Customer Reviews

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an editor in the pulp and paper industry, I'm aware of what our own industry is doing to use less water and recycle and reuse the water that it does use. But this book has given me a much broader view of the water issue thanks to Mr. Fishman's clever writing, excellent research, and fascinating stories drawn from his global travels. He has achieved the seemingly impossible by writing an entire book about the single topic of water, and making it fascinating reading. I'll never look at or think about water the same way again, and I've already found myself looking for little ways in which I can reduce my use of this precious resource.
This should be required reading for everyone.

Glenn Ostle
Editorial Director/Associate Publisher
Paper360 magazine

A whole book about water? Really?

We all know water is precious and important in our lives, but like most U.S. citizens, I used to take safe, clean water for granted.

Never again after reading "The Big Thirst." The book is compelling and fun to read, serious and hopeful.

Charles Fishman is a great storyteller and writer. With humor and facts, he identifies and explores vital issues as he travels to Las Vegas, Australia, India, UAE and beyond. He presents ideas, information and critical issues in a thoughtful and calm manner.

This important and book changed the way I think about water, and has lessons for individuals, communities and policy makers.

I no longer feel numbed by water worries; I even feel hopeful. And I keep thinking about my relationship with water, including why a body of water makes me so happy, and why some fountains are amazing and others are just annoying (you know the type). This book will keep me (and others) thinking and talking about water for a long time to come.

Truly entertaining stories that accomplish what few books of this type do: provides a stern warning without attempting to frighten. The book takes a hard look at some very dire situations but also provides some specific examples of places around the globe that have figured out an answer. Charles Fishman has crafted an impressionist painting that can be seen as a business book, a political book, a human drama, or a primer on the science and economics of water. The book takes the reader on a worldwide tour, from the splashy hotels on the Vegas strip to the poorest slums of India and lots of places in between.


No matter your expectations, this book will exceed them.

The Big Thirst is a wonderful read.

Too often, I find books about major global issues to be pretty grim. Fishman (great name for a water writer) uses a light touch, as he takes you to places where water crises have dominated people's lives -- from Mumbai to Las Vegas to Toowoomba. From these far-flung locales, he reports on not only the staggering challenges people face, but also their solutions. He shows how determined people have successfully tackled problems of filthy or scare water, sometimes by thinking outside the box, and sometimes by taking matters into their own hands.

Nothing short of inspiring.

In this well-researched and engaging book, reminiscent of his story-telling abilities in the Walmart Effect, Fishman makes a key assertion that we have "ignored" water and its supplies and more importantly, its economic value. Intertwining stories from IBM's effort in ultra-pure water management for chip manufacturing, Las Vegas's battle on creating an "oasis in desert", deep-rooted cultural and political issues in Australia and India, Fishman clearly highlights the growing challenges and the need for re-framing our discussion on the use of this resource. In terms of understanding our relation with water, this book expands our understanding and sharpens the urgency that was communicated by another thought provoking book - a few years ago - Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. Sadly, both these two books haven't necessarily gotten the attention they deserve.

(For more details on the chapters, please refer my blog post via my profile page)

Fishman starts off with a pithy chapter positing that our attitude towards water is "filled with contradictions" and hypothesizes that the "invisibility" of the supply system and prevalent philosophies on water being free (of cost) are its biggest vulnerabilities. He follows up with a chapter that explains water's origin, geological concepts on "watery rocks", "Earth ocean" and water cycles. Reading about inter-galactic water formation is in itself a treat. He then discusses different issues regarding water supplies, philosophies on its usage, socio-political-economic implications - using different stories.

The stories include the reframing of the water problem in Las Vegas, hidden costs of distribution (Galveston), ultrapure water management in microchip manufacturing (IBM), reclaimed water (Toowoomba, Australia), and impact of changing weather patterns and water usage, especially on agriculture. The chapter on India highlights a core issue in water management - the rich can "opt out of the public system" leaving the system more vulnerable. Like most Western writers, South India, never seems to register in Fishman's conscience. The constant struggle for the river water among four southern states could have made an excellent foil to explain the political implications (elections have been won and lost on the famous "Cauvery/Kaveri" water issue - which is never alluded to in the book. Fishman then concludes with a set of 2 chapters that expands his premise that the key reason preventing smarter water management is the notion that "water should be free".

Fishman adopts a very easygoing narrative style filled with plenty of examples and analogies (especially when it comes to providing a reader the scale of the problem or concept he is referring to). A reader is also treated to interesting stats on water usage (none of which is flattering to the US consumption patterns). The 50+ pages of citations and end notes are a great resource and also a testament of thorough editorial process that makes the main text not only very informative but also engaging enough that one will be hard pressed to leave the book unfinished in a sitting. A reader is guaranteed not to look at water or the issues surrounding it in the same way after you read this book. The companion website, with the entire endnotes and excerpts is another useful resource for a more curious reader.

I would like to get this book into the hands of as many politicians and city planners as I can find. In plain English (with all calculations explained in the footnotes), Fishman tells the "story thus far" of the relationship between people and water.

He writes in detail new and improved ways to handle water. For example:
- Orange County, Florida, is now reusing almost 50% of its water in the form of gray water.
- IBM has found surprising savings in energy and expenses, by changing how it uses water for microchips.
- A water economist explains his ideas for pricing water so that everyone has water to drink AND we have monetary incentives to conserve.

He also tells stories about water being handled poorly, with an eye towards helping us to learn from these examples and do better:
- The city of Toowoomba, Australia, voted down a water recycling system (and ended up spending much more money later), in great part because not enough was done to educate the townspeople about the process.
- In many countries there is a huge amount of drinkable water that never makes it between the plant and the faucet because of leaks in the system.
- Water is, for many of us, so cheap and available that we don't really see it or value it.

This book makes me hopeful that great things can be done to put us into a better situation with water, before it becomes too much of an emergency.

The author is interviewed here:[...]

I confess. I read the Wal-Mart Effect, Fishman's previous book, and I didn't see how this one could be as good. It's water, after all. How interesting could it be?
Answer: Fabulously. I would read his next book if it were about dirt. "The Big Dry." Whatever. He starts with a story about how water was used to launch the space shuttle. Not to prevent fires or anything, but to absorb sound. If NASA didn't release a bazillion gallons of water at the launch, the sound waves would have bounced up and smashed the shuttle to pieces. Or how about this: Water is the key ingredient in microwave popcorn. Or, anything that is microwaved. Why? Because the microwaves are actually heating the water molecules inside the popcorn. Who the Hell knew?
Anyway, the book is jammed with stuff like this. It is -- incredibly -- a fun romp. But it's more than that. It's a thoughtful, sustained exploration of our attitudes about water, about the many ways in which we hold the solutions to our water problems in our own hands. Don't miss the chapter about Las Vegas, where an unlikely hero helped turn that city into a model for creative water policy. Fishman even goes on his own water walk, in India, with young women who can't take the time to go to school, to get an education, because they have to walk hours back and forth to fetch water every day.
What "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is to food, "The Big Thirst" is to water. I suggest you take the plunge.*

* Fishman also catalogues every damn water reference in the English language which is, it turns out, awash in them.

Must read - You will change how you think about and manage water.

It is like most things here in the US we enjoy and take for granted. When you have your fingers and your toes you don't really think about them. That is, until you have pain or if you are unfortunate to loose them. Every day I turn my faucet on and out comes pure drinking water which I have to admit I don't think much about.

This book is a wake-up call especially to us who have plenty of clean drinking water.

Do you know how many children are dying right now because they can't get clean drinking water?

Great work Charles & with abundance comes stewardship and responsibility.

Greg Stromberg
cannedwater4kids.org

I came to The Big Thirst as someone who was already pretty water conscious (some think obsessed), and a definite water conservationist. But, wow, all that I had never thought about water Charles Fishman has contained in this book in a thought provoking, entertaining and instructive way. This is in no diatribe designed to make us feel guilty about our water ignorance (although Fishman does rant on Arlen Specter at one point near the end, and rightfully so), but rather a series of stories crafted to heighten our awareness, in an attempt as the author says "to change our relationship to water".

From Australia to India, down the strip of Las Vegas, around the Gulf Coast of Texas to Vermont and elsewhere Fishman takes the reader on a tour of man's challenges and successes in managing our water usage, distribution systems as well as the effect on mankind, the economy and lastly gets the reader thinking about where the next million or billion gallons is coming from.

This book is a treat for anyone who has stopped for even one minute to wonder where our water really flows from and if someday it might not.

As a water quality lab supervisor working at a water plant, this book provides great background information and expands the sometimes insular world in which we live. This book covers very interesting topics about water in general but it is especially interesting to learn about water issues in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Australia and India.