HIDDEN LIFE OF THE DESERT: And Our Future in the Drying Southwest is a greatly expanded, 120-page 2022/Third Edition, co-published by Wild Horizons and Mountain Press. Part 2 offers an up-to-date, well-researched, thought-provoking, non-technical synthesis of ideas for a future based on “desert thinking for desert living.” In the context of explosive population growth and climate change, consider outdated laws that govern land and water use in the Southwest, how water and energy are connected, pros and cons of desalination, crops suitable for arid lands, agri-solar studies, solar canals, rainwater harvesting, ASU’s exciting new project with “mechanical trees” that collect CO2 from the atmosphere, and more. This book is packed with useful information for students, teachers, and parents.

As in his 2nd Edition (2010) of HIDDEN LIFE, Author-Photographer Thomas Wiewandt brightens every page of Part 1 with stunning color photographs of plants and animals that thrive in seemingly barren landscapes of the Sonoran Desert. This book has also served as an educational companion to his award-winning film DESERT DREAMS: Celebrating Five Seasons in the Sonoran Desert, a popular film with no narration that has aired as a pledge drive program on national Public Television since 2015.

TAGS:  Hidden Life of the Desert; New Edition; 3rd Edition; 2022; book; non-fiction; illustrated book; educational; science; ecology; desert; Sonoran Desert; arid lands; American Southwest; life in; animals; plants; human impact; climate change; population growth; overpopulation; future; sustainable living; water; Colorado River; Lake Powell; Lake Mead; green technology; energy; renewable energy; fossil fuels; agriculture; crops; CAP; Central Arizona Project; desalination; solar canals; agri-solar; agrivoltaic; rainwater harvesting; copper mining; Mechanical Trees; biofuel; invasive species; buffelgrass; desert architecture; maps; photographs; teaching resources; glossary