{"product_id":"life-in-the-tar-seeps-a-spiraling-ecology-from-a-dying-sea-paperback","title":"Life in the Tar Seeps: A Spiraling Ecology from a Dying Sea - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGretchen Ernster Henderson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt Great Salt Lake, near Robert Smithson's iconic earthwork \u003ci\u003eSpiral Jetty\u003c\/i\u003e, a motley crew of scientists walks the mudflats to study fossils in the making. This reputedly dead sea is home to tar seeps, pools of raw oil (nicknamed 'death traps') that act as a preservative, encasing organisms as they were in life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this spare landscape, an intricate web of life unfurls. Halophiles―salt-hungry microorganisms―tint the brackish water pink and orange; crystals of gypsum stud the ground, glistening underfoot; and pelicans and other migratory birds stop for a crucial rest. Barn owls and seagulls flirt with their prey around the seeping constellations, sometimes falling prey to the oil themselves. \u003cb\u003eGretchen Henderson\u003c\/b\u003e came to the tar seeps, a kind of natural asphalt, after recovering from being hit by a car as she walked in a crosswalk―a manmade asphalt. Like the spiraling artwork that made Great Salt Lake's north shore famous, Henderson's associations of life and death, degeneration and regeneration, and injury and healing coalesced. As she reexamined pressing issues that this delicate area revealed about the climate crisis, her sense of ecology spiraled into other ways of perceiving the lake's entangled lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHow do we move beyond narrow concepts of wounded and healed, the beautiful and the ugly, to care for ecosystems that evolve over time? How do we confront our vulnerability to recognize kindred dynamics in our living planet? Through shifting lake levels, bird migrations, microbial studies, environmental arts, and cultural histories shaped by indigenous knowledges and colonial legacies, \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLife in the Tar Seeps\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e contemplates the ways that others have understood this body of water, enlivening more than this region alone. As Henderson witnesses scientists, arts curators, land managers, and students working collaboratively to steward a challenging place, she grows to see the lake not as dead but as a watershed for shifting perceptions of any overlooked place, offering a meditation on environmental healing across the planet. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHenderson interweaves her journey with her own vivid photographs of tar seeps and pelican death assemblages, historic maps and contemporary art, as a wayfinding guide for exploring places of our own.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eGretchen Ernster Henderson writes across environmental arts, cultural histories, and integrative sciences. Her recent essays have appeared in \u003ci\u003eEcotone, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eKenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e, with co-authored articles in \u003ci\u003eNature Sustainability\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eConservation Biology\u003c\/i\u003e. Her four previous books include \u003ci\u003eUgliness: A Cultural History\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGalerie de Difformité\u003c\/i\u003e, cross-pollinating genres and arts and translated across five languages. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and has also taught at Georgetown University, MIT, and the University of Utah, where she was the 2018-19 Annie Clark Tanner Fellow in Environmental Humanities. Born and raised in California, she is the 2023 Aldo and Estella Leopold Writer in Residence in New Mexico and lives in Arizona.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 230\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.71 x 9.21 x 7.32 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 25, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52944555049184,"sku":"9781595342737","price":27.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/5909\/4496\/files\/pwaq9Hctzs9781595342737.webp?v=1781486192","url":"https:\/\/improvedinc.myshopify.com\/products\/life-in-the-tar-seeps-a-spiraling-ecology-from-a-dying-sea-paperback","provider":"Improved Improper Input Inc.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}