Running Out of Water

Running Out of Water PDF

Author: Peter Rogers

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2010-08-17

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780230111523

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Water is the world's life source and essential to all living creatures. Although we live on the blue planet, only 3 percent of all our water is drinkable. Yet we've grown accustomed to using it with abandon – individuals consume about 80 to 100 gallons per day adding up to the equivalent of an Olympic sized swimming pool every year. By this decade's end, when the world population is predicted to reach 8 billion, we will face severe shortages. In this ground breaking and forward-looking book, Harvard professor Peter Rogers and former general manager of the San Francisco Utilities Commission, Susan Leal give us a sobering perspective on the water crisis—why it's happening, where it's likely to strike, and what puts the worst strain on our supply. They explain how water's unique status as a renewable but finite resource misleads us into thinking we can always produce more of it. They introduce exciting new technologies that can help revolutionize our consumption of water and explain how different areas of the world have taken the helm in alleviating the burden of water shortages. Rogers and Leal show how it takes individuals at all levels to make this happen, from grassroots organizations who monitor their community's water sources, to local officials who plan years in advance how they will appropriate water, to the national government who can invest in infrastructure for water conservation today. Informed and inspiring, Running out of Water is a clarion call for action and an innovative look at how we as a nation and individuals can confront the crisis.

Running Out

Running Out PDF

Author: Lucas Bessire

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-10-04

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0691216436

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Finalist for the National Book Award An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.

Running Out?

Running Out? PDF

Author: Ruth A. Morgan

Publisher: Apollo Books

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781742586236

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Annotation. Ruth A. Morgan completed her PhD at The University of Western Australia in 2012 and took up a lecturing position at Monash University in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the 2013 Margaret Medcalf Prize by the State Records Office of Western Australia for excellence in reference and research, and shortlisted for the Australian Historical Association's Serle Award for the best postgraduate thesis in Australian History. In 2013, Morgan was a visiting scholar at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. She has presented at international conferences at Renmin University in Beijing (co-sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society); the Australian Historical Association in Wollongong; the European Society for Environmental History in Munich; and the International Water History Conference in Montpellier. Morgan has recently co-edited a volume of Studies in Western Australian History and is currently editing a volume of History of Meteorology. She is a member of the Australian Historical Association, the Australian Garden History Association, and the International Commission for the History of Meteorology. She also coordinates the 'Making Public Histories' seminar series, which is a joint initiative with the History Council of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria. Although still in her early career, Morgan has published several dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals, and in outlets such as The Conversation and The West Australian.

Are We Running Out of Water?

Are We Running Out of Water? PDF

Author: Isabel Thomas

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-01-03

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 1647225868

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A unique and beautiful approach to understanding one of the most important environmental issues facing humankind—access to clean, fresh water. Scientists, engineers, academics, and environmentalists warn that unless water use is drastically reduced, severe water shortage will affect the entire planet by 2040. But what does that mean? Why? What should we do? Are We Running Out of Water? unravels the issues and the answers using a visual thinking technique called mind mapping, which makes complicated subjects easy to understand. Beautiful illustrations bring the many issues, concepts, and solutions to life. This engaging, fascinating, and important read will inspire and empower young readers to do their part to protect the planet’s most vital resource. BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS: Combines the beauty of a picture book with science-based facts and information. TIMELY TOPIC: Inspired by activists like Greta Thunberg, kids are concerned about the environment and are taking active roles at home, school, and in the community to protect the planet. UNIQUE APPROACH: Are We Running Out of Water? is structured using a visual thinking technique called "mind mapping," where complex ideas are broken down into a clear flow of visual information. The 'mind map' connects the information, making it easy to grasp. ACCESSIBLE TO EVERY READER: The text is carefully layered and leveled for emerging to proficient readers. COMPLETE THE COLLECTION: How Do We Stop Climate Change?: Mind Mappers also available.

Let There Be Water

Let There Be Water PDF

Author: Seth M. Siegel

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1466885440

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New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller! As every day brings urgent reports of growing water shortages around the world, there is no time to lose in the search for solutions. The U.S. government predicts that forty of our fifty states-and 60 percent of the earth's land surface-will soon face alarming gaps between available water and the growing demand for it. Without action, food prices will rise, economic growth will slow, and political instability is likely to follow. Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also had an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors-the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan-every day. Based on meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, Let There Be Water reveals the methods and techniques of the often offbeat inventors who enabled Israel to lead the world in cutting-edge water technology. Let There Be Water also tells unknown stories of how cooperation on water systems can forge diplomatic ties and promote unity. Remarkably, not long ago, now-hostile Iran relied on Israel to manage its water systems, and access to Israel's water know-how helped to warm China's frosty relations with Israel. Beautifully written, Seth M. Siegel's Let There Be Water is and inspiring account of the vision and sacrifice by a nation and people that have long made water security a top priority. Despite scant natural water resources, a rapidly growing population and economy, and often hostile neighbors, Israel has consistently jumped ahead of the water innovation-curve to assure a dynamic, vital future for itself. Every town, every country, and every reader can benefit from learning what Israel did to overcome daunting challenges and transform itself from a parched land into a water superpower.

Running Dry

Running Dry PDF

Author: Stuart A. Kallen

Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books

Published: 2015-01-01

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 146776308X

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As the planet's human population explodes, so does the demand for water. About one out of every nine people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water, while one out of every five—almost 1.5 billion humans—lives in a region where water demand is outstripping supply. But as demand grows, supplies do not. Climate change has led to severe drought, flooding, and massive storms in key agricultural areas of the world. Industrial and agricultural water pollution threatens public health around the world. Environmental protection measures are not keeping up with energy-production technologies such as fracking and the corn-for-fuel market, all of which affect water usage rates and safety. Both developed and undeveloped areas of the world face challenges with water-delivery infrastructure. For example, undeveloped nations lack even the most basic water-delivery systems. Millions of global citizens are without sanitation altogether, polluting waterways with raw sewage. In the developed world, water-delivery infrastructures are aging and wasteful. Domestic and industrial overconsumption of water resources draws down supply capacity, depleting Earth's freshwater resources at an alarming rate. And, in the last few decades, private corporations have begun to take over municipal water delivery, buying the rights to freshwater supplies and selling bottled water, all for large profits. As the cost of clean water rises, many people can't afford the water they need for everyday use. Competition for clean water is increasing, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Running Dry investigates some tough questions. In a crowded world with limited water supplies, will we be able to deliver safe, clean water to an increasingly thirsty world? Can governments, businesses, and individuals work together to clean up and protect Earth's water resources? Are water conservation strategies enough to ensure a water-rich future? Or will we run dry?

Water Wars

Water Wars PDF

Author: Diane Raines Ward

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2003-06-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1101663979

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Updated with new material Every day, we hear alarming news about droughts, pollution, population growth, and climate change—which threaten to make water, even more than oil, the cause of war within our lifetime. Diane Raines Ward reaches beyond the headlines to illuminate our most vexing problems and tells the stories of those working to solve them: hydrologists, politicians, engineers, and everyday people. Based on ten years of research spanning five continents, Water Wars offers fresh insight into a subject to which our fate is inextricably bound.

Water is for Fighting Over

Water is for Fighting Over PDF

Author: John Fleck

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2016-09

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1610916794

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"Illuminating." --New York Times WIRED's Required Science Reading 2016 When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. Yet despite decades of headlines warning of mega-droughts, the death of agriculture, and the collapse of cities, the Colorado River basin has thrived in the face of water scarcity. John Fleck shows how western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or U.S. environmentalists and Mexican water managers, actually have a promising record of conservation and cooperation. Rather than perpetuate the myth "Whiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrative--a future where the Colorado continues to flow.