Awards

• Commended for L.A. Times Book Prize (History) 2010

Overview

“I read this wide-ranging and thoughtful book while sitting on the banks of the Ganges near Varanasi—it's a river already badly polluted, and now threatened by the melting of the loss of the glaciers at its source to global warming. Four hundred million people depend on it, and there's no backup plan. As Steven Solomon makes clear, the same is true the world over; this volume will give you the background to understand the forces that will drive much of 21st century history.” —Bill McKibben In Water, esteemed journalist Steven Solomon describes a terrifying—and all too real—world in which access to fresh water has replaced oil as the primary cause of global conflicts that increasingly emanate from drought-ridden, overpopulated areas of the world. Meticulously researched and undeniably prescient, Water is a stunningly clear-eyed action statement on what Robert F Kennedy, Jr. calls “the biggest environmental and political challenge of our time.”

Full Product Details

9780060548308

Table of Contents

Reviews

This volume will give you the background to understand the forces that will drive much of 21st century history. --Bill McKibben

Seeking to inspire us to place a higher value on water and establish wiser approaches to its use, Solomon has created a brilliantly discursive and compelling epic of humankind s most vital resource. -- Booklist (starred review)

A tour de force. . . . Thoughtful. . . . Well-written. . . . Solomon shows that when the incentives are right--where governments and markets are allowed to focus on the real costs of and opportunities for using water resources--much better management of water systems follows. -- The National Interest

Solomon's soaring account of our attempt to manage earth's total environment over millennia never neglects the individuals, inventions, and initiatives pivotal to that effort. Water is the most alarming and compelling call to action I've read since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring . -- <b>Linda Lear, author of <i>Rachel Carson</i></b>

Author Information

Steven Solomon is a journalist who has written for The New York Times, Business Week, The Economist, Forbes, and Esquire, and has commented on NPR’s Marketplace. He is also the author of The Confidence Game. Solomon lives in Washington, D.C.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available