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When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century
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Manufacturer: Beacon Press
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 333
EAN: 9780807085738
ISBN: 0807085731
Label: Beacon Press
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 324
Publication Date: 2007-03-07
Publisher: Beacon Press
Studio: Beacon Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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In this groundbreaking book, veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce travels to more than thirty countries to examine the current state of crucial water sources. Deftly weaving together the complicated scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the world water crisis, he provides our most complete portrait yet of this growing danger and its ramifications for us all.
"A strong—and scary—case that a worldwide water shortage is the most fearful looming environmental crisis. With a drumbeat of facts both horrific (thousands of wells in India and Bangladesh are poisoned by fluoride and arsenic) and fascinating (it takes 20 tons of water to make one pound of coffee), the former New Scientist news editor documents a 'kind of cataclysm' already affecting many of the world's great rivers."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Oil we can replace. Water we can't—which is why this book is both so ominous and so important."
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
"An enriching and farsighted work."
—Jai Singh, San Francisco Chronicle
"Pearce cogently presents the alarming ways in which this ecological emergency is affecting population centers, human health, food production, wildlife habitats, and species viability. Having crisscrossed the globe to research the economic, scientific, cultural, and political causes and ramifications of this under publicized tragedy, Pearce's powerful imagery, penetrating analyses, and passionate advocacy make this required reading for environmental proponents and civic leaders everywhere."
—Booklist
"If you want to quickly get up to date on climate change and its consequences, I recommend With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change. If you can read only one book on climate change, this is it."
—Lester Brown, president, Earth Policy Institute
". . . perhaps it is time for you to spend some time with Fred Pearce and his wonderful When the Rivers Run Dry."
—Daily Kos, July Review
Fred Pearce has been writing about water issues for over twenty years. A former news editor at New Scientist and currently its environment and development consultant, he has also written for Audubon, Popular Science, Time, the Boston Globe, and Natural History. His books include With Speed and Violence, Turning Up the Heat, and Deep Jungle.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent overview with detailed examples around the world
Comment: Most other reviews say what I would say -- it is an easy to read (I couldn't put it down, actually) overview of the global water crisis with so many different localized impacts.
While I understand some technical experts cited limited technical details, for the lay person, I thought it was the right level of descriptions and impacts without getting bogged down. Perhaps the author could have cited more technical sources to back up more assertions for this audience, but for me, it was just right.
For me the thing that stood out the most (that I personally hadn't heard before) was the impact of dams on greenhouse gas emissions. While it is difficult to imagine fewer dams in the developing world, it would certainly be interesting to see the impact that water-based GHG would have on Kyoto and other GHG initiatives.
Highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Global Water
Comment: When Rivers Run Dry, is an amazing journey of real stories about the water crisis that defines the century. Pearce really took the time to research each individual account of water issues well. It was organized well, and did not read like a textbook. He began outlining all of the dire issues surrounding water in our world and wrapped up the book on a more positive note, just as the reader thought there was no hope for the world's water. It is a book that seriously makes you think about your own river you are drying up each time you turn on the tap. While many of us the in the eastern United States are not effected directly by water related issues everyday, it reminds us that we are still all globally connected through the hydrologic cycle. This should be required reading in college or high school sciences. Pearce did a great job of making it readable and interesting with the mounds of staggering statistics. Although the situation is dire in parts of the world, the book gives hopes and inspires action.
Customer Rating:
Summary: When Rivers Run Dry
Comment: Organizing and summarizing key points in human water use and conflict over this disappearing resource is the main point of this book. Emphasis is put not only the general concepts of where our water is coming from, how much are we using, for what are we using it, and what can be done about current use to improve and effect future sustainability but also certain regions and their current water crisis. Fred Pearce goes into detail on a number of regions to present the variety of water crisis taking place all over the world. A few of these particular regions focused on include Pakistan, America, India, China, and Palestine. It provides a brutally honest insight into not only the atrocities being committed to the precious resource, but also being committed in the name harvesting the disappearing resource. Over consumption, exportation, and ground water mining are but a few of the issues he talks about, while the improper use, pollution, and overuse of are also major problems described by Pearce. For example, due to these effects, most especially over consumption, the Colorado rive r no longer makes it all the way to the Pacific ocean. Current waste, use, and pollution of water as well as future problems of and the politics surrounding water rights will become a great issue sooner than most people think. If we don't become informed on what is taking place to this important resource and take steps to stop and prevent future waste, we find ourselves loosing it altogether. What has happened to and what will become of water supply: rivers, lakes, and marshes worldwide depend on the actions of people now.
What humans do with and to water can have a major impact or chain of effects on not only us, but on others and other organisms thousands of miles away. The Mississippi river, for instance, possesses a great drainage basin encompassing large areas of Minnesota and Iowa. Due to an increase in chemical use in farming, such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, the runoff has become very polluted. This pollution, in addition to others occurring along the river, escalates and is transported down the river to its outlet into the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the polluted content, a dead zone has formed at the mouth of the river where life is unsustainable. Ecosystems as well as people who utilizes them, such as the shrimp harvesters in the gulf, suffer loses due to human decisions made thousands of miles away.
Water is everywhere and can have a monumental impact on peoples' lives in countless ways. From the air we breath and the weather we dress for, all the way to where we can build our houses, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat, water is a major factor. I personally really enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a good read to anyone no matter if you find issues of sustainability and hydrology interesting, or not. How humans utilize and adapt natural processes is another factor that has helped to shape the situation we're in today. Interference with the rivers natural processes and battles over water rights in areas with little water to begin with can result in damage to the hydrology of the area as well as the people. Though Pearce is almost terrifying in the way he presents the issues of sustainability and water use we need to deal with, I feel like given our current situation that a good scare is exactly what we need. The importance of water and the dire situation in which available freshwater has fallen into is relatively unknown by the public. Without an immediate change in water use practices and the cultivation of responsible use, the clean water necessary to a great many systems, and indispensable to life itself, could be lost.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Puzzling
Comment: Journalist Fred Pearce's "When the River Runs Dry" (2006 324-page paperback) is a puzzling presentation. On the one hand it presents the contemporary predicament of worldwide water shortages emerging from prior centuries. Certainly, this shortage is a central issue for survival of Earth's varied populations. On the other hand, the book proffers impossible solutions for humanity's "hydraulic civilization".
Touring each of the world's principal rivers, wetlands, lakes, and aquifer zones Pearce seeks opinions from experts, victims, scientists, clergy, activists, business people, and politicians. (Unfortunately, there are not footnotes in this book, and thus no opportunity for follow up reading.) His travels in themselves proffer an interesting narrative. From these field trips Pearce presents a wide range of views and suggestions for solving the world's complex water problems. By the end of each of the 10 chapters, the author is proposing his own solutions.
Pearce's solutions change this text's intent and purpose. He moves from journalist reporting the issue to activist claiming solitary resolution for each water problem. His activism leaves scientific and academic resolutions behind on the dusty dry riverbank.
The author's answers for saving the world from the emerging water problems range from the technically impossible (i.e. taking the gigantic dams out of river valleys and redirecting rivers) to the simply odd (i.e. giving the wetlands to prehistoric native populations). Dam destruction would, seemingly, only invent more environmental destruction while returning water sources already harnessed would deprive those dependent on them including their earliest users. His solutions are too often simplistic and baffling.
Obviously, there are answers for the continuing shortages of water across the globe. Pearce's book is best viewed as a warning message and not a resolution advocate. His water warnings, but not his solutions, should be taken seriously.
This book is recommended to everyone concerned about 21st century water shortages and to all who want to develop answers for the global questions it proposes.
Happy Halloween!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book - Easy read
Comment: I liked this book because Fred Pearce used different parts of the world for his research. It relates not only human behavior and how we use water, but also talks extensively about "virtual water", the water in all the things we buy, we eat, we use.
The examples are riveting and frightening, he uses stories of the past and how they are causing the same problems in the present because of human behavior and our careless water management.
Read it and understand your role in a catastrophe that we could avoid if we put our mind to it. With population growth and our current water consumption we won't be able to make it. Fred points it clearly.
A must read.
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