The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water by Charles Fishman

Aug 12, 2012 Valerie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Definitely makes you think differently about our relationship to water, and for that, it is valuable. However, the book overemphasizes and repeats (and repeats and repeats) some information, while ignoring other very interesting and relevant issues. To wit, Fishman skirts delicately around the issue of climate change (probably in an attempt to target a wide American audience without offending those who think that climate change isn't really a fact) without really addressing it as a major issue a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 16, 2013 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I imagined this book would be a dire plea to save water, a polemic call to action. I went into it expecting to be exhausted with cynicism and the weight of yet another cause to fight for but this turned out to not be the case. Fishman eloquently writes about our complex and often intimate relationship to water and how communities around the world react to the excess or scarcity of their water.

As some of the national reviews have noted, this book has affected the way I think about the most basic...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 05, 2012 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ideas

amazon review:

The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, “molecular water,” fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that’s where most of the planet’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be made so clean that it’s toxic. Water...more amazon review:

The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, “molecular water,” fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that’s where most of the planet’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be made so clean that it’s toxic. Water is the most vital substance in our lives but also more amazing and mysterious than we appreciate. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this surprising and mind-changing narrative, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, yet we take it completely for granted. But the era of easy water is over.
Bringing readers on a lively and fascinating journey—from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, where dolphins swim in the desert, and from a rice farm in the parched Australian outback to a high-tech IBM plant that makes an exotic breed of pure water found nowhere in nature—Fishman vividly shows that we’ve already left behind a century-long golden age when water was thoughtlessly abundant, free, and safe and entered a new era of high-stakes water. In 2008, Atlanta came within ninety days of running entirely out of clean water. California is in a desperate battle to hold off a water catastrophe. And in the last five years Australia nearly ran out of water—and had to scramble to reinvent the country’s entire water system. But as dramatic as the challenges are, the deeper truth Fishman reveals is that there is no good reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, smartly.

The Big Thirst brilliantly explores our strange and complex relationship to water. We delight in watching waves roll in from the ocean; we take great comfort from sliding into a hot bath; and we will pay a thousand times the price of tap water to drink our preferred brand of the bottled version. We love water—but at the moment, we don’t appreciate it or respect it. Just as we’ve begun to reimagine our relationship to food, a change that is driving the growth of the organic and local food movements, we must also rethink how we approach and use water. The good news is that we can. As Fishman shows, a host of advances are under way, from the simplicity of harvesting rainwater to the brilliant innovations devised by companies such as IBM, GE, and Royal Caribbean that are making impressive breakthroughs in water productivity. Knowing what to do is not the problem. Ultimately, the hardest part is changing our water consciousness.

As Charles Fishman writes, “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.” The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, about our essential relationship to it, and about the creativity we can bring to ensuring that we’ll always have plenty of it.(less)

like · see review

Jan 01, 2012 Frederick Bingham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The author visits a number of places to talk about how they use water.

One example is Las Vegas, NV. This city is set in the driest area of the US. Its water is supplied out of Lake Mead, which, at least until this year, has been steadily drying up. Thus they have had to learn a whole new way of dealing with water, paying people to tear out their lawns, pumping treated wastewater back into the lake, outlawing car washing, etc.

Other examples of places the author has visited are Toowoomba and Perth...more

like · see review

Nov 18, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a superb book and one that should be required reading for every human being. Instead of reading some of the drivel (classics) in high school, kids should read about the single most important element in life, water. There is something enigmatic about our attitude about water. Our attitude about water is something akin to the old song line, "you only really appreciate something when you lose it". This book is not a polemic or screaming about yet another crisis. Although water is becoming a...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 31, 2011 Evanston Public Library added it

Shelves: nonfiction

You think about other commodities. You may know the cost of gas, or electricity. Possibly you try to conserve them. Water? You barely think about it at all. It’s like air.

But the end of water's "golden era" is upon us, says Fishman. Our tap water is abundant, clean, and cheap—but soon we will be choosing two out of three: abundant, clean, or cheap. Abundant, clean water will cost much more. Abundant, cheap water won’t be clean.

That’s the norm (or better than the norm) for most of the world. Two...more You think about other commodities. You may know the cost of gas, or electricity. Possibly you try to conserve them. Water? You barely think about it at all. It’s like air.

But the end of water's "golden era" is upon us, says Fishman. Our tap water is abundant, clean, and cheap—but soon we will be choosing two out of three: abundant, clean, or cheap. Abundant, clean water will cost much more. Abundant, cheap water won’t be clean.

That’s the norm (or better than the norm) for most of the world. Two billion people have to work hard, or walk far, for drinkable water. Another billion have no access to safe water—and many of those people die every day as a result.

At the other end of the scale, millions of people pay a zillion times what they should for drinkable water. Who are those people? The fools who buy bottled water, says Fishman. Generally speaking, tap water is as good as bottled water, at one-three-thousandth the price. Yet the U.S. bottled water industry is awash in fools' money. The industry sucks up more than $20 billion per year, rivaling the maintenance cost of our entire water supply system.

Fishman introduces many industry and government leaders working to awaken consumers, increase efficiency, and forestall catastrophe. Patricia Mulroy, Las Vegas’s water czar, has spent decades convincing casino owners that they will either install water-recycling technology, or dry up and blow away. Sue Murphy, CEO of drought-stricken Australia’s main water facility, calculates “nega-liters”: the liters she need not deliver when customers increase efficiency. “That’s the cheapest water we supply,” she says. “Our job is not to accept demand and meet it with supply, but to manage demand down.” Still, some Australian communities are beginning to dry up and blow away.

Fishman is an entertaining writer, though wordy. His publisher would have been wise to offer charts or graphs in place of some of his (quite entertaining) paragraphs of data. A call for efficient use of water should make efficient use of words.

Still, this is a dynamite book about a crucial subject. We may not worry soon about water here near Lake Michigan. But elsewhere, perhaps in this century, wars may be fought over it. Fishman shows us why. (Jeff B., Reader's Services)
(less)

like · see review

Oct 20, 2011 Steven rated it 2 of 5 stars

Interesting treatise on all things WATER. The author has done a staggering amount of research, and the book is filled with amazing stories about the varying ways in which people relate to water. He insists the book is not about all subjects related to water, but is concerned with our "relationship" with water. Of course, he begins by pointing out that most of us never think about water at all. The book then goes on to detail the spectrum of water "relationships" around the world, from Americans...more

like · see review

Sep 12, 2011 Randy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Living on an island it's hard to be too concerned about water when we gaze out at it all the time. But water is potentially a big issue for the island and until the recent ferry crisis pushed it aside it was a major topic of discussion. Of course, growth and development were what pushed water to the top of the topic list and now that the economic is in the crapper for the foreseeable future people are less concerned about water. However, water is a world-wide problem as the author of The Big Thi...more Living on an island it's hard to be too concerned about water when we gaze out at it all the time. But water is potentially a big issue for the island and until the recent ferry crisis pushed it aside it was a major topic of discussion. Of course, growth and development were what pushed water to the top of the topic list and now that the economic is in the crapper for the foreseeable future people are less concerned about water. However, water is a world-wide problem as the author of The Big Thirst points out in his recent book.

He provides interesting case studies from around the world: Las Vegas, an artificial city in the dessert which has actually decreased its use of water but totally depends on it for survival. Las Vegas is blessed with a water manager who is somewhat of a visionary and who has aggressively sought out new sources of water for Las Vegas while forcing reductions in consumption.

Conversely, Atlanta, which has been suffering a drought is literally clueless in its planning. Millions of people are at risk because of poor water planning.

In Australia, a multi-year drought has dried up rivers. The residents of one city went to war with each other over a plan to purify sewer water which is technically possible. But the plan failed due to the poor marketing of the idea. People didn't wish to drink what was once urine and feces. Interestingly, the amount of water on the planet never changes. It just becomes less available in certain places. And, it is possible to clean any water to the extent that it is simply and purely H20. They do this at the IBM plant in Burlington, Vermont. They need perfectly pure water to use to clean the computer chips manufactured there. The water they produce is so pure that it would be toxic for humans to drink because water acts like a solvent and totally pure water will strip essential minerals from the body as it makes its progress through the system.

In India, only a handful of cities have 24/7 water service. In a city such as New Delhi with twenty million people, at least eight million are carrying water every day either delivered through standpipes or by water truck. In more affluent neighborhoods water comes on for a couple hours a couple times a week. The wealthier people have pumps and storage tanks and the pumps go on and the storage tanks fill so they can have water on demand.

Around the world, water is essentially free. What people get charged for is delivery and prices, generally, are very cheap. In the USA we have bought into the fact that bottled water is better than tap water even though the two largest water bottlers simply run tap water through a reverse osmosis system. We end up paying more for bottled water than we do for gasoline but if a municipality tries to up the price of water to improve the infrastructure people complain loudly.

In most parts of the US the water infrastructure has been sadly neglected. Many residences don't have meters. Much water is wasted. Americans spend $21 billion on bottled water and only $29 billion on our entire water infrastructure.

It's possible that most islanders are more conservative with their water though I am aware of situations where there are people who water their lawns to the distress of their fellow water company members. A good number of us have wells and even though there is no monthly water bill there is a cost to having ones own private water system. This year, we had to have our cistern cleaned, floats replaced, well pump and pipes replaced. Not cheap but amortized over twenty years, not excessive.

A number of us have added rainwater catchment which is a growing trend around the world. It's a shame to let all of that water run back into the Salish Sea.

We use much more water than we think we do. For example, the electricity we use hat home on a daily basis requires 250 gallons of water to produce and the food for "a single day's meals for a typical American require 450 gallons of water."

At our house we are a constant argument over when it's necessary to flush. I contend it's a good place to start the discussion. Does it make sense to use 1.5 gal. of drinking water to flush a half a cup of urine?
(less)

like · see review

May 14, 2011 Jenny Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars

This discussion of the challenges of managing water use, drought, and the impact of water scarcity on Third World cultures discusses many important issues. But it suffers from reading too much like a collection of magazine articles without a clear organizing principle connecting the chapters.

The author was also too trusting of corporate sources for my tastes--at times the chapters turned into advertisements for IBM and GE and his belief that "market forces" can solve the problems of water distr...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 20, 2011 Kayley rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Charles Fishman explains the truth about how society views water and how we all take it for granted. The book The Big Thirst was enlightening for me because I realized that I do take water for granted. Each section of the book gives new examples to how cities and companies deal with their water troubles. I never knew the city Las Vegas was so water conscious. Did you know that they water their golf courses from underneath the grass. They do this to get as much water as possible absorbed into the...more

like · see review

Jan 29, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who drink water, people who are not dumb-ass climate change denialists

Shelves: non-fiction, science, audiobook

Books about environmental and economic issues are always kind of depressing, because it's really easy to show examples of how very badly we are screwing ourselves over on an epic scale. Like most authors of such books, Charles Fishman shows us how very, very bad it's getting and then tries to end on an optimistic note: "Hey, we have the technology and the science, and if we just behave like rational adults who know we're all in this together, we can solve this problem!"

Uh huh, how often does tha...more

13 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2011 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: health, non-fiction, science, own, politics, psychology, business-economics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My summary and notes from the book:
***The author goes through several examples of how water is treated in different parts of the world, different cities, and in difference situations. Overall, he argues that our water supply is in such danger in so many places because people take water for granted. They don’t even think about it despite it being one of our most basic needs. This leads us to waste it, mismanage it, and fail to put resources into maintaining our water supply for the future. Only o...more My summary and notes from the book:
***The author goes through several examples of how water is treated in different parts of the world, different cities, and in difference situations. Overall, he argues that our water supply is in such danger in so many places because people take water for granted. They don’t even think about it despite it being one of our most basic needs. This leads us to waste it, mismanage it, and fail to put resources into maintaining our water supply for the future. Only once crisis hits to we finally start to pay attention to how we use water and where it comes from.

***Chapter topics: In “Dolphins in the Desert”, Fishman covers the evolution of water policy in Las Vegas. Despite being in the middle of the desert and full of water extravagance, it has developed some of the most sophisticated water reusing systems in the world. - In “Water Under Water”, Fishman explains the complexity of making water supplies disaster proof as he profiles Galveston, TX, after Hurricane Ike. - In “The Money in the Pipes” he profiles several large companies that are at the forefront of water conservation and reuse because they use it in such a large scale. – In “The Yuck Factor” he profiles how important changing attitudes toward water can be when trying to implement new water reuse methods. One city in Australia nearly ran out of water because its citizens couldn’t accept the idea of reusing treated sewer water. – In “Who Stopped the Rain” he talks about Australia, which has been going through a great drought in the last decade or so. This has precipitated several water crises from farming to urban supply. The primary problem is overuse of its rivers and planning based on high-water years instead of the contemporary average. – In “Where Water is Worshipped, but Gets no Respect” he talks about India and how atrocious their water situation is for nearly everyone, rich and poor. Very few cities have 24/7 water supplies, even for well-off people, and the majority of the country suffers from huge productivity and education losses because so much time is spent hand-carrying water for daily needs. He also goes into the major health problems that result from contaminated water and ink-black rivers. E.g., There is so much dangerous bacteria and pollution that one eye-dropper of water from the Yamuna or Ganges River put into six bathtubs full of water would be enough to make it unsafe to sit in. – In “It’s Water. Of Course It’s Free” he summarizes the problem with most attitudes toward water. Unless we start to recognize it as a real resource that requires respect and serious attention, we will continue to stumble into major shortages and conflicts over water. Water is not a global problem in the sense that you can influence water problems across the world, but it is the combination of a million different local problems regarding water that makes it a global concern.

***The 300,000 gallons of water used during a space shuttle launch is not for cooling, but for sound dampening. Otherwise the sound shock waves would tear the shuttle apart.

***The biggest use of water in the home is toilet flushing. We flush on average around 5 times a day which is about 18.5 gallons

***The fundamental problem with water is that it cannot be used up, but it is not equally available in all locations. How and where it is available in usable form varies dramatically and can be very unpredictable. So what this means is that all water problems are local in the sense that saving water in your home isn't going to directly help water-started villages in India. This is very different from many other environmental issues, like carbon footprints or gasoline use.

***Patricia Mulroy (the Las Vegas water czar) suggested to Obama a huge public works program to create a series of canals to capture and divert Mississippi floodwaters so it would both reduce natural disasters and send excess water to places that need it.

***At IBM Burlington, they create what is known as "ultra-pure water" which is hundreds of times cleaner than distilled or purified water. They use complex filtration systems to remove every molecule from water so that the pure water can pull microscopic particles from microchips. The smaller the chip, the more pure the water must be. It is very expensive to create, and in fact, would be dangerous to drink in large quantities. Water is such a good solvent, its molecules are filled with all kinds of minerals, etc. If you remove the minerals, etc. it will try to pull molecules out of anything it comes in contact with, including the nutrients in our body.

***Celebrity Cruise ships have a huge ice expense to create enough ice to cool all of the food/beverages on a typical cruise. One way they have reduced the cost is to no longer use ice, but to cool rocks that retain temperature well enough to cool the food.

***The author details an economic model for water designed by Mike Young to better allocate water resources. In the shape of a water glass, each layer of water is designated for a particular purpose. The first layer is “maintenance water” that is just enough necessary to maintain the environmental system. This is already a problem in many rivers where dams have to be built to keep ocean water from heading back up dry river beds. The second layer of water is “critical human needs” such as drinking, bathing, and basic water services. These two layers are guaranteed, but the next two layers are determined by economics. The first is the high security layer, which demands a high premium cost, and the second is low security, which costs less. Then it becomes a risk calculation process about how much you want to invest in water and whether you want to take the risk that your water layer might run out. If water runs low, the low security customers lose it first, then high security. (less)

like · see review

Mar 11, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up after hearing that Charles Fishman will be giving a speech at the college where I work, and I'm awfully glad I did. The first chapter of this book is utterly captivating; Fishman outlines our complicated relationship to water with eloquence and playfulness, and draws attention to the fact that while water is central to life on this planet, it's a resource that we take for granted. The rest of the book is a tour-de-force of investigative journalism. Fishman is a gifted writer, ma...more

1 like · like · see review

May 02, 2012 Potsdam Public rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: xan

Where does your water come from? Do you ever stop to think about how it gets into the tap? Because here in America most of us just expect that when we turn the faucet the water will come out and that it will be safe to drink. Big Thirst is an eye opening book about some of what goes on behind the scenes to get water from where it lives to where you live, and the pain and politics that take place between. There are places in the world where people spend a substantial portion of their lives acquir...more

like · see review

Jan 20, 2013 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-politics

One of the best books I've read in a long time, found and purchased by my long-suffering wife as a Christmas gift. She found it for sale inside a well-known U.S. government Department. I was pleasantly surprised to see unvetted ideas ~~flowing~~ ~~running~~ ~~on tap~~ near, if perhaps not quite in, the corridors of power. [note to self: keep the dopey water puns under control]

“Some water needs to be secure and guaranteed for everyone, at the lowest possible cost, outside the market system, and some water ne...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 23, 2012 Karli rated it 3 of 5 stars

"We don't take water for granted because we don't notice it enough to take it for granted." This book can certainly be an eye opener for people who really are quite ignorant about their relationship to water. It's full of fun tidbits and really quite depressing facts: "For Americans, flushing the toilet is the main way we use water. We use more water flushing toilets than bathing or cooking or washing our hands, our dishes, or our clothes." The readership, however, is probably more self-selectin...more

like · see review

Sep 07, 2011 Heidi Thorsen added it

This book will tell you more than you ever thought you'd know about water. That's the point of the book-- that despite water being the main elixir of life on the planet, most of us don't know much about it.

The first factoid I found interesting was that because the chemical composition of water (H2O) binds to things so readily, PURE water, if you drank it, would quickly suck vital minerals out of your body. But pure water doesn't exist in nature, it's mostly in semiconductor factories, so we don'...more

like · see review

Jun 03, 2012 Frits Haverkamp rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book. Really helped me get a big picture view through detailed context oriented reporting on the state of water. Fishman argues that because we take water for granted we have refused to acknowledge just how scarey our dependence on water really is and how outdated our relationship with water truly is. The time for taking water for granted is over. Fishman lifts Las Vegas, long believed by me to one of the sickest places on the planet (a view that has not changed) as the example of how we n...more

1 like · like · see review

May 30, 2012 Paul Mullen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though Charles Fishman argues that this is not a polemic against modern habits of water usage, you can't come away from it without a sense of obligation. For my part, I hope to find a way to have a day-by-day display of water usage in my home (the monthly water bill is not timely enough to change behavior). The second-to-last chapter on water economics is the best of the group and is really worth everyone's time.

To be fair, Fishman tries to write a book about our relationship with water (like o...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 27, 2013 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not really the book I expected when I picked it up at the bookstore. While Fishman (real name) gives some interesting anecdotes and stunning figures in regards to the amount of water we use everyday (and how it's used), the book feels repetitive and weighed down by the numbers and "inside baseball" talk that messes with the flow (pun intended). I was hoping for a book on the environmental issue surrounding water, and while I got some of that the book is more about the economics of water - which...more

like · see review

Aug 23, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water is a book about our relationship to water. I use the term "relationship" carefully - water is political, historical, economic, spiritual and medicinal. It is a substance that we ignore while it runs from the tap or on our lawns, but will pay 100x the value for in a plastic bottle.

This is not an environmental screed against water wasters or a technocrats view of a resource, it is a long essay about an under-apprecia...more

1 like · like · see review

May 28, 2012 Tina Hsu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Changed my mind about drinking recycled water.

80% of this book is excellent, informative, interesting, and surprising. The other 20% is a string of "Water is..." sentences. " "Water is transparent... Water is soft and soothing.. Water is comforting... A source of life... all-important... sexy.. alluring... natural and wild... a team player... familiar.." this goes on and on. These sections occur several times within each chapter. They are very skipable, unless you're looking for source material...more

like · see review

Jun 15, 2012 Rflutist rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book will change your perception of the "everyday" substance of water, and make you think about how you use it, and take it for granted if you have an unlimited supply at your disposal. You will also think of the millions of people who don't have water, and what they do to scrape together a supply that barely covers basic needs. Lastly, for those who buy bottled water - you will think differently about that, too. I'm glad that I read this book; I recommend it to all, especially those who ar...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 08, 2013 Louise Silk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A little too much repetition and deliberation in this book for my tastes but definitely informative and important to understand the importance of water and the unfortunate way we take it for granted.

Fascinating information about cities like Las Vegas and Atlanta that I, for sure, and probably most of us are unaware.

One thing missing from the book was the tie in to global warming and the climate change and the other thing was some recommendations and solutions that go beyond the actual facts of...more

like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-of-2011

I will never leave the faucet on when I brush my teeth again. I realized I do it, because I feel rich, when the water is running and I can waste water, but after this book I will stop!
I learned a lot about water. He has some fun facts that get you thinking. I felt like he was prophetic in a lot of ways. I believe the golden days of water will soon end. That our children will not know the ease and low price that we do today.

One quote I liked is the one that bottled water will not save you. I thi...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 16, 2011 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My brain is waterlogged.
Open "The Big Thirst" to any page, plump your finger down at any spot at random, and you'll probably come across something about water you didn't know or hadn't thought about. At least that's the way I experienced it.
It gets to be almost too much about water, but it's certainly well-reported and well-told and ultimately I think it's going to have an effect on how I think about water.
The thesis is straight-forward. The golden era of water is over, Fishman says. Abundant, c...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 14, 2013 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book isn’t about how to make changes in your lifestyle with regards to water conservation. It isn’t a how-to book for urban or rural planners. It is a book that will challenge what you think you know about water from the big picture including where it comes from and what do we really mean by “clean”. This book will also identify our emotional connection with water and will put those assumptions to the test. Near the end of the book, an economist presents a model for future water use that ma...more

like · see review

Sep 21, 2012 Efox rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-books

Can I say I really like the message of this book while not enjoying the book much at all?

Fishman's book is really one of the hottest in my work area right now. His messages about how our relationship to water has to change if we are going to keep up with the growing demands on our systems and resources and that we have the technology and know how to deal with these incredibly challenging issues was fantastic. He looked at the water in Las Vegas, profiled what is happening with the big dry in Au...more

like · see review

Jul 01, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

Marvels, mysteries, and madness indeed!

This book completely sucked me in at the beginning--the amazing science behind water that I never thought too much about. The way water freezes and is then less dense so it floats--you guys, I know we all know that, but nothing else does that. How the water we have on Earth is all of the water we've ever had and will ever have--that seems pretty basic too, but I never really thought about it. No new water forming...except out in space! And that's pretty fas...more

like · see review

Mar 07, 2012 Allison marked it as read-nonfiction

Shelves: read-2012, great

This book is full of lots of facts I didn't really know, but, admittedly, I knew very little about water at the start.

I thought the chapter on India was maybe the most disturbing. Water is considered a sacred thing there, so the population generally believes it doesn't matter what you throw into it -- it remains clean. It's a cultural and religious issue because the rivers figure hugely into Hindu mythology. The major rivers are extremely polluted -- from sewage, factories, animals and various o...more This book is full of lots of facts I didn't really know, but, admittedly, I knew very little about water at the start.

I thought the chapter on India was maybe the most disturbing. Water is considered a sacred thing there, so the population generally believes it doesn't matter what you throw into it -- it remains clean. It's a cultural and religious issue because the rivers figure hugely into Hindu mythology. The major rivers are extremely polluted -- from sewage, factories, animals and various other waste -- and look as black as ink, but people still go to them and into them for various rituals. The measurements of pollutants in the Yamuna River are so high that one drop of it, according to U.S. standards, would make six bathtubs of water unsafe to use. And that's just a tributary to the Ganges, so presumably the Ganges is in even worse shape.

Also, I had no idea how many have to stand in line for (unclean, dangerous to consume) water whenever it becomes available, or walk miles and miles to get water each and every day. So many people, women in particular, are slaves to the claiming and transportation of water. So many girls don't go to school because they have to fetch water, or because there aren't working toilets at school (leading them to drop out for lack of privacy when they begin menstruating), perpetuating a cycle of remaining uneducated and being at the mercy of men later in life.

Another thing I hadn't fully considered is that water is a local issue. If there is a water shortage in California, we can't ship our water out from Virginia in any necessary quantity. That means each locality has to learn to solve its own water challenges and meet the demands. Of course, that doesn't mean first-world countries can't provide guidance and monetary aid to countries whose water systems are in dismal shape.

I'm not sure I agree with the idea of creating a private-company-like (clearly I was an econ major) economy around water, but then, I do agree that most people don't value it and don't understand the difficulties of maintaining the system it comes from. One thing is clear -- the way we handle our water systems will have change to in the coming years.

Fishman gets a bit repetitive in later chapters, but The Big Thirst is a solid, eye-opening read about a topic that gets little coverage in the general media.(less)

like · see review

title link	preview: The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water
avg rating	preview: The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water Goodreads rating: 3.88 (379 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10503170-the-big-thirst?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328316139l/10503170.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10503170-the-big-thirst?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water by Charles Fishman[/url]

The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (7)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Books by Charles Fishman

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Big Thirst: T...

The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (7)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Books by Charles Fishman

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Big Thirst: T...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (7)