Oy. I only got halfway through this one. Though the book is very concisely written, especially for such a broad and deep topic, it put me to sleep everytime I picked it up. Too bad, really, because this is a subject I'm deeply interested in. It just feel very formulaic and repetitive. I may take another stab at a later date.

This was my first meaningful foray into global water management issues and I found the breadth and variety of its coverage utterly fascinating and gripping. It isn't an academic treatise so there are some phrasings and conclusions that, technically, one would like to see proven or logically expressed more precisely. Given its geographical purview, I'd also have liked maps for each of the systems/areas covered (how much could a dozen more black/white drawings cost?!), but I appreciated the book immensely nonetheless and won't hold that against it!

I haven't stopped talking about this book since I read the first 5 pages--Pearce takes you across the globe with colorful short segments on the increasingly complicated tangle that has become the global water distribution system. One of the best books I've read this year.

This is a frightening book. It is also an extremely well researched and well-written book.

We have a lot of knowledge. We have a lot of data, and yet we continue to do things that endanger our planet.

His case studies are presented without any emotion, yet they should arouse fear in all of us.

It is a book that is timely and should serve as a warning of what will happen to us when the rivers do indeed run dry

This book gave me a real insight into the Global Issues with water. As a GCSE and A Level Geography teacher I will use this to inform my teaching with examples.
It’s a must read!

Really easy to read, but packed with punchy chapters about the state of water in the world. For my own interest I loved it, and will absolutely use it in the classroom.

“when the rivers are all dried up, and the trees cut down, man will then realise that he will not be able to eat money”

ENV 110

An interesting read about the ongoing crisis with respect to meeting human needs for water and the many projects such as dams that have only exasperated that crisis. You may not agree with the author’s arguments on the issue or some of his examples, but nevertheless the book is well worth reading.

'Toprak Dede' olarak bilinen, Tema Vakfı kurucularından Hayrettin Karaca'nın okunmasını salık verdiği kitaplardan birisidir. Kitabı okuduktan sonra, tükettiğiniz gani gani suya acıyacaksınız. Unutmayın, israf edilen her damla su, bizim değil, çocuklarımızın değil, torunlarımızın suyu. Bize bırakılan bu tabiattan daha kötüsünü mü hak ediyor onlar?

I loved this book. It's chock full of fascinating information about all aspects of water exploitation around the globe. Very well written and engrossing - some of the chapters will stay with me for a long time, as images of shrinking seas and receding deltas, golf course sprinklers and cotton plantations in the desert. I live in Quebec, land of a million lakes and rivers, and the global water crisis doesn't always hit home for me - but this book made it real. Scary (but not alarmist), with a smattering of optimism near the end.

This could be the core text for history students, whether university, continuing ed, or GED in Settlement Houses, where this book is the basis to exploring history and geography... very deep and disturbing...