Wonderful water and its turbulent future
In The Big Thirst, Charles Fishman argues that inspiring awe for our most essential resource is key to creating effective water solutions
WE PAY good money for bottled water. But we will often take a few sips, forget the bottle in the car for a day and throw it away when its contents become unappetising.
It’s a common scenario that sums up our contradictory attitudes towards water. As Charles Fishman writes in The Big Thirst, though water is a priceless – and precious – necessity, too often we treat it with outright carelessness. That bottled water costs hundreds of times more than tap water only increases the irony of our disregard.
Yet Fishman isn’t out to add to the chorus of laments about the global water crisis. While he acknowledges the grim reality of Australia’s prolonged drought, and dwindling water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead, he skips the guilt trips in favour of success stories.
He marvels at the cultural change in Melbourne, Australia, where residents cut personal water use by 60 per cent in 12 years. He travels to India, where several slums have built their own 24/7 water service – an initially costly investment that has yielded invaluable benefits. He even praises Las Vegas for its water-saving priorities: despite gaining 685,000 residents – and a penchant for showy fountain displays – the city and its suburbs used about the same amount of water in 2009 as in 1999.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/04/the-wonder-of-water.html
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