Emerald City By Matthew Klingle Summary

Emerald City is a polarizing and courageous piece from Matthew Klingle. Matthew Klingle had explored the functions of nature in the development of Seattle as from the early days when settlement began to the present time. The book has made a combination of environmental history, human geography, urban history, among others, as he tries to attempt to reshape how nature looks like within the period of ecological disaster and social inequality. Matthew Klingle has explored many things that are instrumental in enabling the reader to venture into the city of Seattle, knowing its well regarding the past and the present aspects. He used his great skill and research knowledge to explore the city of Seattle, right from the past to the present, detailing …show more content…
There were conflicts between the rich people and the poor people; some witnessed even among the poor people of different ethnicities. This exposed the rot of Seattle’s incomplete ethnic background. With the death of Duwarmish River, such fights and conflicts revealed the extent of their significance in the city. The death of this river is thought to have been caused by the works of the people of Seattle and those who came from the suburb areas when they cleaned up Lake Washington for their leisure and pleasure activities. They dumped most of the wastes from this cleaning process into Duwarmish River. The salmon within the dead river also died, making most of the residence that lived along this river to suffer. Such an example shows that "each effort to protect environmental amenities for some was a political act that endangered or abolished rights and privileges for others" (p. 228). But then endangered salmon became the fish that might save Seattle. It became Seattle’s totem which is a symbol to Mayor Paul Schell who believed that “it will protect what made the city unique.” It was not possible to have a solemn strategy that would benefit all the people of the city. It is like every group of the people was fighting for its rights and abilities to access properly and safety at the expense of the other. Such examples and activities destroyed the environment of Seattle city. Most of the landscapes were degraded. The ethnicity that had gripped into the society was not strong enough to support the ideologies and capabilities that came from the people for the benefit of the entire society. Because of this, the place was parked with many destructive activities hat depleted resources for the