The Atlas of California: Mapping the Challenge of a New Era: Mapping the Challenges of a New Era (Atlas Of... (University of California Press)) - Softcover

Walker, Richard A.; Lodha, Suresh K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520272021 ISBN 13: 9780520272026

Verlag: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PR, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

California is at a crossroads. For decades a global leader, inspiring the hopes and dreams of millions, the state has recently faced double-digit unemployment, multi-billion dollar budget deficits and the loss of trillions in home values. This atlas brings together the latest research and statistics in a graphic form that gives shape and meaning to these numbers. It shows a new California in the making, as it maps the economic, social, and political trends of a state struggling to maintain its leadership and to continue to offer its citizens the promise of prosperity.

Among the world’s largest economies, California is the nation’s agricultural powerhouse, high tech crucible and leader in renewable energy. The state is the most populous and most diverse state in the continental U.S. Yet its infrastructure is coming under increasing pressure. Water supply systems are strained, the legendary highways are over capacity, and the celebrated system of public schooling is unable to offer affordable quality education at all levels. Health and welfare services, particularly for the poor, needy, disabled, and seniors, are at great risk.

This indispensable resource gives readers the tools they need to understand the transformation as California attempts to forge a new identity in the midst of unprecedented challenges.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard Walker is Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of many books, including The Conquest of Bread and The Country in the City.
Suresh K. Lodha is Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz and coauthor of The Atlas of Global Inequalities.

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The Atlas of California

Mapping the Challenges of a New Era

By Richard A. Walker, Suresh K. Lodha, Jannet King

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Myriad Editions Limited
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-520-27202-6

Contents

Introduction, 9, 
Acknowledgments, 15, 
Photo Credits, 15, 
Chapter One Land & People, 16, 
Chapter Two Politics, Governance, & Power, 30, 
Chapter Three Economy & Industry, 42, 
Chapter Four Urban Areas, 54, 
Chapter Five Water & Energy, 66, 
Chapter Six Environment, 78, 
Chapter Seven Health & Education, 88, 
Chapter Eight Inequality & Social Divides, 100, 
Chapter Nine Challenges Ahead: A Glimpse into the Future, 112, 
Chapter Ten Data Challenges, 116, 
Definition of Key Terms, 118, 
Sources, 120, 
Index, 126, 

CHAPTER 1

Land & People

California enjoys the most distinctive and varied landscape in North America. It boasts high peaks and sunken valleys, live volcanoes and earthquake faults, rolling hills and lava beds, white water and level plains. Its climate is even rarer, falling between rainy northwest and arid southwest, with a Mediterranean balancing act in between. Coastal fog and alpine snow frame the scene. But nothing prepares the visitor for the astounding array of microclimates and regions, nor for the fantastic biodiversity nestled into the innumerable corners of the state.

California's unique landscape is the stage on which its rich history has played out, leading to claims of three, four or a dozen different Californias divided by mountain ranges, ocean vistas, and water politics. Without a doubt, the wealth of nature has benefitted Californians economically, but it has equally touched their hearts, making this the world center of environmentalism for over a century.

Millions of people have been drawn to California since the Gold Rush, creating a state of permanent migration, both domestic and international. It remains an unsettled place in many ways, a mixing pot that never quite melds. Yet it has been a continual source of wonderment for the diversity of its people and the way they have carved out a way of life — and degree of tolerance and optimism — at odds with so much of the world. Not to be forgotten, however, is the dark side of this collision of peoples from many continents: a dissonant history of racism, repression, and annihilation of the native people.

The lure of California has had many names: the California Dream, the Golden State, the Land of Sunshine. No doubt a favorable climate and hopes for the future have led people to our shores, but the foundations of the state's allure are mostly practical: a thriving economy, lots of jobs, an open society, reuniting families torn asunder, and more. Once here, it is the people, their wits and their labor, who have built the California dreamworks. Few, however, wish to remember the failures and defeats, or simply the bent backs and unrewarded drudgery that mar the gilded image.

California stands at a threshold today. The golden economy has lost some of its luster, inequality is growing, and the state is finding it hard to provide for the new Californians of this generation, the new majority of people of color. What we and they choose to do about it will tell if the Dream stays alive.

Land & Nature

California is so distinct in topography, climate and ecology that it has been called "an island in the land". Facing the Pacific Ocean on the west, it is walled off by high mountains in the north and east and by deserts in the south and southeast. Within that realm lie nine major topographic regions.

Dominating the state's midsection are three parallel regions: Coast Ranges, Central Valley, and Sierra Nevada. Southern California has three regions, as well: Coastal Plain, Transverse Ranges, and Mojave Desert. The Transverse Ranges run east–west, cutting across the grain of the Sierras and Coast Ranges. Northern California has two subregions: Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains on the west and the volcanic landscape of the Southern Cascades to the east. Beyond the Sierra, California shares a piece of Nevada's Basin and Range.

California's landscape is a creation of the tectonics generated by the collision of the Pacific and North American plates. In the distant past, the Pacific floor dove under the continent, pushing up the Sierra (as in today's Cascades). Now the Pacific plate slides along the San Andreas fault system, twisting northwest and pushing upward, creating the Coast and Transverse Ranges, and periodically shaking up California's cities. California has benefited greatly from the gifts of the land: gold, silver, and other minerals left by volcanism and uplift; oil deposits from sea beds driven far beneath the coast; and deep valley soils deposited from ancient mountains.

California occupies one of the five Mediterranean climate zones of the world (wet winters, dry summers). Heavy fog off the Pacific cools the coastal regions from Mendocino to San Diego during the summer. Far Northern California sees the most rain, akin to the Pacific Northwest. In far Southeast California lies desert: the Mojave and pieces of the Colorado and Sonoran zones. The Sierra and northern mountains enjoy heavy winter snowfalls, the southern mountains a light dusting.

The state's flora and fauna are remarkably diverse, combining species adapted to a Mediterranean regime, those tolerant of the extremes of alpine and desert climates, and remnant species from wetter and colder epochs. California has more endemic (unique) plant species than any other part of the continental US. Some, such as the sequoias and bristlecone pines, are wonders of the world. Others, such as Monterey pines and California poppies, are common in gardens and plantations worldwide.

Californians have profited from cutting the forests of redwood, fir and pine growing thick along the northern coast and along the mountain ranges, and even more so from farming the broad valleys beneath the summer sun. Yet resource extraction left a legacy of ravaged landscapes and agriculture introduced a host of new species that displaced the native flora and fauna. The combination of rare beauty and rampant devastation is key to Californian's legacy of conservation.

Public Lands & Parks

Large areas of California are in public ownership, mostly federal lands administered by the US Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. Public lands occupy over 47 million acres — almost half of the state's 100 million acres. Only Alaska and Nevada have more acreage in public lands.

California has more units of the National Parks system (monuments, historic sites, seashores, reserves, recreation areas) than any other state (32), covering 7.5 million acres. Yosemite and Sequoia were two of the earliest national parks, and Yosemite Valley is arguably the oldest in the country (given to the state to administer in 1864). The National Park Service (1916) was the brainchild of Stephen Mather, the first of several Californians to serve as its director.

National forests began to be set aside in 1884 after most of the west had been sold into private hands. Almost 2 million acres of redwood forests were disposed of before the country woke up to the devastation of uncontrolled logging. California now has the second highest national forest area of any state: 20.7 million acres. Californians led the fight for the National Wilderness Preservation System (1964) and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0520272021
• ISBN 13: 9780520272026
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar