need to know something about water policy, but have little time, can learn a great deal skimming only these twenty pages. The three appendices cover the data gathering format, a micro-course on water pricing, and details of the statistical analysis calculations. The first appendix is good, if only to show how difficult water data are to collect, synthesize, and interpret. Appendix 2 is good because it is simple. The book concludes with a bibliography of about 75 references and an index. The reference list is not particularly helpful because most of the citations deal with statistical theory, game theory, and similar topics; only a few references deal with water policy. The book is well written on two planes: First, it is written as a technical report, describing a massive data gathering and evaluation effort. It is technically precise, well explained and documented, and thorough in both its analysis and interpretation. Its numerous conclusion and summary sections aid in understanding and extracting important facts. Second, and equally important, the authors are interesting. The book requires no specific technical background and, with the exception of the section on statistics, is free of technical jargon. The book can be read with enjoyment by anyone curious about the issue of water shortage. This book would definitely broaden the perspective of hydrologists, meteorologists, and other physical scientists involved with water and the environment. I recommend this book especially to my meteorological colleagues; it helps to know what the needs of policymaking agencies are for climatological data and to what uses that data might be put.