num_pages: 336
description: Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water both for agriculture and for individual consumption, but now economists say that by 2025 water scarcity will cut global food production by more than the current U.S. grain harvest. In this groundbreaking book, veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce focuses on the dire state of the world's rivers to provide our most complete portrait yet of the growing world water crisis and its ramifications for us all.Pearce traveled to more than thirty countries while researching When the Rivers Run Dry, examining the current state of crucial water sources like the Indus River in Pakistan, the Colorado River in the United States, and the Yellow and Yangzte rivers in China. Pearce deftly weaves together the complicated scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the water crisis, showing us its complex origins-from waste to wrong-headed engineering projects to high-yield crop varieties that have saved developing countries from starvation but are now emptying their water reserves. He reveals the most daunting water issues we face today, among them the threat of flooding in China's Yellow River, where rising silt levels will prevent dykes from containing floodwaters; the impoverishment of Pakistan's Sindh, a once-fertile farming valley now destroyed by the 14 million tons of salt that the much-depleted Indus deposits annually on the land but cannot remove; the disappearing Colorado River, whose reservoirs were once the lifeblood of seven states but which could dry up as soon as 2007; and the poisoned springs of Palestine and the Jordan River, where Israeli control of the water supply has only fed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.The situation is dire, but not without remedy. Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide water shortage is not more and bigger dams but greater efficiency and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest.
language: English
title: When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century
titlecomplete: When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century
characters: Bob Schemenauer, Michael Evenari, Saparmurat Niyazov, Daniel Rosenfeld, Mao Zedong, James Wolfensohn, Dai Qing, Pliny the Elder, Andrew Parker
genres: Climate Change, Environment, Politics, Geography, Science, Nature, Agriculture, Nonfiction, History, Sustainability
ratings_count: 966
places: Sahel, Arizona, Burkina Faso, El Paso, Texas, Juarez, California, Amazon River, Isle of Ely, Snowy Mountains, Yuma, Arizona, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, Karnataka State, Nagaragawa, Idaho, Hirapur, Yangtze River, Kansas, Indus River, Kazakhstan, Madhya Pradesh, Kushkal, Gujarat, Mozambique, Dipordi, Lake Mead, Crimea, Sudan, Mexico, Helmand Province, Shandong Province, Turkmenistan, Negev Desert, Tamil Nadu, Namibia, Morocco, Devon, England, Paraguay, Angkor, Inner Mongolia, Tilaipani, Madhya Pradesh, Angola, Okavango delta, Cyprus, Shanxi Province, Plachimara, Keraia, Palestine, Texas, Botswana, Iran, Australia, Santa Cruz, California, Lake Powell, Utah, Israel, West Bank, Sumer, Sahara Desert, Oklahoma, Sussex, England, Ely, Baluchistan State, Honduras, Tirupur, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Loess Plateau, Cambodia, Sudd, Phoenix, Arizona, Gansu Province, Afghanistan, Shallalah Saghirah, Tibet, Lynmouth, Devon, England, Ojinaga, Lake Chad, Ninxia Province, Machakos District, Pakistan, Ghana, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, China, Golan Heights, New South Wales, Canada, Uzbekistan, Kashmir, Kent, England, Libya, South Downs, England, Tampa Bay, Florida, Feodosia, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, Yellow River, Aral Sea, Hidalgo State, Guatemala, Tegucigalpa, North Dakota, Gaza, Mekong River
publisher: Beacon Press