Texas Book Festival Itinerary—Enviro Edition

Austin goes to great lengths to paint itself green, so it’s no surprise that some of this year’s Texas Book Festival authors will be discussing environmental issues. Here are some events that the eco-aware—and those who aspire to be—won’t want to miss.

(Also, check out our Texas Book Festival Foodie Itinerary and Debut Author Itinerary.)

SATURDAY, OCT. 26

Start out at The Contemporary Austin—Jones Center (700 Congress Ave.) at 11 a.m. with Lorie Woodward Cantu and David Langford. Their Hillingdon Ranch: Four Seasons, Six Generations is a photographic portrait of Langford’s ranch that will have you considering the connections between family and landscape.

At 11:15 a.m., join Observer managing editor Brad Tyer as he hosts “A Wild Ride” conversation with Kevin Fedarko in Capitol Extension Room E2.016. Fedarko’s new The Emerald Mile is ostensibly about the fastest whitewater run through the Grand Canyon ever attempted, but along the way Fedarko synthesizes a watershed’s worth of information about geology, dams, water politics and weather.

Tyer will also be featured in “Where to Fight the Fight: Books on Conservation,” along with Deni Bechard, in the same room—Capitol Extension Room E2.016—at 1:45 p.m. Tyer’s Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape examines American industrialism, river restoration and sacrificial landscapes in a small Montana town. Bechard’s Empty Hands, Open Arms: The Race to Save Bonobos in the Congo and Make Conservation Go Viral explores how human interference threatens animal populations, and how it might help save them. Observer associate editor Forrest Wilder moderates.

SUNDAY, OCT. 27

On Sunday at 2 p.m. in the C-SPAN2/Book TV Tent, check out “Countdown with Alan Weisman,” where Weisman will discuss his latest book, Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, an account of visionary Paolo Lugari and his dream of creating a self-sustaining community in Colombia, earning Lugari the nickname “inventor of the world.”

Finally, at 3:15 p.m., get blown away by Asher Price and Kate Galbraith as they discuss The Great Texas Wind Rush: How George Bush, Ann Richards, and a Bunch of Tinkerers Helped the Oil and Gas State Win the Race to Wind Power in the C-SPAN2/Book TV Tent. (The Observer‘s Forrest Wilder reviews the book here.) The Lone Star State now leads the nation in wind energy production, and environmental reporters Galbraith and Price track the individuals, events, and circumstances that led to the state’s unlikely rise as a wind-power powerhouse.