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  • The Marsh Builders

  • The Fight for Clean Water, Wetlands, and Wildlife
  • By: Sharon Levy
  • Narrated by: Karen White
  • Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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The Marsh Builders

By: Sharon Levy
Narrated by: Karen White
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Summary

Swamps and marshes once covered vast stretches of the North American landscape. The destruction of these habitats, long seen as wastelands that harbored deadly disease, accelerated in the 20th century. Today, the majority of the original wetlands in the US have vanished, transformed into farm fields, or have been buried under city streets.   

In The Marsh Builders, Sharon Levy delves into the intertwined histories of wetlands loss and water pollution. The book's springboard is the tale of a years-long citizen uprising in Humboldt County, California, which led to the creation of one of the first US wetlands designed to treat city sewage. The book explores the global roots of this local story: the cholera epidemics that plagued 19th-century Europe; the researchers who invented modern sewage treatment after bumbling across the insight that microbes break down pollutants in water; and the discovery that wetlands act as efficient filters for the pollutants unleashed by modern humanity.
©2018 Sharon Levy (P)2018 Tantor
Biology Ecology
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  • Brandon
  • 13-05-22

There’s less filth in a house of ill repute

This books primarily subject is the pre-history of marsh builders…sewage, drainage, waste management (or lack there of), ex…a worthy thing to know and understand…but the knowledge it gives on actual marsh building is disappointingly short. Also, the author undermines the book in places with political attacks on Washington, Nixon, Regan, and Trump all of which are completely unnecessary to the book, divisive, distracting, and frankly dishonest…I mean really, going after George Washington because he wasn’t thinking 300 years ahead of his time when he was already 200 years ahead, (he saw swamps as beautiful living things…not horrible diseased places according to the author). You can tell however the parts where intense political zeal taints perspective, and seeing as the book covers mostly a chronological history of scientific discoveries and infrastructure development…it doesn’t get in the way of a fair amount of worth while content. However, if your a lefty, you may approve. Reader did fine.