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For five years, photographer Robert Dawson and writer Gray Brechin have
been exploring California to find what became of the dream land that lured
people west. Why, they ask in Farewell Promised Land isn’t California like
Italy? The climate’s the same, so where are the beautiful towns, the cherished
farms? Their answer is that California’s resources have been drained for
short-term profit. Agribusiness rules. Miners diverted rivers for water sprays
powerful enough to wash the overburden from the precious ores, leaving polluted
waterways in a dead land. New River “claims the distinction of being the
filthiest stream in the Nation” before it reaches the Salton Sea, “a stinking
reddish-brown sump rapidly growing too rancid for even the hardiest ocean fish”.
Then came oil, so up came the tramlines (cars guzzle gas, and the oil companies
needed the market). Today, Californians are fighting back: Mono Lake lives
again, rivers are restored—even housing development can be blocked. But
clearing up after the US Navy bases in this state alone would swallow the
Environmental Protection Agency budget for the entire US. Published by
University of California Press, $35, ISBN 0520211243.