Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis [Hardcover]

Cynthia Barnett (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 20, 2011

Americans see water as abundant and cheap: we turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop—the lawn. Yet most Americans cannot name the river or aquifer that flows to our taps, irrigates our food, and produces our electricity. And most don’t realize these freshwater sources are in deep trouble.

Blue Revolution exposes the truth about the water crisis—driven not as much by lawn sprinklers as by a tradition that has encouraged everyone, from homeowners to farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. But the book also offers much reason for hope. Award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett argues that the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for America. Just as the green movement helped build awareness about energy and sustainability, so a blue movement will reconnect Americans to their water, helping us value and conserve our most life-giving resource. Avoiding past mistakes, living within our water means, and turning to “local water” as we do local foods are all part of this new, blue revolution.

Reporting from across the country and around the globe, Barnett shows how people, businesses, and governments have come together to dramatically reduce water use and reverse the water crisis. Entire metro areas, such as San Antonio, Texas, have halved per capita water use. Singapore’s “closed water loop” recycles every drop. New technologies can slash agricultural irrigation in half: businesses can save a lot of water—and a lot of money—with designs as simple as recycling air-conditioning condensate.

The first book to call for a national water ethic, Blue Revolution is also a powerful meditation on water and community in America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Barnett takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness." --Los Angeles Times

"Eminently sensible ... Barnett does not come off as a Cassandra, shrieking about looming cataclysm and dumping figures over her readers' heads. In 'Blue Revolution' she is part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist, and as a result her text comes off as anything but a polemic." --The Boston Globe

“Our future depends on the Blue Revolution that Cynthia Barnett advocates, for, as the ancients knew long before modern science did, 'Water is life.'”—New York Journal of Books

“Thorough and packed with data.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Barnett’s clarion call to her fellow citizens imagines an America where it’s ethically wrong to waste water. Using compelling stories from around the globe, she shows that America’s future depends upon our coming to value water – not only in the price we pay, but with profound appreciation for each drop.”—Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It

“The roots of a new water ethic are found in the practices of millions of individuals, businesses, and other organizations around the world. Barnett shows how good water use practices can go viral, with massive benefits for society and nature. Blue Revolution offers affordable, practical, down-to-earth solutions for America’s water crisis.”—Stephen R. Carpenter, Director of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Winner of the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize
 
“The book provides an eye-opening overview of the complexity of our water-use problems and offers optimistic but practical solutions.”—Publishers Weekly  
 
“As Aldo Leopold is to the land ethic, Cynthia Barnett is to the water ethic. Her important and hopeful new book is rich with stories about innovative water projects around the world, demonstrating that we can choose thrift over waste, water gardens over cement ditches, local projects over mega-industries, smart over incredibly, stubbornly, self-destructively stupid. She calls us to a respectful water use that restores our spirits, even as it creates thriving biocultural communities. If you use water, you should read Blue Revolution.”—Kathleen Dean Moore, coeditor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril
 
“Aldo Leopold helped found twentieth-century American environmental thinking with his call for a land ethic. Barnett has done a great service by calling for a twenty-first-century water ethic. She tackles America’s illusion of water abundance in the way past thinkers attacked our old ideas about an endless western frontier. Of the new crop of books on water, this one may be the most important.”—Fred Pearce, author of When the Rivers Run Dry

About the Author

Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist whose awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in the Southeast. Her first book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was a “One Region/One Book” selection in thirty Florida counties. Barnett earned a master’s degree in environmental history and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying water. She lives with her family in Gainesville, Florida.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (September 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807003174
• ISBN-13: 978-0807003176
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cynthia Barnett, the author of "Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis" (Beacon Press, 2011), is a long-time journalist whose awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in the Southeast. Her first book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was a "One Region/One Book" selection in thirty Florida counties. Barnett earned a master's degree in environmental history and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying water. She lives with her family in Gainesville, Florida.

For more information, please visit the author's website at www.cynthiabarnett.net.

Photographer Photo Credit Name: Gregg Matthews, 2012.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Blue Revolution: A Powerful Call for a Water Ethic September 20, 2011

By Valerie I. Nelson, Water Alliance

Format:Hardcover

Cynthia Barnett has written a compelling and engaging book. When Barnett called me last fall, I was impressed with her call for a new water ethic grounded in the work of Aldo Leopold. Now that I've read her new book, I can see why she's won awards as a Florida-based investigative reporter. One in-depth case study after another -- the Everglades, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Netherlands, Australia, and even the new water cluster in Milwaukee -- offer a solid political-economy diagnosis of how we've created a water crisis through big engineering projects and profligate use. Her prescriptions are resonant with our Baltimore Charter for Sustainable Water Systems (www.water-alliance.org) -- a strong water ethic, efficient use and recycling, local management and natural systems, and multi-stakeholder and public collaboration. Perhaps the most eye-opening chapter for me was called "The Water-Industrial Complex," where Barnett describes how water and wastewater engineering has increasingly been consolidated by global conglomerates, and she tracks how these firms influence government policy and spending to maximize their profits just like other big business in America, through campaign contributions. The problem is they think they will make the most money for large, disruptive water supply and wastewater systems. Perhaps we should take more time in "following the money trail." This book is a must read!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It is no Cadillac Desert. October 10, 2011

By Gaetan Lion TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

In summary, this book is well researched and informative. However, Cynthia Barnett excludes from her investigation the national positive trend in water conservation. And, her recommendations are too vague. It is also boring, especially in comparison with Marc Reisner Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition that is twice as long.

Cynthia Barnett indicates that the largest user of water is electric utilities. Within our information world, technology = rising electricity consumption = water constraints. Thus, our civilization relying on information bits ultimately runs on water.

Barnett, just like Reisner did 25 years ago, confirms agriculture is the most wasteful sector with the greatest potential for water conservation. American irrigation benefits from wasteful $4.4 billion subsidies. A good deal of those are applied to rice; half of which is exported. Wasting water on exporting rice is incoherent. California is the largest agricultural state. Yet, agriculture accounts for only 4% of the State GDP and even far less of its employment.

Barnett indicates the Green Revolution is not Blue. Many alternative energies are huge water guzzlers. It takes 10 times as much water to generate power for a plug-in electric vehicle as to produce gasoline for a regular car. Ethanol consumes 20 times as much water for every mile traveled than regular gasoline. Large scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are very water intensive. If you want to study this issue further I recommend Robert Bryce books: com/Gusher-Lies-Dangerous-Delusions-Independence/dp/B002T450KU">Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence" and Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future that demonstrate the wasteful water and land resource footprint associated with alternative energy.

Barnett uncovers that within the US, it is in the driest cities most stressed for water that residents use the most. In Las Vegas they use 227 gallons per person per day or over 50% more than the national average of 147 gallons. This is because in Las Vegas given the hotter temperatures residents use more water to maintain lawns. Lawn is the number one crop in America. We irrigate our lawns twice as much as needed. Barnett advances that consuming so much fresh water to maintain lawn does not make sense. Similarly, the growing trend of water parks and golf courses everywhere makes little sense from a water resource standpoint. Throughout the dry Southwest and even the Great Plains we are depleting our water aquifers. This could have dire consequences for our agriculture.

Barnett travels the world to study water issues starting with the Netherlands that developed a world class dike and dams to protect the country from sea generated flooding. By comparison the U.S. is more than half a century behind. The Netherlands infrastructure would have fully prevented Katrina's destruction. She also travels to Singapore that is probably the most water efficient society. They consume 40 gallons of water per person per day or 73% less than the U.S. They treat enough wastewater to meet 30% of their freshwater need. Two thirds of the area was turned into water-storage making for a giant water cistern. Later, she goes to Perth, Australia. Perth was the equivalent of Las Vegas, as another water wasteful city with a dry climate. But, due to necessity within a decade they moved from being Las Vegas-like to becoming Singapore- like.

Barnett indicates that even some American cities and counties have followed in the water conserving footsteps of Perth and Singapore. San Antonio, TX, is another city in a dry climate that originally was very wasteful. But, due to pressing water constraints it managed to reduce its water consumption by half from 225 gallons per person per day (gpd) in the 1980s to around 115 gpd currently. Over the same period Boston has reduced its water consumption per person per day by 43%. Sarasota in Florida pretty much did the same. Monterey in California became one of the champions of water conservation with one of the lowest US consumption per capita (70 gpd). The local private water utility did it through innovative means including tiered water rates that rendered lawn very expensive. Another growing trend is the promotion of rainwater-harvesting systems in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina.

Barnett speaks of the water-industrial complex just as Eisenhower mentioned the military-industrial complex over 50 years ago. Barnett indicates that regarding water policies it is the most expensive solution (water dams, reservoirs, pipelines) that wins. Water efficiency costs between $450 to $1,600 for every million gallons it saves. That is far less than any other alternative. For instance, desalination costs $15,000 per million gallons of water. Yet, during the most recent $790 billion stimulus package $billions went to expensive water management projects. Virtually no money was disbursed for water efficiency.

However, the book has mentioned weaknesses. Barnett does not flesh out the national contemporary improvement in water conservation. Between 1975 and 2005, US population has increased by 36% to 300 million. Yet according to the USGS, US water consumption has remained flat thanks to an overall 27% water conservation rate. During the same period, U.S. electricity generation has doubled. This entails a 50% water conservation rate in water per KWH generated. Agriculture has also become more water efficient. Barnett briefly recognizes that rice (the main water wasting culprit in "Cadillac Desert") is now grown with 40% less water than in the 60s. But, she does not adequately cover all the mentioned positive national water conservation trends that jump at you when studying the USGS data.

Barnett cassandra tone is still warranted. Mounting pressure on water scarcity will be tremendous. The U.S. population is expected to rise by 45% to 450 million by 2050. To keep water consumption flat this entails another 31% reduction in water consumption per capita on top of the 27% reduction we achieved between 1975 and 2005.

Barnett also remains vague on her Blue Revolution recommendations. Her main ones are to stop depleting the aquifers and stop large water projects. Based on her research, she could have been far more incisive and should have recommended: 1) eliminating agricultural water subsidies; 2) curbing rice exports; 3) abandoning ethanol; 4) discouraging electric cars; and 5) mandating higher water rates to irrigate lawns. Those suggestions entail that water be repriced upward for all sectors so to take water out of the tragedy of the commons. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars very informative January 6, 2013

By D. Erickson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was about a topic I hadn't read or thought much about. Very informative. Helpful focus on several key areas of problems in our water supply / water useage (Sacramento area, Florida Everglades, Southwestern USA, among a few other places.). I appreciate the steps forward in policy and water ethic which the author presents.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Water Crisis August 24, 2011

By William L. Brown VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone..." So go the lines of the popular Joni Mitchell protest song of the early 1970's. Author Cynthia Barnett has taken this kind of spirit to heart as she chronicles the thoughtless waste of clean water in contemporary America.

When I first heard about this book, I thought it might be an unscientific popularized account like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Upon further review, however, I was pleased to encounter a dissertation worthy of a doctorate. There is no political correctness or emotionalism here, just reasoned analysis of a situation that is likely to plague generations of Americans in the near future.

For several years, I was awakened daily in the warm months to the sound of our neighbor's sprinkler system. Highly purified drinking water would run down the street into the storm sewer system, where it was no longer available for household use. I am happy to report that my neighbors no longer use this system, and that they now accept the normal cycle of drought and rain for the care of their lawn.

Barnett's book should be a wake-up call for complacent people who think that pure water will always exist in abundant supply. Concerns by the Great Lakes states over the future of their own water supplies are clearly warranted. Not only drinking water, but water to create the food supplies of the World are both dependent on maintaining the "precious bodily fluids," to quote Dr. Strangelove.

Policymakers at the local, state and federal level would be well served to read this book. Where common sense fails, perhaps the clear logic of scientific analysis will succeed. Let's hope this occurs sooner rather than when it could well be too late to act.