Winner of
the the Inaugural David J. Weber-William P. Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction
Book on Southwestern America Published in 2011
DeGolyer Library, 6404 Hilltop Lane at McFarlin
6 pm reception followed by
6:30 lecture and book signing
With its soaring
azure sky and
stark
landscapes, the
American
Southwest is one
of the most
hauntingly
beautiful
regions on
earth. Yet
staggering
population
growth, combined
with the
intensifying
effects of
climate change,
is driving the
oasis-based
society close to
the brink of a
Dust-Bowl-scale
catastrophe.
In
A Great Aridness
(Oxford
University
Press),
William deBuys
paints a
compelling
picture of what
the Southwest
might look like
when the heat
turns up and the
water runs out.
This semi-arid
land, vulnerable
to water
shortages,
rising
temperatures,
wildfires, and a
host of other
environmental
challenges, is
poised to bear
the heaviest
consequences of
global
environmental
change in the
United States.
Examining
interrelated
factors such as
vanishing
wildlife, forest
die backs, and
the
over-allocation
of the already
stressed
Colorado
River--upon
which nearly 30
million people
depend--the
author narrates
the landscape's
history--and
future. He tells
the inspiring
stories of the
climatologists
and others who
are helping
untangle the
complex,
interlocking
causes and
effects of
global warming.
And while the
fate of this
region may seem
at first blush
to be of merely
local interest,
what happens in
the Southwest,
deBuys suggests,
will provide a
glimpse of what
other
mid-latitude
arid lands
worldwide--the
Mediterranean
Basin, southern
Africa, and the
Middle
East--will
experience in
the coming
years.
The
judging committee wrote,
"A
Great Aridness
is deeply researched, engagingly written, powerful in
its arguments, and of urgent importance to anyone
interested in the Southwest. This is clearly the work
of a mature scholar and writer at the top of his game,
and with a story to tell of critical importance."
"William deBuys places scientific discussions about
aridity in the broad and rich historical context of the
Southwest. His selection of unusual and significant
Southwestern locales reveals stories of human behavior
in the face of natural forces."
William deBuys
is the author of six books, including
River of Traps: A New
Mexico Mountain Life, a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction in 1991;
Enchantment and
Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico
Mountain Range; The Walk, Seeing
Things Whole: The Essential John Wesley Powell,
and Salt Dreams: Land
and Water in Low-Down California which won
the Clements Prize for Best Non-Fiction Book on
Southwestern America in 1999. He was
the
Carl B. and Florence E. King Senior Fellow in Southwest
History at the Clements Center in 1999-2000.
An active
conservationist, deBuys has helped protect more than
150,000 acres in New Mexico, Arizona, and North
Carolina. He lives and writes on a small farm in
northern New Mexico.
The $2,500 Weber-Clements Book
Prize honors fine writing and original research on the
American Southwest. The competition is open to any
nonfiction book, including biography, on any aspect of
Southwestern life, past or present. The William P.
Clements Center for Southwest Studies is part of SMU's
Dedman College and affiliated with the Department of
History. It was created to promote research, publishing,
teaching and public programming in a variety of fields
related to the American Southwest.
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