Danielson, Stentor. “Emily O’Gorman, ‘Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-Than-Human Histories of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin.’” New Books in Geography, May 12, 2021. Mp3, 47:10.
In the name of agriculture, urban growth, and disease control, humans have drained, filled, or otherwise destroyed nearly 87 percent of the world’s wetlands over the past three centuries. Unintended consequences include biodiversity loss, poor water quality, and the erosion of cultural sites, and only in the past few decades have wetlands been widely recognized as worth preserving. Emily O’Gorman asks, What has counted as a wetland, for whom, and with what consequences? Using the Murray-Darling Basin—a massive river system in eastern Australia that includes over 30,000 wetland areas—as a case study and drawing on archival research and original interviews, O’Gorman examines how people and animals have shaped wetlands from the late nineteenth century to today.
(Source: New Books Network)
In this episode of New Books in Geography, Stentor Danielson interviews Emily O’Gorman, author of Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-Than-Human Histories of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin.
© 2021 New Books Network