Our most compelling resource just might be the ground beneath our feet. When a teaspoon of soil contains millions of species, and when we pave over the earth on a daily basis, what does that mean for our future? What is the risk to our food supply, the planet's wildlife, the soil on which every life-form depends? How much undeveloped, untrodden ground do we even have left? Paul Bogard set out to answer these questions in The Ground Beneath Us, and what he discovered is astounding. From New York (where more than 118,000,000 tons of human development rest on top of Manhattan Island) to Mexico City (which sinks inches each year into the Aztec ruins beneath it), Bogard shows us the weight of our cities' footprints. And as we see hallowed ground coughing up bullets at a Civil War battlefield; long-hidden remains emerging from below the sites of concentration camps; the dangerous, alluring power of fracking; the fragility of the giant redwoods, our planet's oldest living things; the surprises hidden under a Major League ballpark's grass; and the sublime beauty of our few remaining wildest places, one truth becomes blazingly clear: The ground is the easiest resource to forget, and the last we should. Bogard's The Ground Beneath Us is deeply transporting reading that introduces farmers, geologists, ecologists, cartographers, and others in a quest to understand the importance of something too many of us take for granted: dirt. From growth and life to death and loss, and from the subsurface technologies that run our cities to the dwindling number of idyllic Edens that remain, this is the fascinating story of the ground beneath our feet.
From growth and life to death and loss, and from the subsurface technologies that run our cities to the dwindling number of idyllic Edens that remain, this is the fascinating story of the ground beneath our feet.
Photographer Rai narrates the epic romance between his childhood friend, Ormus Cama, and singer Vina Apsara, Rai's sometime lover, revealingwith wisdom and humora world of passions, truths, death, and rock 'n' roll.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This is a perfect read-aloud story for bedtime or any time. This book delves into the issues of light pollution and how even a small child can take actions that improve our world.
Feeling trapped in a lifeless marriage, Holly Lewis runs away from home one morning.
had seen better days , and Herbert Pearson's matches struck everywhere except on the box . With a mental flash we linked the Crinoline with the powder puffs on Wenus . Approaching it more nearly , we heard a hissing noise within ...
responded Payton. "Splendid good sense! I'll give the order to turn New Yorkward at once." Payton bad read the billionaire's thoughts as if they had been printed. He knew that at present Mr. Grayman had no intention of meeting him on ...
We rigged up a temporary telephone from the sanctum to my station, and Secretary Grantham remained with Grayman to give me the word the instant that Payton's call was recognized, in order that I might not confuse it with some other.
An illumination beneath. We were at the edgeof thatforest, thedry yellow grassof the meadow just beyond us radiating, a brightness that severed that part of theworld, and the dead man belonged tothat place already.
What builds solid ground beneath us is the work we do now. Roshi Kapleau used to say, “If you don't let the Dharma down, the Dharma will never let you down.” No effort is wasted. What makes it such a lovely story is that it's not simply ...