Meet the people most affected by petroleum development and climate change in North America. Anthropologist Harvard Ayers, CEO Dave Harman, and college professor Landon Pennington interviewed 100 Native people - Indians, Eskimos, and Inuvialuit - and other residents of the Arctic region of Canada and Alaska from the Mackenzie Delta in the east to the Chukchi Sea on the west. These Gwitch'in, Inupiat, and Inuvialuit, as well as transplants from the South, share the stories of their lives and their hopes for the future of the region. Arctic Gardens also includes a discussion of climate change in the Arctic and beyond for scientists and nonscientists alike. The gardens referred to in the title are the land and sea where these Arctic people harvest their food, the caribou, whales, and fish to name a few. Tending the garden is protecting the habitat of these mammals and fish, which these Native people have successfully done for thousands of years.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Harvard Ayers is a retired professor of anthropology and sustainable development at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, who retains the title of Professor Emeritus. He received a PhD in anthropology at Catholic University in Washington, DC, in 1972. He teaches several field-trip-oriented courses including Arctic anthropology, which is composed of a two- to three-week trip to the Arctic area covered by the book. Arctic Gardens is Ayers' second project of this type. He is senior editor of An Appalachian Tragedy: Air Pollution and Tree Death in the Eastern Forests of North America (Sierra Club Books, 1998), with text by Charles E. Litle, and photography by Jenny Hager. He made two trips to the Arctic in 2007 and one in 2008 to conduct interviews for this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Mark
Those of us immersed in modern North American society experience climate change through PowerPoint presentations as we sit in air conditioned conference rooms. Oil spills play out in 30 second sound bites on the national news. Our way of being is so completely isolated from the natural world that that we have to stop and think hard if someone asks us to name one result climate change will have on our children. Our way of being stands in stark contrast to the people living in Arctic Gardens. For them climate change is as personal as losing a loved one. Habitat destruction doesn't mean there's a longer a place for a Sunday drive, it means that children may not be able to survive in villages their people have inhabited for generations. The powerful personal stories presented in Arctic Gardens give us all much-needed inspiration to reach deep inside and personally commit to taking actions large and small to protect the world our children will grow up in.
Arctic Gardens: Voices from an Abundant Land
Arctic Gardens: Voices from an Abundant Land
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
These highly personal stories detail the profound impacts of climate change on local and native peoples. Each profile reveals another dimension of advancing society and the fading of traditional life. Things are changing very fast and the peoples are scrambling to cope. The next generation here will see a very different world. Although change is inevitable, the extent and pace of change to the native way of life is astounding in its breadth and depth. Arctic Gardens provides a rare and intimate glimpse into the the faces and the lives that are most affected.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The future of their land lies in the hands of politicians, businessmen, and economists. "Arctic Gardens: Voices from an Abundant Land" looks at the people on the land in question in Alaska and Northern Canada whose homeland is being targeted potential oil drilling. Providing a unique perspective with their own words and plenty of history as an anthropologist, a professor and a businessman provide this intriguing analysis of the issue. "Arctic Gardens" is an excellent read with plenty to consider.
By Jane Bernard
Arctic Gardens is compelling reading. The people who populate this important book are a mix of adventurers, indigenous, and those who visited, fell in love and decided to stay. This is an intimate glimpse into the lives of many courageous and beautiful people from the perspective of the changes they must endure that are the result of economic politics and greed surrounding the on-going development of fossil fuels. The vision Arctic Gardens presents through the many wonderful interviews and observations of the authors offers provocative and thoughtful insights. They speak of love and respect for the land, the people and the traditional life. Full of very honest personal stories, this is a heads-up for all of us to not be complacent about the impact of our choices. It's a serious look at results of our dependence on fossil fuels. Arctic Gardens makes it clear, the time to wake up is now.
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