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Running Out of Water
http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Running-Out-of-Water-Peter-Rogers-Susan-Leal/9780230111523
The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource (MacSci)
By
Peter Rogers, Susan Leal, Congressman Edward J Markey (Foreword by)
This item is unavailable.We will email you if this item comes back into stock. | Rating: | | | Format: | Electronic Book Text, 256 pages | | Published In: | United States, 17 August 2010 |
Water is the world's life source and essential to all living creatures. Although we live on the blue planet, only 3 percent of all our water is drinkable. Yet we've grown accustomed to using it with abandon - individuals consume about 80 to 100 gallons per day adding up to the equivalent of an Olympic sized swimming pool every year. By this decade's end, when the world population is predicted to reach 8 billion, we will face severe shortages. In this ground breaking and forward-looking book, Harvard professor Peter Rogers and former general manager of the San Francisco Utilities Commission, Susan Leal give us a sobering perspective on the water crisis--why it's happening, where it's likely to strike, and what puts the worst strain on our supply. They explain how water's unique status as a renewable but finite resource misleads us into thinking we can always produce more of it. They introduce exciting new technologies that can help revolutionize our consumption of water and explain how different areas of the world have taken the helm in alleviating the burden of water shortages. Rogers and Leal show how it takes individuals at all levels to make this happen, from grassroots organizations who monitor their community's water sources, to local officials who plan years in advance how they will appropriate water, to the national government who can invest in infrastructure for water conservation today. Informed and inspiring, "Running out of Water" is a clarion call for action and an innovative look at how we as a nation and individuals can confront the crisis.
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About the AuthorPeter Rogers is a leading water expert and professor of environmental engineering at Harvard and a senior advisor to the Global Water Partnership. He has written for many scientific journals including "Scientific American" on this subject, and has received a Guggenheim, and a Twentieth Century Fellowship. Susan Leal is a senior fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University and an associate of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is also an environmental and management consultant, and the former head of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, a large regional water and power utility. While at the utility, she established the nation's first coalition of large water utilities to address the challenges of climate change. Reviews"["Running Out of Water's"] excellent thumbnail introduction to the economics of water makes clear why the market cannot adequately allocate water resources...Presenting a wide range of both private and government-initiated efforts to manage water resources, [Rogers and Leal] offer a kind of how-to manual based on best practices...The great strength of Rogers and Leal's book is its inclusion of cases that are about the unmentionable side of water: sewage."--"Foreign Affairs""A well-written, interesting read...highly recommended."--"Choice""Very straightforward...A few hours with this book, and you'll be able to dominate any party conversation about water. And, even more, you'll want to read -- and think -- more about this most precious of all liquids."--Jesse Kornbluth, The Huffington Post "Peter Rogers and Susan Leal get to grips with how we can keep the taps flowing, showcasing such solutions as "toilet-to-tap" sewage recycling in Singapore, water trading in Australia and smarter irrigation systems in the US...bravely make the case for well-regulated water privatisation...They have got the bottom line right, though: the water crisis is of our own making. There is enough of the stuff to go around."--Fred Pearce, for New Scientist's Culture Lab "This wonderful book you now hold in your hands...will introduce you to leaders around the world who are finding creative solutions for conserving and protecting our water supply...A call to action as well as a celebration of the progress already under way. "Running Out of Water" offers hope and guidance for getting that crucial job done."--from the foreword by Congressman Edward J. Markey "An admirably clear exposition of the lamentable state of the planet's water. But this book is more than just lamentations and excoriations. I particularly liked Rogers and Leal's selection of eminently sensible, easily replicable, scalable solutions, and their sense that yes, the water world can be fixed."--Marq de Villiers, author o
| Publisher: | Palgrave MacMillan | | ISBN: | 0230111521 |
| EAN: | 9780230111523 |
| Age Range: |
15+ years |
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