On the Shelf at CCBC Libraries
Justice Downwind by
This is the astonishing story of how the United States exploded atomic weapons on its own soil. For over a decade, from 1951 to 1963, the U.S. government used the Nevada Test Site to detonate above-ground atomic bombs as part of its postwar military nuclear testing program. "Only" 100,000 people lived downwind of the test site, for the bombs were set off only when the wind was blowing in an easterly direction, that, away from California of Las Vegas. By 1982, over 1,100 people had sued the government for causing injury and wrongful death because the Atomic Energy Commision had acted negligently in implementing the testing. Although scientific knowledge about the hazards of low-level radiation was not extensive at the time, enough was known to have warranted concern. Indeed, immediately after one set of tests in 1953, thousands of sheep and cattle died. But AEC officials, fearful that any public outcry might shut down the program, not only downplayed the significance of the animals' deaths but even went so far as to perpetrate "a fraud on the Court" by hiding evidence that suggested possible connections between the sheep deaths and the nuclear fallout. By 1978 the "downwinders" were no longer concerned with animal deaths. By then most scientific studies had shown associations between the epidemic of childhood leukemia and other cancers and radioactive fallout. This book tells the story of the clash between a group of deeply religious, politically conservative, fiercely patriotic citizens and an overzealous independent regulatory agency bent on exercising its own power in the name of national security. Pressing their case in the courts and in Congress, the downwind plaintiffs learned they were no match for a government even now extremely reluctant to admit its responsibility. About the Author: Howard Ball is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah and author of many books, including Federal Regulatory Agencies and Courts and Politics.
Call Number: U264 .B35 1986
Devils Hole Pupfish
- Devils Hole Pupfish
from National Parks Conservation Association - The Extraordinary Lives of Death Valley's Endangered Devils Hole Pupfish
from National Park Foundation - Devils Hole
from National Park Service - Preserving the Devils Hole Pupfish Population
from Great Basin Institute
Synanthropes
- Rise of the Synanthropes
Canadian Geographic, February 12, 2018 - Knowing the Synanthropefrom The Expanded Environment
Databases
- Environment Complete This link opens in a new windowArticles about ecology, energy, natural resources, science, technology, law, public policy, and social impacts.
- ProQuest Central This link opens in a new windowArticles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- ProQuest Science DatabaseArticles on both the applied and general sciences like computers, transportation, and biology.
Podcasts
- Devil's Hole Comeback May 02, 2016byDoug Puppel In a Nye County hot springs 90 miles west of Las Vegas, the tiny population of one of the world’s most endangered species has staged a comeback. The Devil’s Hole pupfish, found only in a cavern that gave the fish its name, has rebounded from 35 fish in 2013 to 115 this spring, according to a census conducted by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. The one-inch fish is the subject of an aggressive preservation effort that includes using shag carpet to harvest eggs, which are then identified by microscope, incubated, hatched, and raised at a nearby lab. “We’re trying to create as much diversity as possible,” said Corey Lee of the Fish and Wildlife Service, “For a fish that got down to 35 individuals in the wild, it hit a pretty big genetic bottleneck.”
- Dr. Jennifer Gumm talks Devils Hole pupfish In this episode Anders Halverson talks to Dr. Jennifer Gumm about efforts to conserve the Devils Hole pupfish. These remarkable fish live only in one small cave in the middle of the Mojave Desert--perhaps the smallest range of any vertebrate in the world. As one of the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act, these fish have faced threats from many directions over the decades. Dr. Gumm is the manager of the Ash Meadows Conservation Facility, where a refuge population of the fish are maintained.
Online From CCBC Libraries
Relicts of a Beautiful Sea by
Along a tiny spring in a narrow canyon near Death Valley, seemingly against all odds, an Inyo Mountain slender salamander makes its home. "The desert," writes conservation biologist Christopher Norment, "is defined by the absence of water, and yet in the desert there is water enough, if you live properly." Relicts of a Beautiful Sea explores the existence of rare, unexpected, and sublime desert creatures such as the black toad and four pupfishes unique to the desert West. All are anomalies: amphibians and fish, dependent upon aquatic habitats, yet living in one of the driest places on earth, where precipitation averages less than four inches per year. In this climate of extremes, beset by conflicts over water rights, each species illustrates the work of natural selection and the importance of conservation. This is also a story of persistence--for as much as ten million years--amid the changing landscape of western North America. By telling the story of these creatures, Norment illustrates the beauty of evolution and explores ethical and practical issues of conservation: what is a four-inch-long salamander worth, hidden away in the heat-blasted canyons of the Inyo Mountains, and what would the cost of its extinction be? What is any lonely and besieged species worth, and why should we care?
Publication Date: 2014
Savage Dreams by Publication Date: 2014
Online Articles
- Rarest Fish on Earth: Devils Hole Pupfish
Discover, May 11, 2022 - The Devil's Hole pupfish has paddled back from the brink in a hellish desert domain
Phys.org, May 6, 2022 - Pandemic delays pupfish count but biologists note encouraging signs
Las Vegas Sun, July 8, 2021 - New research improves prospects for imperiled Devils Hole Pupfish in captivity
Desert Research Institute, March 20, 2018 - Should We Really Save the Devils Hole Pupfish?
National Resources Defense Council OnEarth Species Watch, October 29, 2014