Research Catalog

Title

Lost landscapes and failed economies : the search for a value of place / Thomas Michael Power.

Author

Power, Thomas M.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Island Press, [1996], ©1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 304 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• In Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies, economist Thomas Michael Power argues that the quality of the natural landscape is an essential part of a community's permanent economic base and should not be sacrificed in short-term efforts to maintain employment levels in industries that are ultimately not sustainable. He provides numerous case studies of the ranching, mining, and timber industries in a critical analysis of the role played by extractive industry in our communities.
• He also looks at areas where environmental protection measures have been enacted and examines the impact of protected landscapes on local economies.
• Power exposes the fundamental flaws in the widely accepted view of the local economy built around the "extractive model," a model that overemphasizes the importance of extractive industries and assumes that people don't care where they live and that businesses don't care about the available labor supply.
• By revealing the inadequacies of the extractive model, he lays to rest the fear that environmental protection will cause an imminent collapse of the community, and puts economic tools in the hands of those working to protect their communities.

Subject

• Mineral industries > United States
• Environmental protection > Economic aspects > United States
• Sustainable development > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-295) and index.

Contents

1. Thinking About the Local Economy -- 2. Seeking Greener Pastures: Residential Choice and Local Economic Vitality -- 3. Demystifying Local Economic Change -- 4. Moving the Mountain to Seize the Ounce: Mineral Extraction and Local Well-Being -- 5. All That Glitters: Mineral Development and Mineral Policy -- 6. Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Local Economies and the Timber Industry -- 7. Healing the Scars: Forest Management and Local Well-Being -- 8. Agriculture: The Primordial Economy -- 9. Harnessing Nature for Agriculture -- 10. Marketing the Landscape: Tourism and the Local Economy -- 11. The Gift of Nature: Extraction, the Environment, and Local Vitality.

ISBN

1559633689 (cloth : acid-free paper)

LCCN

95032365

OCLC

• 32778732
• ocm32778732

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries