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When the Rivers Run Dry, Fully Revised and Updated Edition: Water-The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century
A new edition of the veteran science writer's groundbreaking work on the world's water crisis, featuring all-new reporting from the most recent global flashpoints
Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water for both agriculture and individual consumption, but looming water scarcity threatens to cut global food production and cause conflict and unrest. In this visionary book, Fred Pearce takes readers around the world on a tour of the world's rivers to provide our most complete portrait yet of the growing global water crisis and its ramifications for us all. With vivid on-the-ground reporting, Pearce deftly weaves together the 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. Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide water shortage is more efficiency and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest.
Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water for both agriculture and individual consumption, but looming water scarcity threatens to cut global food production and cause conflict and unrest. In this visionary book, Fred Pearce takes readers around the world on a tour of the world's rivers to provide our most complete portrait yet of the growing global water crisis and its ramifications for us all. With vivid on-the-ground reporting, Pearce deftly weaves together the 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. Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide water shortage is more efficiency and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest.
328 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
112 people are currently reading
2251 people want to read
About the author
Fred Pearce
65 books93 followersFred Pearce is an English author and journalist based in London. He has been described as one of Britain's finest science writers and has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. He specialises in global environmental issues, including water and climate change, and frequently takes heretic and counter-intuitive views - "a sceptic in the best sense", he says.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
February 1, 2018
This is another one of those depressing books that catalogs in grim detail just how badly humans are screwing up the environment, on a cataclysmic scale, how greed, desperation, and short-sightedness have destroyed entire ecosystems, devastated nations, and displaced millions, and how even though we have the scientific and technological know-how to do better, we're not going to, because short-term thinking always wins.
Oh, the author ends with an optimistic chapter, as all these books do, detailing bold and forward-thinking news plans from economists and water engineers and politicians and scientists around the world — all the ways in which we could save the water tables, grow crops more efficiently with more "crop per drop," irrigate more cheaply, supply urban populations more sustainably, etc.
But that's after chapter after chapter detailing such disasters as the Aral Sea, which the Soviets basically destroyed and which the current government is continuing to destroy, and the Salton Sea in California, created by a mistake and now allowed to become a festering, drying blister in the Sonora desert, and the Dead Sea, which is receding visibly every year. Worse, though, are the water tables. These are the underground reservoirs of water which, unlike rivers, are non-renewable. Much like oil, once you tap them dry, they're gone (and they also destabilize the surrounding earth, leading to erosion and possibly even earthquakes), and farmers and cities around the world, from the American west to India, are tapping them at an alarming rate. Everyone knows that wells used to hit water at 200 feet and now have to go 1500 feet or more, but this doesn't stop everyone from trying to get the last drop.
It is the Tragedy of the Commons on a regional scale. As many of the farmers Fred Pearce interviews point out: "If everyone stopped using the water, that would be great, but if only we do, it won't make a difference, except that our family will starve."
When the Rivers Run Dry is a bit of travel journalism that covers nearly every continent. India and China and their respective mistreatment of the Ganges, the Indus, the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers are all covered, as is the madness that is Los Angeles and Las Vegas, currently draining the Colorado River dry and casting thirsty eyes thousands of miles north to the Great Lakes.
While America's water woes are certainly serious (at least in the west), the most tragic regions of the world are, predictably, the places where government policy is completely disconnected from local resource management, or where politics and war mix violently with water rights. China and the former Soviet Union have literally killed millions in man-made floods. The author's visit to the region around the Aral Sea was particularly depressing, as he describes a stunted, poisoned land where the people have no jobs, no hope, and no future. Then there is the Middle East, where Palestinians go thirsty in sight of Israeli swimming pools.
While there are some compelling stories in here, and enough facts and history to make you think, When the Rivers Run Dry was... well, a bit dry. Fred Pearce has been to many places and talked to many people, and what he's produced is a global atlas of water mismanagement, wrapped up in the end with a few cheery programs that might solve a few of them, and some suggestions that no one is really going to heed. He questions the wisdom of dam-building, says that cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas need to be more conservation-minded, and that farmers worldwide need to use more water-efficient irrigation methods.
Yup, good luck with that.
I think Charles Fishman's The Big Thirst was a better read on this subject.
June 25, 2008
this is my University's common reading program book for this year. So, now that I've finished it, I have to come up with a way to make it enticing and relevent to a bunch of freshmen (last year's group didn't like Mountains Beyond Mountains, which I loved). The premise of this book is great and it certainly stimulated all of my co-workers also reading the book to think about the issue of water use on both a personal and global level. However, it is extremely repetitive and could easily be significantly shorter, AND, there isn't a single footnote in the whole book. So, who knows how much of this stuff is actually true. Sure, it makes sense on an intellectual level, and there is enough detail included that _seems_ to support the author's hypotheses, but perhaps one of the main lessons I can draw from it to teach my freshmen is the concept of what makes a well-documented and supported academic book - how to read critically - and not necessarily blindly believe everything they read.
February 25, 2008
The book begins with amazing facts, such as: It takes between 250 and 650 gallons of water to make one bag of rice. While one person may drink only 250 gallons (or one ton) of water annually, the water used to cloth and provide food for them annually would fill half an Olympic-size swimming pool (or between 1,500 and 2,000 tons). I've just begun, but am hooked. What if the nutrition labels on food bags listed all the hidden amounts of energy and water it took to create the end food product? (And I can think of the vegan angle that would want to list how much pain and suffering was involved in the production of the animal-based food. Or the fair traders who would want to quantify the amount of human pain in the generation of food.) Will keep you posted.
May 18, 2011
Very readable and packed with fascinating information. But DEPRESSING. The world's fresh water situation is beyond hopeless. And, it going to get worse. Something to look forward to.
The only problem with this book is the complete lack of citations, which is puzzling.
The only problem with this book is the complete lack of citations, which is puzzling.
February 26, 2010
This book is EXCELLENT. If you only read one book about our water crisis, this is the one! And if you love it like I did, I'd recommend following it up with Water Follies, which is also about rivers, but focuses on a few in the US only...but in more detail. This book is more of an overview of the globe. It's VERY easy to read...if I remember correctly, it's written by a journalist who has chronicled river news for decades, given his inherent interest. The last parts of the book really touch on amazing things people are doing to draw water...and sometimes very low-tech, like capturing morning fog on plastic sheets for desert regions which border oceans. This is possibly my favorite book in the environmental category!
February 16, 2019
A very informative read about water - the shortage of it, the mismanagement of it, some of the solutions attempting to salvage the situation - that at times comes across as depressing.
The author undoubtedly is knowledgeable, but the book could have been better edited - it reads like an unrelenting barrage of disparate journalistic articles, instead of a more coherent thread reflecting a bigger picture.
Despite the flaws, this is still worth a read for anyone interested in obtaining a quick scan of the water problems plaguing many parts of the world today.
The author undoubtedly is knowledgeable, but the book could have been better edited - it reads like an unrelenting barrage of disparate journalistic articles, instead of a more coherent thread reflecting a bigger picture.
Despite the flaws, this is still worth a read for anyone interested in obtaining a quick scan of the water problems plaguing many parts of the world today.
July 30, 2011
A frightening look at just HOW MUCH we've screwed up this planet of ours. Each chapter looks at a certain type of water crisis, in several areas. To be honest, after a couple chapters, it becomes a monotonous stream of, "John Lockson at the So-and-So Bureau reported that the [Insert Great River Name] once had a flow of 100 million acre-feet, it is now reduced to a fifth of that." After the initial shock about the water situation, I didn't find it really interesting until the last third of the book, when Pearce begins making connections between water and war, as well as explaining several different efficient water-collecting/conservation devices.
January 9, 2012
A lukewarm 'ok/like' because the subject matter is so incredibly important and it hearkens back to my geology days. It's a subject I like to read about.
But, given that the subject matter is so numbers-driven, why no graphs and charts to help better visualize the issues. Also, no photos. Why? Also, no introduction to basic hydrology and aquifers (with diagrams). The last section was pretty good (but no images or resources links to get more information). A decent book that could have been presented much better.
But, given that the subject matter is so numbers-driven, why no graphs and charts to help better visualize the issues. Also, no photos. Why? Also, no introduction to basic hydrology and aquifers (with diagrams). The last section was pretty good (but no images or resources links to get more information). A decent book that could have been presented much better.
June 4, 2015
Written in 2006, Fred Pearces's book "When the Rivers Run Dry", seems somewhat prophetic to those of us living in the Southwest United States. The Colorado River, the lifeblood of the Southwest, is severely overused, and upstream demands means it no longer flows to the sea. With reduced river flows and diminished snow pack in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada mountains, water supplies in the Southwestern states are severely stretched. As 2015 news accounts describe, California has been in a drought for several years, and significant water restrictions have been issued statewide. But water issues reach well beyone just the Southwest United states. Many other regions are suffering similar impacts, as Fred Pearce describes in his book.
Locally, Southern California's Salton Sea, as well as Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the U.S. Southwest, are shrinking rapidly. On a more global scale, the Aral Sea in Asia, once the world's 4th largest lake, has all but disappeared. Southwest Brazil is undergoing a terrible drought, as are parts of China, Australia, Spain, Syria, Iraq, Africa, etc. And as leaders have tried to solve the problems by damming rivers, creating man-made lakes, creating huge irrigation projects, matters seem to just be getting worse. Water is wasted through inadequate water infrastructure, groundwater aquifers are incapable of being replenished, wells are running dry world-wide, and what water which does reach groundwater sources often is so polluted as to be useless for consumption or agriculture. Dams created to prevent flooding prove incapable of fulfilling their mission, resulting in devastation to towns, villages, and downstream population. We hear of some of these situations, over time, but the totality and impact of the problem often doesn't register. But this book certainly drives the point home.
In addition to the various places around the world suffering from water shortages, Pearce describes numerous and well detailed examples of failed water infrastructure projects, increased pollution of fresh water supplies, and the folly of a number of gone-bad water resource improvement policies. As world population increases, water resources are being over used, and it only takes a few years of lower rainfall, lower snowpack in mountains, shrinking glaciers, or poor water management decisions to push regions into crisis. The beauty of the book is that the chapters are very short, examples are clear and to the point, and extremely easy to read. It's truly a book for the layman, easy to understand without being superficial.
It may be an exaggeration to compare this book and its impact to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", but as Carson's book highlighted the problems of pesticides and DDT, kickstarting the environmental movement at the end of the 20th century, Pearce's book highlights water pollution and shortages as the defining crisis of the twenty-first century. Hopefully, this book and others like it will raise attention and resources to address the water crises around the world.
When beginning the book, the examples make you feel that the earth can barely supply enough water for its current population. But Pearce leaves us with some hopeful prospects for the future. The good news is that water is the ultimate renewable resource. We never destroy water. We may mismanage it, pollute it, waste it, but sooner or later, it will return one day. The difficulty is in ensuring that the water we need will be there, when and where we need it. Pearce shows where we mismanage water, and where we have the potential for doing better. The solution in most cases is not more and bigger engineering schemes, giant desert canals or megadams. These projects tend to be hugely expensive, and cause as many problems as the solve.
Recreating flood plains, recovering ancient water delivery systems, selected dam removals, drip irrigation techniques, porous pavement initiatives in major cities, natural steps to refill aquifers, capturing monsoonal rains, rooftop rain capture, etc. are all effective tools to improve our precious water supplies. But of course, fixing the problem requires being AWARE of the problem, and "When the Rivers Run Dry" brings the problems, along with some solutions (and a promise for more intelligent water usage in the future), to light.
Locally, Southern California's Salton Sea, as well as Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the U.S. Southwest, are shrinking rapidly. On a more global scale, the Aral Sea in Asia, once the world's 4th largest lake, has all but disappeared. Southwest Brazil is undergoing a terrible drought, as are parts of China, Australia, Spain, Syria, Iraq, Africa, etc. And as leaders have tried to solve the problems by damming rivers, creating man-made lakes, creating huge irrigation projects, matters seem to just be getting worse. Water is wasted through inadequate water infrastructure, groundwater aquifers are incapable of being replenished, wells are running dry world-wide, and what water which does reach groundwater sources often is so polluted as to be useless for consumption or agriculture. Dams created to prevent flooding prove incapable of fulfilling their mission, resulting in devastation to towns, villages, and downstream population. We hear of some of these situations, over time, but the totality and impact of the problem often doesn't register. But this book certainly drives the point home.
In addition to the various places around the world suffering from water shortages, Pearce describes numerous and well detailed examples of failed water infrastructure projects, increased pollution of fresh water supplies, and the folly of a number of gone-bad water resource improvement policies. As world population increases, water resources are being over used, and it only takes a few years of lower rainfall, lower snowpack in mountains, shrinking glaciers, or poor water management decisions to push regions into crisis. The beauty of the book is that the chapters are very short, examples are clear and to the point, and extremely easy to read. It's truly a book for the layman, easy to understand without being superficial.
It may be an exaggeration to compare this book and its impact to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", but as Carson's book highlighted the problems of pesticides and DDT, kickstarting the environmental movement at the end of the 20th century, Pearce's book highlights water pollution and shortages as the defining crisis of the twenty-first century. Hopefully, this book and others like it will raise attention and resources to address the water crises around the world.
When beginning the book, the examples make you feel that the earth can barely supply enough water for its current population. But Pearce leaves us with some hopeful prospects for the future. The good news is that water is the ultimate renewable resource. We never destroy water. We may mismanage it, pollute it, waste it, but sooner or later, it will return one day. The difficulty is in ensuring that the water we need will be there, when and where we need it. Pearce shows where we mismanage water, and where we have the potential for doing better. The solution in most cases is not more and bigger engineering schemes, giant desert canals or megadams. These projects tend to be hugely expensive, and cause as many problems as the solve.
Recreating flood plains, recovering ancient water delivery systems, selected dam removals, drip irrigation techniques, porous pavement initiatives in major cities, natural steps to refill aquifers, capturing monsoonal rains, rooftop rain capture, etc. are all effective tools to improve our precious water supplies. But of course, fixing the problem requires being AWARE of the problem, and "When the Rivers Run Dry" brings the problems, along with some solutions (and a promise for more intelligent water usage in the future), to light.
September 10, 2018
A major crisis is not building, but well on its way. It will define the 21st century, as water is of the utmost importance for us all.
The book provides the details of many spots on Earth, about the problems and the solutions found to water scarcity and abundance. It should be part of every country's education curriculum.
Though, buy the newest 2018 edition if you can, not the 2006 edition I'm reading, as new developments inevitably shed a new light.
The book provides the details of many spots on Earth, about the problems and the solutions found to water scarcity and abundance. It should be part of every country's education curriculum.
Though, buy the newest 2018 edition if you can, not the 2006 edition I'm reading, as new developments inevitably shed a new light.
February 4, 2009
This book gives some dire warnings about mismanagement of our world's rivers - the damming of rivers and pumping of aquifers causes more destruction by floods and drought (which is not what the dam-builders of the world would tell you). Not an uplifting book, but a very good book for those who agree that water is a major resource to be fought over in the 21st century.
January 13, 2021
This was a nice survey of the 'state of the planet's waters', written back 2006. Which is just far enough back to be relevant but provides some interesting checks on the many predictions (mainly of doom and gloom) that are made. Not saying much of it is not warranted. Water is of course the most essential material on earth and it is under pressure in myriad ways as well-documented by Fred Pearce, an English journalist/science writer. He did a fair amount of research for this and traveled widely around the planet to chronicle the world's water woes. No corner of the globe really escapes his pen, with interesting sections on India, China, Africa, Asia, Europe and the western hemisphere. From Indian villages dealing with diminishing and polluted groundwater to the gargantuan water projects in China (the Yangtze water transfer being the most astounding), to environmental disasters likes the Aral Sea in the former USSR. One major criticism is the complete lack of footnoting and sources. You can look up some of it and it was interesting to do 'fact-checks' and progress assessments on various assertions. Issues with dams was a major theme--too many, in the wrong places, unsafe, counter-productive, etc. This is not the work of a hydrologist but he does interview quite a few and the book seemed to hit about the correct level of concern. The world may not be about to end (yet) but the issues are not going away. Some photos would have been a nice addition, but this a generally a good, accessible book for anyone wanting to get some insight into our global water woes.
Read
August 1, 2020read chapters 1, 3, 8, 12, 21, 22, 23, and 24 for my geology course. it was bleak and depressing. sad yeehaw.
Read
October 12, 2024Read the 2018 version*
January 19, 2012
Overview
In When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce takes us on a journey across the world exploring the great sources of water and how humans have interacted with them down through history. Pearce uses stories of his travels to provide an effective structure for the book and push the reader through what would be boring statistics by themselves. Three-fourths of the book focuses on the problems while the remaining fourth describes and suggests a few possible solutions.
Strengths
* Pearce's passion about the topic seeps into every page of the book. His stories of destruction and ruin left in the wake of water mismanagemen and left me appalled at our current situation and longing for a solution to it.
* The author seems to have traveled to every country on earth just to research this book. The global scope of the book is staggering and illuminating at the same time.
* Pearce manages to describe the crisis without coming across like a doomsday prophet. Though he obviously has a message he wants to communicate, I appreciated that he did not let his passion obscure his reason.
Weaknesses
* At times, Pearce can have "mono-vision" when looking at the world through the lens of the water crisis. This is most evidently seen when he attributes the fall of the Incan and Khmer civilizations directly to their mismanagement of water. That could very well have played a part, but to attribute it solely to a water crisis ignores the complexity of a civilization's failure. Many factors probably played a part, not just one. A more subtle way this shows up is when he assumes that some of the shrinking water resources are directly attributable to human mismanagement. We know so little about the cycles of the earth that I'm not convinced that humanity is the only responsible party.
* As I read the book, I began to wonder whether Pearce was simply on a mission to warn us of the impending doom hovering over humanity and then leave us out to dry. But to my relief, the last few chapters offer suggestions for improving the situation. He details current and ancient methods and provides some beneficial suggestions that will challenge the way we have always done things. However, they did leave me hungering for more definable and workable solutions.
Thoughts
From a Christian perspective, this is an important book. All I often hear about the environment is that we were created to rule it and subdue it, and all these evil environmentalists try to do is keep us from doing our God-given duty. Although these statements have some truth in them, the creation mandate is far more nuanced than how many describe it. Unbounded capitalism is not God's intention. Part of Adam's duty was to rule the earth, but ever since the curse, humanity has largely ruled like a tyrant. We often forget that God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden specifically to care for it (Gen. 2:15). Harmony between humans and nature existed in the Garden Eden, and the curse did not wipe that concern away from God's mind. Jesus came to renew all things, including the whole cosmos. Yes, this will not be achieved until the New Creation, but since when should that stop us from pursuing that ideal right now?
I often feel that Christians let their eschatology obscure the Creation Mandate. Many have the attitude that since this world is going to burn up, it doesn't really matter how we use it. When this attitude connects with American capitalism, the results can be disastrous. Development at any cost is seen as the highest good. I have not developed a full theology of the environment here, but I think it is high time Christians stopped hiding behind the Rapture and started pursuing the good of the earth. God commands us to create new things and to work the earth and fill it, but this work must be in harmony with the creation He called "good" before man came on the scene. Could this focus obscure a concern for souls? Of course, and so can every other thing in the world, but that doesn't mean you ignore it. Thankfully, some Christians have addressed these issues. But I fear that they are largely ignored.
This book taught me a lot I did not know about our world. Cloistered away in America, I have never felt the desperation for clean water than many people feel on a day-to-day basis. I feel inconvenienced when the water comes out of the tap lukewarm and I have to wait for it to cool down, never thinking that many are dying from polluted or nonexistent water. Solutions to this crisis are not easy and often take on a political slant. But we must not sit back and do nothing either. Many people's lives depend on it.
That was a long review, and if you read the whole thing, then let me know your thoughts.
http://jonbiddle.tumblr.com/post/1609...
In When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce takes us on a journey across the world exploring the great sources of water and how humans have interacted with them down through history. Pearce uses stories of his travels to provide an effective structure for the book and push the reader through what would be boring statistics by themselves. Three-fourths of the book focuses on the problems while the remaining fourth describes and suggests a few possible solutions.
Strengths
* Pearce's passion about the topic seeps into every page of the book. His stories of destruction and ruin left in the wake of water mismanagemen and left me appalled at our current situation and longing for a solution to it.
* The author seems to have traveled to every country on earth just to research this book. The global scope of the book is staggering and illuminating at the same time.
* Pearce manages to describe the crisis without coming across like a doomsday prophet. Though he obviously has a message he wants to communicate, I appreciated that he did not let his passion obscure his reason.
Weaknesses
* At times, Pearce can have "mono-vision" when looking at the world through the lens of the water crisis. This is most evidently seen when he attributes the fall of the Incan and Khmer civilizations directly to their mismanagement of water. That could very well have played a part, but to attribute it solely to a water crisis ignores the complexity of a civilization's failure. Many factors probably played a part, not just one. A more subtle way this shows up is when he assumes that some of the shrinking water resources are directly attributable to human mismanagement. We know so little about the cycles of the earth that I'm not convinced that humanity is the only responsible party.
* As I read the book, I began to wonder whether Pearce was simply on a mission to warn us of the impending doom hovering over humanity and then leave us out to dry. But to my relief, the last few chapters offer suggestions for improving the situation. He details current and ancient methods and provides some beneficial suggestions that will challenge the way we have always done things. However, they did leave me hungering for more definable and workable solutions.
Thoughts
From a Christian perspective, this is an important book. All I often hear about the environment is that we were created to rule it and subdue it, and all these evil environmentalists try to do is keep us from doing our God-given duty. Although these statements have some truth in them, the creation mandate is far more nuanced than how many describe it. Unbounded capitalism is not God's intention. Part of Adam's duty was to rule the earth, but ever since the curse, humanity has largely ruled like a tyrant. We often forget that God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden specifically to care for it (Gen. 2:15). Harmony between humans and nature existed in the Garden Eden, and the curse did not wipe that concern away from God's mind. Jesus came to renew all things, including the whole cosmos. Yes, this will not be achieved until the New Creation, but since when should that stop us from pursuing that ideal right now?
I often feel that Christians let their eschatology obscure the Creation Mandate. Many have the attitude that since this world is going to burn up, it doesn't really matter how we use it. When this attitude connects with American capitalism, the results can be disastrous. Development at any cost is seen as the highest good. I have not developed a full theology of the environment here, but I think it is high time Christians stopped hiding behind the Rapture and started pursuing the good of the earth. God commands us to create new things and to work the earth and fill it, but this work must be in harmony with the creation He called "good" before man came on the scene. Could this focus obscure a concern for souls? Of course, and so can every other thing in the world, but that doesn't mean you ignore it. Thankfully, some Christians have addressed these issues. But I fear that they are largely ignored.
This book taught me a lot I did not know about our world. Cloistered away in America, I have never felt the desperation for clean water than many people feel on a day-to-day basis. I feel inconvenienced when the water comes out of the tap lukewarm and I have to wait for it to cool down, never thinking that many are dying from polluted or nonexistent water. Solutions to this crisis are not easy and often take on a political slant. But we must not sit back and do nothing either. Many people's lives depend on it.
That was a long review, and if you read the whole thing, then let me know your thoughts.
http://jonbiddle.tumblr.com/post/1609...
October 19, 2014
Great book!
We can live without oil, but we can’t live without water.
Fred Pearce, author of Rivers Run Dry, has traveled and studied water in 30 countries and has been writing about water issues for over 20 years. His analysis of how we are committing what is termed hydraulic suicide with our water footprint is terrifying and calls all of us to action. It is a compelling book documenting the destruction of this resource as well as highlighting efforts being done to reclaim fresh water.
The outlook is not good. Already we have examples of wasted water resources, like the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where the Russians tried to grow cotton in the desert using water from the Aral. Today the Aral is completely dry. The constant salt exposure gives the Aral sea residents high incident of anemia, 95% in children. Some of the fishing towns near this area haven’t seen water in decades. Other areas of note are the poisoned springs of Palestine and the Jordan River, where Israeli control of the water supply has only fed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and access to water continues to be a major negotiating issue between Israel and its neighbors. Israel uses 2/3’s of its water supply to raise crops that generate 2% of its GDP and exports these products of oranges and tomatoes. Look at what the textile industries in India have done to the Indus River and its neighbor Pakistan. Geography dictates that India can cut off Pakistan’s access to the Indus.
In the last couple of weeks we have learned of the creation of a new lake in the Tunesia desert called Lake Gafsa. It is believed to have been caused by a tremor fracture of an underground reservoir. When it first appeared it was blue and now it has turned green and filled with algae and authorities are concerned that the water is carcinogenic because of its proximity to phosphorous mining in the region. Warnings have not stopped locals from swimming and drinking the water.
In our own country we have the disappearing of the Colorado River, whose reservoirs were once the lifeblood of seven states.
The Rio Grande now ceases to exist shortly after it passes El Paso. The Colorado no longer makes it all the way to the Pacific as it once did. Phoenix and Scottsdale take 1/5 of the flow of the Colorado. Arizona pumps 2X’s the water from the Colorado that is replenished from rain.
What is especially troubling is cases like the Colorado or the Rio Grande where every last drop is spoken for because changes in one area of the river can have multiple effect downstream. Conservation isn’t the only answer. We need better management of our waters and wetlands not just dams.
I want to highlight the most recent news regarding the algae growing in Lake Erie and its effect of access to clean water in Southeast Michigan and Toledo. We don’t have to travel the world to see the mismanagement of our resources and the need for clean water. I challenge each of you to become more aware of why and how we need to better manage this major resource by reading and discussing this book and others on the topic of Clean Water.
We can live without oil, but we can’t live without water.
Fred Pearce, author of Rivers Run Dry, has traveled and studied water in 30 countries and has been writing about water issues for over 20 years. His analysis of how we are committing what is termed hydraulic suicide with our water footprint is terrifying and calls all of us to action. It is a compelling book documenting the destruction of this resource as well as highlighting efforts being done to reclaim fresh water.
The outlook is not good. Already we have examples of wasted water resources, like the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where the Russians tried to grow cotton in the desert using water from the Aral. Today the Aral is completely dry. The constant salt exposure gives the Aral sea residents high incident of anemia, 95% in children. Some of the fishing towns near this area haven’t seen water in decades. Other areas of note are the poisoned springs of Palestine and the Jordan River, where Israeli control of the water supply has only fed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and access to water continues to be a major negotiating issue between Israel and its neighbors. Israel uses 2/3’s of its water supply to raise crops that generate 2% of its GDP and exports these products of oranges and tomatoes. Look at what the textile industries in India have done to the Indus River and its neighbor Pakistan. Geography dictates that India can cut off Pakistan’s access to the Indus.
In the last couple of weeks we have learned of the creation of a new lake in the Tunesia desert called Lake Gafsa. It is believed to have been caused by a tremor fracture of an underground reservoir. When it first appeared it was blue and now it has turned green and filled with algae and authorities are concerned that the water is carcinogenic because of its proximity to phosphorous mining in the region. Warnings have not stopped locals from swimming and drinking the water.
In our own country we have the disappearing of the Colorado River, whose reservoirs were once the lifeblood of seven states.
The Rio Grande now ceases to exist shortly after it passes El Paso. The Colorado no longer makes it all the way to the Pacific as it once did. Phoenix and Scottsdale take 1/5 of the flow of the Colorado. Arizona pumps 2X’s the water from the Colorado that is replenished from rain.
What is especially troubling is cases like the Colorado or the Rio Grande where every last drop is spoken for because changes in one area of the river can have multiple effect downstream. Conservation isn’t the only answer. We need better management of our waters and wetlands not just dams.
I want to highlight the most recent news regarding the algae growing in Lake Erie and its effect of access to clean water in Southeast Michigan and Toledo. We don’t have to travel the world to see the mismanagement of our resources and the need for clean water. I challenge each of you to become more aware of why and how we need to better manage this major resource by reading and discussing this book and others on the topic of Clean Water.
July 4, 2009
The author, Fred Pearce, is a journalist who has been traveling around the world and writing about water issues for over twenty years. It definitely shows in the style of this book. In 300+ pages, he takes you on a whirlwind tour around the globe to illustrate the dire situation that the global water supply is in. The case studies that Pearce describes show very vividly how fragile our supply to water is and how devastating our failure to protect it can be. THe chapters are short and centered around illustrating different types of problems, from poisoned wells, dissappearing aquifers, dead rivers and vanishing wetlands to salt encrusted farm land and dangerous dams. It's sobering, to say the least.
This book is definitely not written in an apocalyptic tone, but after the first 100 pages I was terrified. His story about what has happened to the people of Uchsai, on the (former) shore of the Aral Sea was heart breaking without any embellishment. Reading its description, I thought that if any place was hell on earth this was surely it. Fortunately, he also ends the book by talking about examples of what people are doing to possibly stem this crisis. Those chapters were really fascinating. They dealt mostly with decentralized, relatively low-tech solutions and really drove home the realization that, in many cases, hubristic attempts to centrally control water have ended us in deep shit.
One of the things I most appreciated about this book is that Pearce discusses these issues from many angles. I learned about biology, hydrology, political history, economics, social conditions etc., all in a very accessible language.
For example: he discusses water politics between Palestine and Israel, the draining of Lake Chad in Africa, the heartbreak of trying to tame CHina's Yellow river, the decimation of the Colorado, Qaddafi's "manmade river" project, etc... One of my favorite chapters was about the Mekong River in Cambodia. Discussion of water issues in SOuth America is pretty scant. Because he covers so much ground it could get tiring at times for a book of 300+ pages. Ultimately though, it's a book that I learned a lot from and am grateful for reading. Even if you don't plan on reading the whole thing, it's definitely worth picking up and reading the parts that sound most intriguing to you since it does read like a collection of well-researched articles.
I wish everyone I know would read it to get a better understanding of why water is such a crucial issue- how it's elementally tied to power, politics and survival on so many scales (and always has been).
Read it!!! He's not the most stunning writer, but he's a skilled one and his experience and the subject matter make it worth the effort.
This book is definitely not written in an apocalyptic tone, but after the first 100 pages I was terrified. His story about what has happened to the people of Uchsai, on the (former) shore of the Aral Sea was heart breaking without any embellishment. Reading its description, I thought that if any place was hell on earth this was surely it. Fortunately, he also ends the book by talking about examples of what people are doing to possibly stem this crisis. Those chapters were really fascinating. They dealt mostly with decentralized, relatively low-tech solutions and really drove home the realization that, in many cases, hubristic attempts to centrally control water have ended us in deep shit.
One of the things I most appreciated about this book is that Pearce discusses these issues from many angles. I learned about biology, hydrology, political history, economics, social conditions etc., all in a very accessible language.
For example: he discusses water politics between Palestine and Israel, the draining of Lake Chad in Africa, the heartbreak of trying to tame CHina's Yellow river, the decimation of the Colorado, Qaddafi's "manmade river" project, etc... One of my favorite chapters was about the Mekong River in Cambodia. Discussion of water issues in SOuth America is pretty scant. Because he covers so much ground it could get tiring at times for a book of 300+ pages. Ultimately though, it's a book that I learned a lot from and am grateful for reading. Even if you don't plan on reading the whole thing, it's definitely worth picking up and reading the parts that sound most intriguing to you since it does read like a collection of well-researched articles.
I wish everyone I know would read it to get a better understanding of why water is such a crucial issue- how it's elementally tied to power, politics and survival on so many scales (and always has been).
Read it!!! He's not the most stunning writer, but he's a skilled one and his experience and the subject matter make it worth the effort.
April 15, 2020
Pearce has updated his book of the same title but here he gives it a new subtitle (the 2007 version is subtitled, "Water--The Defining Crisis of the 21st Century"). Pearce's book needs to sit on the same shelf as the incredible book by Dahr Jamail, "The End of Ice" (2019); they share the message only on different avenues.
In reading Pearce, I learned of some of the catastrophes we have unleashed. For example, I had not known before that in China, in 1938 when the Japanese Army was invading China, the Chinese generals ordered 800 soldiers to set explosive charges in the Huayuankou Dike. The explosion unleashed enough floodwater to slow the Japanese advance by a month--but it killed 890,000 Chinese during that month.
For example, Pearce relates what he calls the greatest environmental disaster of the 20th C., the Soviet Union's draining of the Aral Sea to feed cotton farms in the 1970s and 80s and eradicating the body water that was once the size of Belgium and Netherlands combined.
Pearce writes about all aspects of harvesting rivers--mistakes and triumphs. I was hoping to read paragraphs or a chapter on the Elwha River reclamation (it happened between his initial version and this current edition), but he bypasses it. Still, it's an impressive study of how freshwater is and will be a defining crisis for our hydrological societies. He covers all the continents and almost crosses all the rivers. He calls for a new ethic in how we use our water.
In reading Pearce, I learned of some of the catastrophes we have unleashed. For example, I had not known before that in China, in 1938 when the Japanese Army was invading China, the Chinese generals ordered 800 soldiers to set explosive charges in the Huayuankou Dike. The explosion unleashed enough floodwater to slow the Japanese advance by a month--but it killed 890,000 Chinese during that month.
For example, Pearce relates what he calls the greatest environmental disaster of the 20th C., the Soviet Union's draining of the Aral Sea to feed cotton farms in the 1970s and 80s and eradicating the body water that was once the size of Belgium and Netherlands combined.
Pearce writes about all aspects of harvesting rivers--mistakes and triumphs. I was hoping to read paragraphs or a chapter on the Elwha River reclamation (it happened between his initial version and this current edition), but he bypasses it. Still, it's an impressive study of how freshwater is and will be a defining crisis for our hydrological societies. He covers all the continents and almost crosses all the rivers. He calls for a new ethic in how we use our water.
June 15, 2010
What I enjoyed about this book was that it was written as a series of case studies around the world that each tackled a different set of water-related issues. Also, it was written by a journalist which made it highly readable and entertaining, while still maintaining a fairly academic feel. Also, he personally travelled & interviewed most of the people he discusses, which makes his stories more personal & compelling. His thoughts on the Aral Sea & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict were extremely compelling. Although I'd heard arguments previously that water was the major issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pearce argues that it was at the heart of the conflict way back. The Israelis had well-defined goals at the beginning of the 6-day war of which territory they wanted to capture, which gave them control over almost all of the Jordan River, as well as most of the western aquifer under the West Bank.
It would have been nice if he would have quoted his sources better. There's no bibliography, and although much of the work is based off of personal interviews which he names, there is also a bunch of factual research fleshing out the book, which he doesn't always cite, which is disappointing, but makes sense for a book that's aimed at an audience much wider than the scientific community.
It would have been nice if he would have quoted his sources better. There's no bibliography, and although much of the work is based off of personal interviews which he names, there is also a bunch of factual research fleshing out the book, which he doesn't always cite, which is disappointing, but makes sense for a book that's aimed at an audience much wider than the scientific community.
May 11, 2019
Pearce travels around the world, exploring country's major rivers and the destruction that mankind has brought them. He gives us the twentieth century soltuions to twenty-first century problems, in the engineering feats lauded over in the WPA era and the consequences they’re having today to address population control and ecosystem damage.
These structures are now prone to even more, with increased floods, changing weather patterns and the population booms. Many of these structures, whether canals, dams, or levees, are short-term fixes to long-term problems. Pearce gets right into these issues, talking to people affected by the health of their various rivers.
Pearce ultimately concludes that simpler technologies, not engineering marvels, are the solution. Things like rainwater harvesting and latrines, drip irrigation and smarter urban design. Local solutions are required, and if water is a human right, then it must not operate on narrow self-interest, as is the policy in so many places. Essentially, we need a smarter, more sustainable blue revolution, to parallel the green revolution of the environmental movement. WE need a new water ethic that respects and cherishes water and rather than try to revert it or direct it, instead uses its natural rhythms to sustain human population and the environment.
These structures are now prone to even more, with increased floods, changing weather patterns and the population booms. Many of these structures, whether canals, dams, or levees, are short-term fixes to long-term problems. Pearce gets right into these issues, talking to people affected by the health of their various rivers.
Pearce ultimately concludes that simpler technologies, not engineering marvels, are the solution. Things like rainwater harvesting and latrines, drip irrigation and smarter urban design. Local solutions are required, and if water is a human right, then it must not operate on narrow self-interest, as is the policy in so many places. Essentially, we need a smarter, more sustainable blue revolution, to parallel the green revolution of the environmental movement. WE need a new water ethic that respects and cherishes water and rather than try to revert it or direct it, instead uses its natural rhythms to sustain human population and the environment.
April 11, 2016
This isn't a cheerful book. Pearce offers us a glimpse of a future were millions of people suffer from drought and water shortages. But he does show how a different approach could solve many problems. He challenges the idea of big engineering problems as the solution, and shows how localised projects across the world could solve many of the problems associated with wate - in this sense the book is a hopeful one that does also offer a glimpse of a much better society - where human society is much more in balance with the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, in this case, the very ebb and flow of the rivers, streams and seas.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
October 24, 2014
The next wars won't be about oil. They'll be about water. Doubt that? Read this book.
When the Rivers Run Dry is a litany of abuses to our planet's fresh water systems. If Fred Pearce ticks them off in stultifying succession, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-style, it's not his fault: he's listing only some of the worst examples in making his point.
Add this to the tectonic shifts that humanity should make—away from a carbon-based, growth economy, for instance—but won't, until nature shifts us, the hard way.
Pearce is an experienced science writer, and keeps a cool head. That the book is powerful and maddening is due to his letting the facts speak for themselves.
When the Rivers Run Dry is a litany of abuses to our planet's fresh water systems. If Fred Pearce ticks them off in stultifying succession, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-style, it's not his fault: he's listing only some of the worst examples in making his point.
Add this to the tectonic shifts that humanity should make—away from a carbon-based, growth economy, for instance—but won't, until nature shifts us, the hard way.
Pearce is an experienced science writer, and keeps a cool head. That the book is powerful and maddening is due to his letting the facts speak for themselves.
May 22, 2008
This is a stunning book: very well researched, very readable, and very comprehensive.
Unless we find new ways of dealing with this situation, there could be many more floods and
periods of drought in our future. The Southeast US is one of the threatened areas: this is not only a global issue, but also a local one. I give this book my highest recommendation.
Unless we find new ways of dealing with this situation, there could be many more floods and
periods of drought in our future. The Southeast US is one of the threatened areas: this is not only a global issue, but also a local one. I give this book my highest recommendation.
October 21, 2018
One thing struck when reading this book: the Water Framework Directive requires European countries to bring their rivers to good quality status. However, European citizens see nothing wrong about demanding increased quantities of cheap cotton and food from countries like China, India and Uzbekistan where the production of this cotton and food is destroying local water supplies.
April 3, 2009
Science journalism at its very best; devastating in its implications.
May 19, 2013
There are absolutely no sources cited!! How can this be credible in the least? It's full of statistics that aren't referenced.
June 21, 2019
Amazingly documented worldwide overview of men-made hydrological problems, and how to solve them.
October 19, 2018
An exceedingly scary book, much more than what King or Lovecraft or Trump can imagine/do! And the reason why I call it scary is that its happening all around us and the bleak future we have ahead of us. Freshwater, one of the most precious resources we have, had been once treasured dearly and wisely used. But as the pace of industrialisation quickened and the population density rose, short-term gains overtook the long-term ones.
And with them came - DAMS!
Dams were once called the temples of the modern age by Nehru, India's first PM. They were supposed to usher in a post-colonial utopia and instead what we have is displaced homes, destroyed ecosystems, droughts, choking rivers and slow death. Worldwide rush to build more mega-dams like Hoover, Coulee, Three Gorges, Aswan, Narmada etc, and the ill-fated irrigation projects resulting from them have resulted in massive losses of available water coupled with irrational choices of water-demanding crops like cotton or alfalfa, have resulted in the current water crisis we face globally. Some highly tragic cases emerge out of these like the near total destruction of Aral sea and wetlands surrounding it, wanton destruction of Mesopotamian marshlands of around 20,000sq km in area, deforestation of Amazon rainforests, loss of British Fells at an increasing rate, among many others. These join the list of human-made environmental disasters which are threatening us now and lead our next generations on a doomed trajectory.
The solutions to this water crisis have to be political than scientific, for solutions do exist and in many countries water reclamation projects, increasing river flooding basins, taking lessons from ancient projects like wadis, shunning water-hungry crops like cotton in arid areas or nutrient-poor alfalfa, stop building newer dams, improve pipeline integrity should be the way.
This book is a world history on "tragedy of commons" and everyone should read it!
My Rating - 5/5
And with them came - DAMS!
Dams were once called the temples of the modern age by Nehru, India's first PM. They were supposed to usher in a post-colonial utopia and instead what we have is displaced homes, destroyed ecosystems, droughts, choking rivers and slow death. Worldwide rush to build more mega-dams like Hoover, Coulee, Three Gorges, Aswan, Narmada etc, and the ill-fated irrigation projects resulting from them have resulted in massive losses of available water coupled with irrational choices of water-demanding crops like cotton or alfalfa, have resulted in the current water crisis we face globally. Some highly tragic cases emerge out of these like the near total destruction of Aral sea and wetlands surrounding it, wanton destruction of Mesopotamian marshlands of around 20,000sq km in area, deforestation of Amazon rainforests, loss of British Fells at an increasing rate, among many others. These join the list of human-made environmental disasters which are threatening us now and lead our next generations on a doomed trajectory.
The solutions to this water crisis have to be political than scientific, for solutions do exist and in many countries water reclamation projects, increasing river flooding basins, taking lessons from ancient projects like wadis, shunning water-hungry crops like cotton in arid areas or nutrient-poor alfalfa, stop building newer dams, improve pipeline integrity should be the way.
This book is a world history on "tragedy of commons" and everyone should read it!
My Rating - 5/5
January 3, 2022
My only beef with this book was that it was a collection of stories about water conservation rather than a thesis that was argued. The water stories--as in "news stories"--are well-written, informative, and all together they paint a dire picture of the (non)-water-world to come. Although not written in the apocalyptic style, it does enumerate the many challenges the world's water supplies face from dams, irrigation, pollution, sinking water tables, and so on. Especially concerning, I think, were Pearce's accounts of China's use of dams to serve its own ends, much to the anguish of its less powerful downstream neighbors, from India to Vietnam. It's a problem that has roots, I think, in the same post-communistic imperialistic outlook that has China wanting to claim the entire South China Sea, crush Hong Kong's semi-independence, and win back Taiwan. The problem of water imperialism, however, exists all over the world, as major rivers often run through several countries. This book inspires me to get involved in my local water conservation organization. I recommend this book.
December 28, 2022
WOW!!!! one of the best books i’ve ever read. Only critique is that it’s a little outdated, would’ve loved to see an update with how the rivers are doing now 15 years after publication. it only seems more prevalent now as climate change intensifies, droughts deepen, once fertile areas salinize, and our rivers die. I now think of water everywhere i go. How much is wasted, how much water intense foods we use, how little we save. I walk on concrete and wonder how we can save the water that sinks in. I shrink away at the prospect of natural gas, hydro stations, EVs, and continuing agriculture as it currently is. I wonder if building highways everywhere is the answer. I don’t know. This book is deeply depressing but offers a glimmer of hope at the end. It bookends beautifully with “Eating to Extinction” and I think these should be read together to see the water (input) and food (output) side of this upcoming crisis. Is water crisis strong enough language? do we need stronger? how do we get people to care? well anyway I LOVE THIS BOOK
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