Running Out

 I heard Lucas speak on a panel discussion my university had about the Ogallala Aquifer. That put his book—and his tremendously poignant examination of climate change, environmental loss, and human/land interactions in my corner of the world—on my radar.

He included several well-referenced facts I’ve subsequently worked into conversations about environmental damage in our region, as well as a deeply personal accounting of his own family’s contributions to aquifer depletion and our collective complicity in the destruction that will echo in our ecosystem forever.

I am grateful to Bessire for his courage candor, and compassion, for taking an honest… show more.

This memoir/ethnography is about water shortages in America’s breadbasket: the High Plains of western Kansas. It is about the author’s compelling confrontation with the land where he was raised.

This work evokes powerfully the majesty of space-in-the-world and how it gives shape to the contours of our lives. It is also about how the twists and turns of a person’s family are rooted to ever-changing landscapes. As such, the book is about how we can adapt to the social and environmental turbulence of our times. For me, it is a book that is both wise and soulful.