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Throughout history, rivers have been our
foremost source of fresh water both for agriculture and
for individual consumption, but now economists say that
by 2025 water scarcity will cut global food production by
more than the current U.S. grain harvest. In this groundbreaking
book, veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce focuses
on the dire state of the world's rivers to provide our most
complete portrait yet of the growing world water crisis
and its ramifications for us all.
Pearce traveled to more than thirty countries
while researching When the Rivers Run Dry, examining the
current state of crucial water sources like the Indus River
in Pakistan, the Colorado River in the United States, and
the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in China. Pearce deftly weaves
together the complicated scientific, economic, and historic
dimensions of the water crisis, showing us its complex origins
-- from waste to wrong-headed engineering projects to high-yield
crop varieties that have saved developing countries from
starvation but are now emptying their water reserves. He
reveals the most daunting water issues we face today, among
them the threat of flooding in China's Yellow River, where
rising silt levels will prevent dykes from containing floodwaters;
the impoverishment of Pakistan's Sindh, a once-fertile farming
valley now destroyed by the 14 million tons of salt that
the much-depleted Indus deposits annually on the land but
cannot remove; the disappearing Colorado River, whose reservoirs
were once the lifeblood of seven states but which could
dry up as soon as 2007; and the poisoned springs of Palestine
and the Jordon River, where Israeli control of the water
supply only fed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The situation is dire, but not without remedy.
Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide
water shortage is not more and bigger dams but greater efficiency
and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle
for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest.
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 Keepers of the Spring,
Turning Up the Heat, and Deep Jungle.
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