A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean
A Bicycle Journey Through the Northern Dominion of Oil
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the face of widespread misinformation and misunderstanding, a climate scientist ventures into the vast heart of America’s new oil country on just two wheels.
Recently recovered from his epic bicycle journey that took him from the Delaware shore to the Oregon coast, distinguished climate scientist David Goodrich sets out on his bike again to traverse the Western Interior Seaway—an ancient ocean that once spread across half of North America. When the waters cleared a geologic age ago, what was left behind was vast, flat prairie, otherworldly rock formations, and oil shale deposits. As Goodrich journeys through the Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park and across the prairies of the upper Midwest and Canada, we get a raw and ground-level view of where the tar sands and oil reserves are being opened up at an incredible and unprecedented pace. Extraordinary and unregulated, this “black goldrush” is boom and bust in every sense. In a manner reminiscent of John McPhee and Rachel Carson, combined with Goodrich’s wry self-deprecation and scientific expertise, A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean is a galvanizing and adventure-filled read that gets to the heart of drilling on our continent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scientist Goodrich (A Hole in the Wind) examines oil industry dependent communities in the U.S. and Canada "where the seeds of climate change are sown" in this sensitive, if less than convincing, attempt to show how opposing voices in the debate over fossil fuels might be reconciled. Embarking on a 1,100-mile bike ride from Fort McMurray, Alberta, the base of Canadian oil-sands extraction, to Williston, N.Dak., epicenter of the fracking boom he makes vivid observations of how oil extraction can disfigure the landscape, from vast pools of industrial waste in Alberta that look like "foam in latte," to brine spills in North Dakota that have contaminated groundwater. But he is less assured when considering how to move along the conversation about climate change. Frequently encountering people involved with the oil industry along his journey, Goodrich strives to overcome their suspicions of his background in climate research, while also pushing back gently against their misconceptions, such as that "climate has always changed." However, he invariably agrees to let the topic drop so as to not disturb the bonhomie. Goodrich is a sure-footed, amiable guide to the science behind climate change, but brings readers no closer to understanding what it's going to take to move the conversation about climate change forward.
