Dear ECOLOG-L:
The University of California Press is pleased to announce the publication of: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations David R. Montgomery, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, is author of _King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon._ http://go.ucpress.edu/MontgomeryDirt "Argues persuasively that soil is humanity's most essential natural resource and essentially linked to modern civilizations's survival. . . . Makes a convincing case for the need to respect and conserve the world's limited supply of soil."-_Publishers Weekly_ Dirt, soil, call it what you want-it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, _Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations _explores the compelling idea that we are-and have long been-using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, _Dirt _traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil-as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations. Full information about the book, including the table of contents, is available online: http://go.ucpress.edu/MontgomeryDirt -- Lolita Guevarra Electronic Marketing Coordinator University of California Press Tel. 510.643.4738 | Fax 510.643.7127 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
