The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

I never received the book.

This history of how first we dried out the Everglades and are now desperately trying to wet it down again to a reasonable facsimile of its former self reads like a thriller. Grunwald has a gift for simile ("It had the panoramic sweep of a desert, except flooded, or a tundra, except melted, or a wheat field, except wild.") and a good reporter's nose for the political boondoggling, pork bellying and backroom dealing that form the Everglades' prime crops, including what really happened in Florida in the 2000 election, over which I am still gasping. Grunwald is an advocate for restoration, no question, but his eye is clear, his pen is sharp and he takes no prisoners. A must read for anyone who likes well-crafted historical epics.

My job touches not so peripherally on Everglades National Park, one of the crown jewels of the U.S. national park system, so I was eager to read this highly recommended summary of the history of the Everglades by Washington Post report Mike Grunwald. Calling this book a summary doesn't do it justice - it's comprehensive without being overly long, it's an excellent read without being too journalistic, its coverage of the issue is broad without being too shallow, and it inflames while also moderating the reasons why, in 2006, the Everglades is still dying, because of our insatiable greed and need for more, more, more - water, land, money, power. I picked up this book a couple months back, connecting with the topic on a professional level, but then as I approached the end of the book, sad news from Florida brought me unexpectedly in personal contact with one of the millions of human stories that pervade the Everglades, Florida, and the politics of paradise, the subtitle of this book - the passing of my aunt, whose husband and sons were some of those folks who greatly enjoyed being swamp rats, hunting, fishing and airboating through the river of grass. Speaking with an uncle who remembers the wilderness that used to be the Everglades 40-50 years ago, we talked about the daily rains that used to come every afternoon, like clockwork, around 4-5pm each day in southern Florida. This book talks about silting of estuaries, muddy waters and phosphorous deposits in the great Lake Okeechobee, depleted water tables, red tides killing endangered or threatened charismatic species like the manatee and dolphins and how the Army Corps of Engineers has falled to figure out 'it's the environment, stupid.' As we walked under a beautiful blue sky, in a Palm Beach county cemetary that hasn't seen water in too long a time, my uncle remarked that the daily rains that I had reminisced about have been AWOL for the past four years. Something is still very wrong in The Swamp, and while this book spells out what it is, we should reflect on the avarice in our cold hearts that continues to plunder the only home we have, and be moved to renewed action to restore, as reasonably as possible given our wide footprint on the land, this dying jewel. For an excellent understanding of what's happened, and happening, to the Everglades, READ THIS BOOK.

I have been a resident of Florida since 1971. I watched natural beaches disappear for sake of condos in Naples. The Everglades is a beautiful place-like no where else in the world. This week I started reading The Swamp. Each time I pick up the book to read, I find myself stirred with emotions (anger, grief, sadness) about what was and is. It's personal and global. This decimation (development) has occurred in the last 50-75 years. And like the energizer bunny this march of destruction keeps on moving. Mr. Grunwald has put into words what I have been trying to understand since 1995. Rain. When I first moved to Florida the summer rain would come off the Everglades every day in late afternoon. One could set their watches by it. Sweet, gentle and peaceful. This doesn't happen anymore...sometimes we don't get rain for weeks. When we do the thunder and intensity is anything but peaceful. I don't have to tell you about the hurricanes. Sounds. In the movie the "Education of Little Tree" Granpa (James Cromwell) and Little Tree go out to the still in the early morning. Granpa hearing the birds through the mist as the dawning sun peeks over the mountains says `Listen to the Earth she's coming alive!" When I first moved to Fort Lauderdale I could hear the sounds of the birds and bugs at dawn and dusk coming alive. Today the noise of auto traffic and airplanes drowns the sound out. I can't hear the earth any more. This book is a must read for those living in south Florida to learn more, more about what to do on a personal level, more about the legacy we have created and we are leaving for our children and their children.

You don't have to live in Florida or be all that interested in the environment to appreciate what Michael Grunwald has accomplished with this terrific book. The Swamp is a universal American tale, the struggle between man and nature, the power of pride and the price of hubris. It reads like a novel but the amazing part is how true it is. The Indian fighters and the ecologists, the developers and the politicians, the army engineers and the sugar industrialists make up an eclectic and compelling cast of characters, some idealistic, many foolish, all brought to life by Grunwald's vivid prose. But the Everglades are the main protagonist and a multifaceted one at that, forever surprising and enduring. No one has written a book that captures the development of America quite like this in many years. And if you do live in Florida or find the environment to be important, then you absolutely, positively must read this book.

This is a book everyone in Florida, and all environmentalists, should read to understand what has happened, is happening, and what is likely to happen to the Everglades. Billions of state and federal tax dollars are being spent. Why and for what? Beautifully written and researched, those interested in history,politics and our eco-sytem will find it hard to put down. Why isn't Al Gore the President? What's the role and future of Big Sugar in Florida? Can an environmental disaster be avoided for South Florida or is it already too late? Capt. Pete Quasius President Audubon of SW Florida