2005, ISBN: 0822958929

Paperback

[EAN: 9780822958925], Neubuch, [PU: University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh PA], Paperback. Nineteenth- or early twentieth-century visitors to Pittsburgh were often shocked by the ways… More...

[EAN: 9780822958925], Neubuch, [PU: University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh PA], Paperback. Nineteenth- or early twentieth-century visitors to Pittsburgh were often shocked by the ways the industrial environment dominated the natural landscape. Steel mills sprawled along rivers that ran brown from toxic chemicals, sewage, and refuse. The city was overrun by bridges, railroad tracks, pipelines, and a net of electrical, telephone, and telegraph wires. Coal mines, coke ovens, and their debris littered the bald, muddy hills while slag heaps from steel making intruded into the landscape. Forests were cut down for fuel, and the remaining flora and fauna died from the acidic effluents and garbage that piled up. Street lamps glowed day and night to compensate for the morass of thick, black smoke that hung in the air. As James Parton succinctly commented in 1866, Pittsburgh was ""hell with the lid taken off"". Today, the steel industry that defined Pittsburgh for over a century is virtually gone. The sky is blue, fish swim in the rivers, the hillsides are green and lush, and residents enjoy access to many public parks and trails. What forces brought about these changes? In ""Devastation and Renewal"" leading environmental scholars provide a comprehensive examination of Pittsburgh's lengthy process of reclamation, the various interests (both public and private) involved, and the work that still remains to be done. Every city has an environmental story, perhaps none so dramatic as Pittsburgh's. Founded in a river valley blessed with enormous resources-three strong waterways, abundant forests, rich seams of coal-the city experienced a century of exploitation and industrialization that degraded and obscured the natural environment to a horrific degree. Pittsburgh came to be known as "the Smoky City," or, as James Parton famously declared in 1866, "hell with the lid taken off." Then came the storied Renaissance in the years following World War II, when the city's public and private elites, abetted by technological advances, came together to improve the air and renew the built environment. Equally dramatic was the sweeping deindustrialization of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, when the collapse of the steel industry brought down the smokestacks, leaving vast tracks of brownfields and riverfront. Today Pittsburgh faces unprecedented opportunities to reverse the environmental degradation of its history. In Devastation and Renewal, scholars of the urban environment post questions that both complicate and enrich this story. Working from deep archival research, they ask not only what happened to Pittsburgh's environment, but why. What forces-economic, political, and cultural-were at work? In exploring the disturbing history of pollution in Pittsburgh, they consider not only the sooty skies, but also the poisoned rivers and creeks, the mined hills, and scarred land. Who profited and who paid for such "progress"? How did the environment Pittsburghers live in come to be, and how it can be managed for the future? In a provocative concluding essay, Samuel P. Hays explores Pittsburgh's"environmental culture," the attitudes and institutions that interpret a city's story and work to create change. Comparing Pittsburgh to other cities and regions, he exposes exaggerations of Pittsburgh's environmental achievement and challenges the community to make real progress for the future. A landmark contribution to the emerging field of urban environmental history, Devastation and Renewal will be important to all students of cities, of cultures, and of the natural world. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability., Books<

2005, ISBN: 0822958929

[EAN: 9780822958925], Neubuch, [PU: University of Pittsburgh Press], Books

ISBN: 9780822958925

Livre, [PU: University of Pittsburgh Press]