Water Is for Fighting OverWater Is for Fighting Over
and Other Myths About Water in the West
Title rated 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3 ratings(3 ratings)
Book, 2016
Current format, Book, 2016, , No Longer Available.Book, 2016
Current format, Book, 2016, , No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsWhen we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. Yet despite decades of headlines warning of mega-droughts, the death of agriculture, and the collapse of cities, the Colorado River basin has thrived in the face of water scarcity. John Fleck shows how western communities actually have a promising record of conservation and cooperation. Rather than perpetuate the myth ôWhiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrativeùa future where the Colorado continues to flow.
Fleck chronicles his attempt to understand and explain where the ability to adapt to water scarcity (as some areas have) comes from, how it works, and how we can call on it to get us through the hard times ahead. Like many who manage, engineer, utilize, plan for, and write about western water today, he grew up with the expectation of catastrophe regarding future water supplies. First writing about water shortage in California during the 1980s, by the first decade of the twenty-first century, he was faced with a contradiction: despite what he had been taught, people’s faucets were still running, farms were not drying up, and no city was left abandoned. He went looking for answers: When the water runs short, who actually runs out? What does that look like? He found that when people have less water they use less water. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
"Illuminating." &;New York Times
WIRED's Required Science Reading 2016
When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. In recent years, newspaper headlines have screamed, &;Scarce water and the death of California farms,&; &;The Dust Bowl returns,&; &;A &;megadrought&; will grip U.S. in the coming decades.&; Yet similar stories have been appearing for decades and the taps continue to flow. John Fleck argues that the talk of impending doom is not only untrue, but dangerous. When people get scared, they fight for the last drop of water; but when they actually have less, they use less.
Having covered environmental issues in the West for a quarter century, Fleck would be the last writer to discount the serious problems posed by a dwindling Colorado River. But in that time, Fleck has also seen people in the Colorado River Basin come together, conserve, and share the water that is available. Western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or US environmentalists and Mexican water managers, have a promising record of cooperation, a record often obscured by the crisis narrative.
In this fresh take on western water, Fleck brings to light the true history of collaboration and examines the bonds currently being forged to solve the Basin&;s most dire threats. Rather than perpetuate the myth &;Whiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrative&;a future where the Colorado continues to flow.
Fleck chronicles his attempt to understand and explain where the ability to adapt to water scarcity (as some areas have) comes from, how it works, and how we can call on it to get us through the hard times ahead. Like many who manage, engineer, utilize, plan for, and write about western water today, he grew up with the expectation of catastrophe regarding future water supplies. First writing about water shortage in California during the 1980s, by the first decade of the twenty-first century, he was faced with a contradiction: despite what he had been taught, people’s faucets were still running, farms were not drying up, and no city was left abandoned. He went looking for answers: When the water runs short, who actually runs out? What does that look like? He found that when people have less water they use less water. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
"Illuminating." &;New York Times
WIRED's Required Science Reading 2016
When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. Yet despite decades of headlines warning of mega-droughts, the death of agriculture, and the collapse of cities, the Colorado River basin has thrived in the face of water scarcity. John Fleck shows how western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or U.S. environmentalists and Mexican water managers, actually have a promising record of conservation and cooperation. Rather than perpetuate the myth &;Whiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrative&;a future where the Colorado continues to flow.
"Illuminating." &;New York Times
WIRED's Required Science Reading 2016
When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. In recent years, newspaper headlines have screamed, &;Scarce water and the death of California farms,&; &;The Dust Bowl returns,&; &;A &;megadrought&; will grip U.S. in the coming decades.&; Yet similar stories have been appearing for decades and the taps continue to flow. John Fleck argues that the talk of impending doom is not only untrue, but dangerous. When people get scared, they fight for the last drop of water; but when they actually have less, they use less.
Having covered environmental issues in the West for a quarter century, Fleck would be the last writer to discount the serious problems posed by a dwindling Colorado River. But in that time, Fleck has also seen people in the Colorado River Basin come together, conserve, and share the water that is available. Western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or US environmentalists and Mexican water managers, have a promising record of cooperation, a record often obscured by the crisis narrative.
In this fresh take on western water, Fleck brings to light the true history of collaboration and examines the bonds currently being forged to solve the Basin&;s most dire threats. Rather than perpetuate the myth &;Whiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrative&;a future where the Colorado continues to flow.
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- Washington, DC : Island Press, [2016], ©2016
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