Florida's parched swamps and sprawling subdivisions set the stage for a look at water crisis throughout the American East, from water-diversion threats in the Great Lakes to tapped-out freshwater aquifers along the Atlantic seaboard. Part investigative journalism, part environmental history, "Mirage" shows how the eastern half of the nation - historically so wet that early settlers predicted it would never even need irrigation - has squandered so much of its abundant fresh water that it now faces shortages and conflicts once unique to the arid West. Told through a colorful cast of characters including Walt Disney, Jeb Bush and Texas oilman Boone Pickens, "Mirage" ferries the reader through the key water-supply issues facing America and the globe: water wars, the politics of development, inequities in the price of water, the bottled-water industry, privatization, and new - water-supply schemes.
From its calamitous opening scene of a sinkhole swallowing a house in Florida to its concluding meditation on the relationship between water and the American character, "Mirage" is a compelling and timely portrait of the use and abuse of freshwater in an era of rapidly vanishing natural resources.
- ISBN10 1282423231
- ISBN13 9781282423237
- Publish Date 1 January 2009 (first published 1 April 2007)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 17 February 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Michigan Press
- Pages 249
- Language English