Rowan Jacobsen

The Gulf oil spill is one of those events that people erroneously assume is completely fixed, but only time will show the full extent of how the spill will impact the Gulf ecosystem, and the lives of those communities that rely on the Gulf for their livelihoods. But what Jacobson shows is that humans have been impacting the Gulf long before the BP spill in its quest to maintain the status quo of development, beginning with the Army Corps misguided stabilization of the Mississippi show more River.

Perhaps the entire book could be summed up with this one line: "...we need to remind ourselves that natural systems are much more finely tuned than we think, and if we like the way they currently work, then we should try very, very hard to not screw with them."

Jacobson intersperses his own experiences in the Gulf, both during and after the oil spill with chapters on the history, ecology, and culture of the Gulf, and a few chapters detailing the Deepwater Horizon explosion and its aftermath. Doing so really gives a good sense life along the Gulf and how much has already changed through the decades, and made me think depressingly of how much will continue to change, given the spill. show less

Shadows on the Gulf is an eye-opening look at the devastation this culture has created on the Gulf coast of the United States. Deepwater Horizon has taken a heavy toll on the Southern wetlands, but this book makes it very clear that this was only the latest event in a long history of environmental destruction. If the wetlands are to be saved, it's going to call for some massive action, more massive than the author seems to feel comfortable discussing.

My biggest issue with this book is that show more the author understands the scale of the Gulf's predicament, and he understands the main actors in bringing this predicament about, but he stops short of demanding radical change. He talks, rather, about resource conservation, for instance saying that by simply driving a few miles less a year, Gulf oil production could be cut to zero. But in saying this he denies the reality of the situation. First of all, it's not at all clear that consumer oil reduction would actually result in reduced oil use. In all likelihood it would just mean keeping the cost down a little for military, industry, and those who have no moral scruples about using as much petroleum as they can afford. Second, even if oil reduction did occur, it's hardly realistic to expect that all of those reductions would take place in a single area. Even if they did, the Gulf has become one of the more cost-efficient sources available, and there's no reason to think production there would be cut. What Jacobsen offers us, unfortunately, is a hopelessly romantic solution to a problem in need of a far more radical solution.

That said, I do recommend this book to anyone trying to understand the ecology and history of the Gulf Coast, to get a real sense of how the oil industry and the Corps of Engineers has decimated a vital wetland environment, and the lives of local people dependent on it. show less

A fascinating topic, but the jumbled manner of the writing meant that it didn't always come across as interestingly as it should have done.

Sometime back in late 2010s the author became interested in the history of chocolate and the differences between the bulk produced fare most of us consume (even most dark and artisan chocolates) the delicate flavour profiles that true cacao can instigate when grown and prepared carefully. There then followed several expeditions to the different regions show more which grow cacao to see why this isn't more widespread.

The stories and people of these expeditions were then interweaved and I quickly lost track of where who and when events were happening. Life is of course complex as is the history of every foodstuff, but I didn't feel this was the clearest way of conveying the synchronous development of chocolate's varieties.

The take home message is that like all our familiar produce, cacao exists in a staggering number of varieties and sub-species, few of which make their way to supermarket shelves. Corporate globalisation practices tend towards a few robust disease resistant easily grown hybrids. Which is good for cheap easily available food, but not the way to experience all the diversity life has available.

As always with specialist foods, these labour intensive production methods don't readily scale -indeed many of the problems described happened as the various small farmers/businesses attempted to do so. Also unmentioned went the issue of reproducibility. Customers to expect something to be similar from year to year. There isn't yet an awareness, contra to wine etc, that chocolate will have good and bad years, and labelling and consumer information is a long way away from introducing this.

All that said, it was an interesting read about the differences in a product we do somewhat take for granted. I have dipped a toe into the gorgeous world of artisan chocolate and this book goes to show just how much more exploring there is to do. show less

#55 (from 2011). Shadows on the Gulf : A Journey Through Our Last Great Wetland by Rowan Jacobsen (2011, 223 pages, read Dec 16-24)

Jacobsen had just finished a book on oysters, a major gulf coast food, when Macondo exploded. This put him in a strong position to pursue the environmental fall out of Macondo and, more importantly, to put it in perspective. Here he covers the cause of the blow-out in some detail and looks into the environmental after affects, as far as seems to be known. But show more then he goes on the make the point that spill is not the worst thing to happen to the Gulf of Mexico, possibly not even all that significant. What is much more serious is the massive and rapid loss of Louisiana wetlands to open sea water, this being the key nursery for the base of the Gulf food chain. The affects of this are complex, but the causes point largely (but not wholly) toward the oil industry.

The book develops into a look at what the oil and gas industry means to the US specifically. What have we compromised and what have we lost for this fuel. Also, how and why we haven’t put in the slightest effort to do anything about it. And what stands out is how well Jacobsen presents this.

Of the five books I’ve read (plus one I quit reading) about the Macondo oil spill, Jacobsen’s is only one that doesn’t reveal its rushed writing. All the other books are flawed on some level in writing quality, structure, completeness, or some other kind of roughness…things necessary for those authors to get their books out while the information was still relevant. Unique to Jacobsen is the clean structure and completeness. Jacobsen spent time thinking things out and presents his information, observations and ideas coherently. The result is very thought-provoking.

2011
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