When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

When the Rivers Run Dry:
Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

by Fred Pearce
In this groundbreaking book, veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce travels to more than thirty countries to examine the current state of crucial water sources. Deftly weaving together the complicated scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the world water crisis, he provides our most complete portrait yet of this growing danger and its ramifications for us all.

โ€�A strongโ€”and scaryโ€”case that a worldwide water shortage is the most fearful looming environmental crisis. With a drumbeat of facts both horrific (thousands of wells in India and Bangladesh are poisoned by fluoride and arsenic) and fascinating (it takes 20 tons of water to make one pound of coffee), the former New Scientist news editor documents a โ€�kind of cataclysmโ€� already affecting many of the worldโ€�s great rivers.โ€� โ€”Publishers Weekly, starred review

โ€�Oil we can replace. Water we canโ€�tโ€”which is why this book is both so ominous and so important.โ€� โ€”Bill McKibben, ...