Our book review of Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point in hardback by Alex S Maclean
Title: Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point
Author: Alex S Maclean
ISBN: 0810971453
Publisher: Abrams, New York
Edition: Hardback
RRP: £25
Dimensions: 336 pages, 33.6 x 23.4 x 3.6 cm
America faces dramatic challenges in the 21st century. Not only is the global economic meltdown placing a great strain on the nations prosperity, but decades of residential planning led by blistering growth rather than environmental awareness is now beginning to take its toll on the nations landscape and climate.
For more than 30 years, Alex S. MacLean has captured the US landscape from the air. Recently, MacLean had begun to notice small changes appearing below this book documents them. The book is organised into nine chapters, each telling its own story of the how and why of Americas environmental crisis.
The overall sentiment is that something has to change, and change fast. As the American population is set to grow by some 100 million in the next 35 years, new homes will have to be built to meet demand. MacLean argues that these need to be built in new, mixed-use neighbourhoods where its easy to walk to your local store, or use public transport, for example. While this seems a simple and non-tooimperative point, a simple glance through Over will soon convince you otherwise.
What Digital Camera Rating: 89%