Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 -

The Orkneys are wild, windswept, lonely, and wave-battered--perfect for harvesting sustainable energy from wind and sea. Their former rural isolation has been broken by hordes of engineers, environmental experts, venture capitalists, and assessors of megaprojects. Watts (Univ. of Edinburgh) tells the story in poetic, evocative language, sometimes moving from surrealistic reality into initially believable fantasy. A range of distinctive characters and machines move across a landscape marked by 4000-year-old rings of giant stones, and an ancient mass tomb so stark that men have gone mad from taking shelter in it. This reviewer was waiting for the were-seals, central to Orcadian folklore, to appear (they arrive on page 340). The contrast between independent, mutually reliant Orcadians and the urban, sheltered outsiders is a theme of this work. Watts grounds her ethnography, unobtrusively but with expertise and depth, in modern literature on human responses to technology and environmental manipulation, from Donna Haraway to Susan Leigh Star. The book brought back powerful memories of those Orkney winds, and the spectral lines of windmills harnessing them in the sky. This book is for anyone interested in the coming of sustainable energy, and for anyone interested in Scotland's islands.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above; general readers.

The third Edition of Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land brings a much-needed update to an excellent account of the largest and most important aquifer in the US. The Ogallala makes it possible to grow crops reliably in the Great Plains--crops that may feed people on the other side of the world or fatten beef that is shipped everywhere. The authors present an environmental history of this most precious non-renewable resource. Their story starts at the beginning with the geologic formation of the aquifer and then chronicles the agricultural development that started with the European settlement and the move to the West. The Great Plains are not a good place to farm, as the Dust Bowl showed, but the industrialization of the Plains through irrigation made large-scale agriculture possible. The authors state that at current withdrawal rates, this aquifer may not last for more than 50 years. The authors frame the discussion not as an agriculture versus environment issue, but as a failure of economics to consider environmental externalities--the cost for utilizing natural resources. A very informative and relevant book, and a guidebook for sustainable development.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Everything we do requires energy--a reality of human civilization that is not always easy to understand. Power Trip reveals convincingly how energy has been and will always be the great influence in all human activity. Access to plentiful and affordable energy determines a society's ability to flourish, whether the focus is on food and water supply, information security, military conflicts, transportation limitations, or the rise of smart cities that require more efficient energy applications. All these topics and more are explored from several viewpoints: as a citizen, a consumer, a business, a community, a society, and a nation. Webber is deputy director of the Energy Institute and mechanical engineering professor at UT Austin; he brings a nuanced and engaging perspective to his subject. This text is essential reading for anyone who sincerely cares about the future of our planet. Numerous references and a useful index are available for researchers to further investigate the engineering, economic, and political issues associated with all practical energy concerns.Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates and general readers.