When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Just as scary as global warming.......2007-09-10

I read this book back to back with the author's book on global warming, With Speed and Violence, and I was very impressed with the way both books cover all the bases in concise, thorough chapters that are compelling and engrossing, not just because of the interesting subject matter, but because the author is a terrific writer who knows how to clearly present the science while telling a good story. Although climate change has the potential to remake our planet in the longer term, water scarcity has the potential to affect hundreds of millions of people's lives in the shorter term, yet it doesn't get as much coverage in the media. So I was glad to come across Pearce's book, and I hope it brings more attention to this important issue.

No Notes,No Sources, Sadly Flawed.......2007-08-10

This is a fascinating story, it really is. But how much is true, how much is exaggerated, how much is down right false? The author left no way to verify what he reports, not even his own research notes. I personally believe the main theme of disappearing water supplies due to watering of thirsty high yield crops. But I certainly wouldn't use Pearce's specific facts without double checking them. Too bad, it is a very readable book with many possible insights. If his sources had been included this would easily be a 5+ book.

A Wonderful Book........2007-06-18

I used this book in my water resource and policy class during the spring semester of 07. If you've ever truly wanted to understand what one of the largest dilemmas mankind is going to have to face in the coming years, then you should read this book! The author breaks down water in our world in a very detailed manner. One can understand ancient water history, why much of the world is suffering from a water crisis, how much water affluent life styles use, and get a feel for modern water wars in our world. This book alosm makes a great reference for interesting statistics and figures.

Water Facts, a new understanding.......2007-06-12

This book is an easy read, one you won't want to put down. The author traveled extensively while researching his topic and does an excellent job warning the rest of us of another approaching crisis.

Living in the Western world causes me to take clean water for granted. After reading, "When the Rivers Run Dry", I now realize that water is a very precious and scarce commodity in some other parts of the world and this precious commodity is running low, aquifers are drying up. This book illustrates the importance of wetlands and the far ranging impact to the populations living there, but the wetlands are being destroyed. The rivers are being dammed up and their silt rich outflows don't even make it to the ocean any more. Centuries old wells are drying out and the implications to all this will be future wars and aggressions by governments all over the world.

Facts and prose together.......2007-06-01

This book in FUN to read. Forget that the subject is a looming catastrophe, and that the author has done beautiful step by step research, it's really fun to read. AlGore should make this his next movie.

Every kid in the world should read this in Social Studie classes along with Howard Kuenstler's The Long Emergency and then their might be hope for future generation af mankind. If we go on as we are, it's over.

When the Rivers Run Dry: What Happens When Our Water Runs Out?

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When the Rivers Run Dry: What Happens When Our Water Runs Out?
Fred Pearce
Manufacturer: Eden Project
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

When the Rivers Run Dry: Journeys Into the Heart of the World's Water Crisis

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When the Rivers Run Dry: Journeys Into the Heart of the World's Water Crisis
Fred Pearce
Manufacturer: Key Porter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Rivers | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Nothing seems more abundant than water. In fact, the world is confronting a global water shortage that could make the oil crisis trivial by comparison. To put the problem in perspective, it takes a staggering 11,000 litres of water to feed the cow it takes to make one McDonald's quarter pounder. As Fred Pearce warns, "The planet is running out of water." Many of the world's most powerful rivers have been so devastated by consumption and irrigation drain-off that they no longer reach the sea. Two-thirds of all the world's supply of water is used to irrigate crops. It takes enough water to fill one hundred bathtubs to irrigate the cotton fields required to make one t-shirt. When the Rivers Run Dry is a journey into the world water crisis. Internationally acclaimed environmental writer and water authority Pearce traverses the globe in this eye-opening portrait of what is fast becoming the planet's most serious potential catastrophe. From Canada and Texas to India and Palestine, Pearce examines in fascinating and compelling detail how galloping, un-regulated consumption, economic greed and political indifference are putting the world's water systems at grave risk. As important, the implications of a shortage will have--in fact, already have had--profound and serious consequences on the fragile international political situation. Though the warning signs are dire, Pearce passionately contends that they point to the solutions that will avert the crisis and put the world on the path of sustained and renewable consumption. It's a challenge we cannot afford to ignore.

Average customer rating:

There's a lot more in Dry Water than meets the eye
a compex fantasy about good intensions and their results
Shades of Powers and Swanwick
Dry Water
A mind-blowing tale that will make you dream adventure

Dry Water
Eric S. Nylund
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0380796147

Amazon.com

Eric Nylund has said that Dry Water is a tribute to Roger Zelazny. And so it is--this novel alludes to many of Zelazny's books, including the Amber series. One character--a deceased fantasy writer named Dolinski--is clearly meant to represent Zelazny. And Nylund works in an amazing assortment of myth and magic, as Zelazny did. Tribute aside, this is highly original contemporary fantasy. Nylund peoples his New Mexico setting with ghosts from area history, a Navajo shaman and his son who act as guides and protectors of hero Larry Ngitis, a witch who sponsors authors in her spare time, and a necromancer who goes through history murdering anybody who seems likely to bring about major historical change. Larry's work as a science fiction writer also gives Nylund an opportunity to make some witty points about the genre. The pace is manic, with Nylund cutting back and forth between characters, time periods, and locations in dizzying fashion, but the plot works and the ending is satisfyingly unexpected. Tim Powers fans will definitely enjoy this. --Nona Vero

Book Description

There is water pooled deep within the earth--a forbidden spring that flows through the history of humankind.There is a reborn ghost town in New Mexico where real phantoms congregate--along with artists, shamans, witches. . .and all manner of evil.Lightning has chased Larry Ngitis to this place where he will be called upon to do the impossible. Because the death of everything is rapidly approaching--unless Larry can turn the wheels of the world in the right direction.DRY WATER is a novel of wondrous thing that reshapes time and many realities--from the awesome imagination of Eric S. Nylund, a truly great contemporary American Fantasist.

Customer Reviews:

There's a lot more in Dry Water than meets the eye.......2005-10-16

Larry Ngitis has just broken up with his girlfriend and has fled to the town of Dry Water in Seco County because of its reputation as a writer's haven, because Larry is also a writer of Science Fiction novels.

Larry has had a life long precognition ability but he's about to find out in Dry Water that it is the least of his true gifts. Dry Water is the home of two of the planets most dangerous practitioners of the psychic arts, and both are convinced for differing reasons, that Larry will destroy the world if they don't destroy him - and Larry's only hope is to find the water that can't be drunk before they do.

I enjoyed this novel. Larry is a likeable character, and his rivals in magic are both crazy and dangerous. This is not a thick novel, with really deep characterisations, but it has a good flow and and interesting story line with the concept of a place like Dry Water quite appealing in its way.

a compex fantasy about good intensions and their results.......2003-10-05

This is a very good novel. Basically, it could be called urban fantasy, allthough, it shouldn't be, considering that the action takes place in a small town in New Mexico.

So, it should be rural fantasy, I think.

This is not unlike the works of Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock.
So, if you like them - give "Dry water" a shot.

I found the main character sympathetic, allthough the romantic storyline was rather perfunctory. But the magic IS there in this novel, as are some interesting persons (not all of them alive), and the story of the antagonist, when told, rises interesting points.

This book has intelligence, controlled lightnings and one annoying, though good-natured ghost - what more do you need?

Shades of Powers and Swanwick.......2003-08-03

I picked this book up on the strength of the cover blurbs-- Powers called it a "Fellini Carnival" and Swanwick was more than kind. I figured that a book those two liked could not be too far off from my own taste. And that was true, I have to say.

Nylund is a strong writer with a powerful imagination. His story is about a reluctant prophet who is suddenly plagued by a host of accomplished magicians wanting to either help him or hinder him from attaining a goal he never knew he had. The characters are handled well and the plot fits neatly together. It is about as clean of a writing job as you can expect in fantasy.

A few points--

the one way in which the book is not handled well is the female love interests of the hero. Both Linda and Paloma end up as stereotypes, and not terribly well-developed stereotypes, at that. Too bad, because that would have deepened Larry's motivations and our understanding of his character.

Much was clear to me when I read here that the book was intended as a tribute to Zelazny. Explained some weirdnesses around the writer character. I would have rather known it *before* I had read the book.

If you like works in the vein of Swanwick or Powers, you too will probably find this a good read. You may not find it a great one, but it is always good to discover a promising new author.

Dry Water.......2002-09-10

An initially promising plot and use of magic faded into unreadability with the use of plodding, mundane language and a lack of deep characterization.

A mind-blowing tale that will make you dream adventure.......2001-09-29

Mr. Nylund has done the unimaginable! He managd to keep me quiet for two plane rides. This book entwines its reader with curiousity and allows the long dormant thoughts of whimsy to return to the most "well-grounded" people. I am only 15, and i have yet to lose touch with that side of myself; never the less, I was mystified by the tapestry this tale seemed to weave. I will not ruin the story.. but even reading the back will have you enthralled! lol I hope that any one over the age of 18 will not take my age as a sign that it will be childish. heh, I'm no ordinary 15 year old... I've been reading Mr. Dickons since first grade, (just call me matilda, but it's a true story) ; ) ; ) Thank you for reading my review, and i hope you've found it helpful! ~`*Bright Shadow*`~

Like Water in a Dry Land: A Journey into Modern Israel

Average customer rating:

Another watered-down polemic
Captures a variety of perspectives on the Middle East

Like Water in a Dry Land: A Journey into Modern Israel
Bettina Selby
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Asia | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0006279422

Customer Reviews:

Another watered-down polemic.......2001-05-10

I purchased this book on an overflow shelf. Ms Selby offers another diatribe on how the Israelis are entirely to blame for the current sad state of affairs in the Mid East, and how the Arabs and Palestinians would be in a state of bliss -- just like they were prior to 1948 -- if the Jews simply packed up and left the Holy Land. When she equated the Israeli Army with the Nazis, I figured enough was enough -- she seems to forget that had she tried this narcissistic bike trip prior to l967, she would have been barred from re-entering Jordan. This book is an insult to the Arabs as well as the Israelis.

Captures a variety of perspectives on the Middle East.......2000-08-20

I picked up this book, thinking it would be a political analysis of the Middle East. Instead, I was surprised to find that while it covered this angle admirably, it was in actuality a travel book summarizing Selby's tour of the Holy Land on her bicycle. The stories she tells of her journey really bring home the scale of human suffering caused by the conflict between Israel and its neighbours. The stories surrounding her travels through the settlement camps in the occupied territories are particularly moving. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Middle East, peace and conflict studies, or for those who enjoy their travel books written with a strong dose of reality by a razor-sharp wit.

Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, Second Edition (Our Sustainable Future)

Average customer rating:

A very good introduction to this topic

Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, Second Edition (Our Sustainable Future)
John Opie
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Sustainable Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Water Supply & Land Use | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the High Plains
When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

ASIN: 0803286147

Book Description

In this new, enlarged edition, John Opie updates his groundbreaking work on the environmental history of the Ogallala aquifer and plains farming. He addresses the impact of the 1996 Farm Bill (Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act) and looks at the recent movement of industrial hog farming onto the plains. Opie also develops his argument for the plains as a “moral geography,” a view involving the recognition by society that it has an obligation to balance the responsibility for conserving natural resources with that for keeping a regional people—the family farmers—in operation.

Customer Reviews:

A very good introduction to this topic.......2000-08-12

A few years ago I came across a magazine article that discussed the importance of the Ogallala Aquifer to American agriculture, geography, and society. Realizing that I knew absolutely nothing about this topic I picked up John Opie's book. It's safe to say that I now know more about the Ogallala Aquifer than I could ever have imagined possible.

The book begins with a discussion of the geology of the aquifer, and then moves into the history of irrigation efforts on the Plains since the 19th century, and finally to a discussion of the various irrigation technologies currently used to exploit the aquifer. There is ample discussion along the way about how these technologies have changed over the years as environmental consciousness and the problems of declining aquifer levels have become more prevalent.

Book Description

The Dry Fly and Fast Water was written to fill a need created by the coming of the brown trout to America.

High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River

Average customer rating:

Absorbing (pun intended). Book is both excellent and timely

High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River
G. Emlen Hall
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Legal History | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Rivers | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Water Supply & Land Use | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Water Supply | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Water | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Water law, water politics, and especially water shenanigans are at the center of this book about New Mexico and Texas dividing the Pecos River. On one level the story is about a twenty-year court case, Texas v. New Mexico, a monstrous law suit between two states sharing a common water source, a state boundary, and a long history of mutual enmity. On another level, this story is as big and far-reaching as the high plains drained by the Pecos: it is part memoir, part biography, and part environmental history, part the history of hydrology, and part a contribution to the annals of litigation in the great tradition of Anthony Lewis and Jonathan Harr.

While High and Dry focuses on clashes of principles and personalities, especially in the courtroom, it remains very much a story about a river and its world in an arid region. There are irrigators here, including the leading “old families” of southeastern New Mexico, and there is nature here, including “the vampires of the West,” the rapacious salt cedars relentlessly sucking up the precious Pecos stream flow. But beneath them all is the author, inviting readers to see how tiny gardens grown for the soul are as crucial to the overall story as the adjudication of water rights. Hall gives a masterful summary of the legal and scientific parts of the story, but he excels in letting us feel and care about water in the same manner as do the people who use it to grow crops.

“One of the best books anywhere on the heart and soul of western water, High and Dry will leave you awed and flabbergasted by the intricacy, chicanery, mystery, and good old nonstop adventure of interstate water disputes. It is a joy to read, rich in humor and quirky personalities.”—John Nichols

“A major contribution to western water law and history in the tradition of Donald Worster. High and Dry is essential reading.”—Dan Tarlock, Chicago-Kent College of Law

High and Dry tells the story of a river in an arid region and the long history of litigation between Texas and New Mexico as they battle over water rights.

Customer Reviews:

Absorbing (pun intended). Book is both excellent and timely.......2002-04-12

In the Southwest, water rights are a war zone; the film "Chinatown" (with Jack Nicholson), of course, showed that the fight could even be the background for fictional excitement. This work of legal and social history is hardly a whodunit, yet the real-life battle it surveys possesses a vivid life nevertheless, in the author's highly readable prose. Hall is a law professor, so it's not surprising that he's done plenty of homework, and has mastered the facts of the story he tells. But he also writes with a humorous touch--appropriately dry (what else?)--and knows how to keep things personal too; he weaves his own experiences (as lawyer, writer, and also gardener and weekend farmer) into the story. As I write (spring, 2002), water shortages may be turning from a regional into a national phenomenon. Even if that danger abates soon, though, we can't take any environmental issues for granted any more, so a book like this has cautionary value too. Water: Gotta have it. Maybe optimists can happily relax if a glass is half-full, but we all need to apply higher standards of worry, when it's a matter of reservoirs. And the book's a wonderful read, too.

Trees and Shrubs for Dry California Landscapes: Plants for Water Conservation

Average customer rating:

Nice pictorial reference

Trees and Shrubs for Dry California Landscapes: Plants for Water Conservation
Robert Perry
Manufacturer: Land Design Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0960598804

Customer Reviews:

Nice pictorial reference.......2000-09-06

This book's strength is its pictures - realistic representations of dry California landscape plants. I would use it as a "brainstorm" book for getting ideas on which species to use in a particular landscape. The notations for each species are also helpful. Definitely one for the library.

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