The world is running out of water. Even in the UK our reservoirs empty and there are drought warnings and hose pipe bans each year. Some of world's largest rivers now trickle into sand miles from the ocean, exhausted by human need. Water is 'the new oil' - except we can live without oil; there are no alternatives to fresh water.
From Kent to Kenya, Fred Pearce explores the complex origins of the growing world water crisis. His vivid reportage reveals the personal stories behind failing rivers, barren fields, pollution, desertification, floods and water wars.
Is there hope? Yes - but only if we revolutionize the way we treat water. This phenomenally important book shows us just how essential it is that each one of us takes responsibility for the way we use this crucial resource now - before all our rivers run dry.
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If ever a book has been written that demands to be read it is this one. This is that rare thing - a journey through a hugely important and complex subject in the company of a natural storyteller who makes you feel intelligent. -
Of all the travel books I have ever read this is the most frightening, the most inspiring and the most important...A book every politician must be made to read and understand. - David Bellamy
Environmental journalist Fred Pearce's book, When the Rivers Run Dry could not be better timed - The Observer
...Pearce argues powerfully that unless mankind can rethink its whole attitude towards the use and misuse of resource, the consequence could be famine, pestilence and even war for huge numbers of human beings. - Daily Mail
Veteran science writer Pearce (Turning Up the Heat) makes a strong - and scary - case that a worldwide water shortage is the most fearful looming environmental crisis. With a drumbeat of facts both horrifc...and fascinating...the former New Scientist news editor documents a 'kind of cataclysm' already affecting many of the world's great rivers. - Publishers Weekly
Fred Pearce is an outstanding campaigning journalist and this terrifying yet ultimately optimistic book is a work of overwhelming importance - Tam Dalyell
Unlimited clean water is so utterly taken for granted that it slides beneath our consciousness, not worth thinking about. We should be grateful, then, that Pearce has done our thinking for us. He has not written a polemic. More evangelist than doomsayer, he writes with controlled passion about a subject that carries him to the edge of despair but in which he divines a few precious drops of hope...River by river, continent by continent, Pearce illuminates the folly of trying to control a natural force with concrete and steel...The lessons are there to be learnt. All those responsible for learning them should stay their hand until they have read this book. - The Sunday Times
When the Rivers Run Dry is a timely book on an underreported issue...those who...take Pearce's tour through the global water crisis will be treated to an enriching and farsighted work. - San Francisco Chronicle
This book is a timely warning about the water crisis we face...His vision of a not-too-distant future where wars are fought over water is terrifying, but the book also offers solutions. - Country Living
Pearce is a well-known and accomplished science journalist, so his journeys, plus his well-researched assessments, make his frightening conclusions all too convincing. - The Guardian Weekly
Knowledgeable...well-written...Pearce's...thesis is surprisingly optimistic, since he...contends that to rise to the challenge and do something to avoid catastrophe is not beyond us. - The Good Book Guide
It's time to face up to the consequences of our actions. Reading this alarming book is a good place to start. - The Geographical Magazine
Unblinking look at the growing water crisis, both here and abroad. - Culture (supp. to the Sunday Times)
WHEN THE RIVERS RUN DRY is a fascinating read - at the heart of which lies a simple truth that none of us can afford to ignore. - Your Environment
This is an excellent book that deserves a wide audience. - www.ecozine.co.uk
You've heard of the green revolution, but what about a blue revolution? That's what Fred Pearce believes is needed to solve the world's impending water crisis. Fascinating facts include the revelation that it takes 11,000 litres of water to feed enough cows to make a hamburger. - Scotland on Sunday
Fred Pearce is a former news editor at New Scientist magazine, and is currently its environment and development consultant. He has written 14 previous books, which have been published in the UK and US and translated into French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Norwegian and Portugueseis. He writes regularly for the Independent and the Times Higher Education Supplement, the Boston Globe and Foreign Policy in the US. He is also syndicated in Japan, Australia and elsewhere and has filed articles from more than 50 countries in the past decade. He was voted BEMA Environment Journalist of the Year in 2001 and has been short-listed for the same award in 2000, 2002 and 2003. He is a past recipient of the Peter Kent Conservation Book Award and the TES Junior Information Book Award. His books have been translated into eight languages. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV, with interview credits from Today to Richard and Judy to the Open University.
