When The Rivers Run Dry: What Happens When Our Water Runs Out? - Hardcover

Pearce, Fred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1903919576 ISBN 13: 9781903919576

Verlag: Eden Project Books, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Fred Pearce has travelled the World to provide the most complete portrait yet of the causes of the world water crisis - THE resource crisis for the 21st century. Calling for a 'blue revolution' , he finds new solutions that will surprise most readers.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Fred Pearce was born and educated in the UK He studied Geography at Cambridge University and has since reported on environment, science and development issues from 54 countries. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV, with interview credits from Today to Richard and Judy to the Open University. Fred lives in London.

"Fred Pearce is an artist with a pen, writing beautifully and movingly

about an emerging crisis that will galvanize the world's attention." - James Speth, ex head of blue-chip World Resources Institute and the UN

Development Programme, and now dean of Yale School of Environmental

Studies:

Aus dem Klappentext

Few of us take the trouble to consider how much water we use. We drink no more than 5 litres each in a day and even after washing and flushing toilets we consume only 150 litres; but it can take as much as 5000 litres to grow just one kilo of rice; 11000 litres to feed enough cow to make a quarter-pound burger; and you could fill 25 baths with the water it takes to grow the cotton for a T-shirt. In such ways we consume a hundred times our own weight in water every day.

But the world is running out of water. Some of our largest rivers now trickle into sand miles from the ocean, exhausted by human need. Even in the downs of lowland England, rivers and streams are drying up as we pump water from the hills where they once sprung. And it is not just the rivers. The wells are drying up too. Across the world, ancient reserves of underground water are being emptied and most of them will never naturally refill. By 2025 three billion people will face chronic water shortages and the spectre of water wars looms. Water is 'the new oil' - except we can live without oil; there are no alternatives to fresh water.

Fred Pearce has travelled all over the world preparing the most complete portrait yet of the growing world water crisis. He explores its complex origins, from waste to wrong-headed engineering projects to high-yield crop varieties that saved a generation from famine but are now draining the earth dry. His vivid reportage reveals the personal stories behind failing rivers, barren fields, desertification, floods, water wars, and even the death of cultures.

Is there hope? Yes - but only if we revolutionize the way we treat water. Terrifying about the consequences if governments fail to act, yet ultimately forward-thinking and inspiring, this phenomenally important book shows us just how essential it is that each of us take responsibility for the water we use now - before all our rivers run dry.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Eden Project Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1903919576
• ISBN 13: 9781903919576
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 368
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar