Whose Water Is It?

by Jehl, Douglas

• ISBN13: 9780792273752
• ISBN10: 0792273753
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-01
• Publisher: National Geographic

Summary

It's Often Said that We are Mostly Water and that we live on a watery planet. But though the globe is 7/8 water, only a small part is fresh, and less than one percent is available for all of humankind's uses: drinking and cleaning; irrigating crops; powering and cooling industry, along with countless other demands. Without water, civilization is impossible -- and we're running out of it. Some of our greatest rivers have all but dried up, and we are using what we have left much faster than it can be replenished, a problem that will only grow worse as the global population grows and the rate of climate change and airborne pollution quickens. There are dire consequences of current trends, from desertification to epidemic disease to increasingly bitter battles over who "owns" water and how to apportion our dwindling supply. But there are ways to avert disaster. Focused on the crucial years of the immediate future, this book is a blueprint that calls for change -- in our personal lives, our attitudes, and our industries -- that promises long-term solutions. Whose Water Is It? is both fascinating and frightening as it portrays a thirsty world that must transform itself to survive Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Paul Simon
Introduction	xi
Douglas Jehl
OWNERSHIP	1	(54)
Bottling a Birthright?	9	(16)
Robert Glennon
The World's Water: A Human Right or a Corporate Good?	25	(16)
Maude Barlow
Three Rivers	41	(14)
Marq De Villiers
SCARCITY	55	(48)
Working for Water	65	(12)
Margaret Catley-Carlson
The Effect of Emerging Water Shortages on the World's Food	77	(12)
Lester R. Brown
Mountain Wise and Water Smart	89	(14)
Hans Schreier
CONFLICT	103	(52)
``Water Wars'' and Other Tales of Hydromythology	109	(16)
Aaron T. Wolf
From the Forest to the Faucet	125	(14)
Mike Dombeck
Accommodation Turns to Conflict: Lessons from the Colorado	139	(16)
David J. Hayes
PROSPECTS	155	(58)
Mountain Water: Lifeblood of the Prairies	163	(14)
David Schindler
A Child's Reminder	177	(10)
David Suzuki
Amanda McConnell
A Soft Path: Conservation, Efficiency, and Easing Conflicts over Water	187	(12)
Peter H. Gleick
Alchemy or Salvation? Desalting the Sea	199	(14)
Douglas Jehl
Afterword	213
Bernadette McDonald