Between global warming and ever-increasing consumption, the world is fast running out of water. And while water's scarcity will challenge the success of North America’s fastest-growing regions, other areas of the continent will experience dramatic flooding. Dry Spring looks at how the coming water crisis will devastate communities unless urgent action is taken. In many areas, the damage has already begun. Author Chris Wood relates compelling stories of people all over the continent coping with new conditions: Okanagan orchardists facing an uncertain future; a Mexican fisherman on the now-dry Colorado River Delta, which has been reduced to desert because of upstream usage by the American West; a Las Vegas water cop who monitors excessive lawn watering; a New Brunswick couple fleeing their coastal house because of the encroaching ocean; and more. Wood also shows how practical solutions like xeriscaping, water “recycling,” and run-off containment can preserve water for future generations.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Veteran journalist Chris Wood declares war on North America's blasé attitude toward the environment in general and water in particular. The battle he wages in his awesome, terrifying Dry Spring (awesome for its depth of research, terrifying for what it portends) is positively ferocious. Wood lobs facts like grenades, and he hits his target--our collective conscience and fear of a very grim future--every time. But much more than a clinical recitation of data, Dry Spring is Wood's impassioned plea for action. Even gas company lobbyists and Fox News anchors are hard-pressed to refute his evidence. And while many of these stats have appeared elsewhere, Wood succeeds in aggregating and connecting the dots between local phenomena and larger planetary changes. Not since Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth has the Earth had such a persuasive advocate. --Kim Hughes
Review
"Wood is neither tree-hugging ideologue nor free-market evangelist, and his reportage is voluminous and plainspoken... Despite its alarmist title, Dry Spring also takes the stuffing out of wild-eyed Canadian 'aqua-nationalists,' who reflexively scream that the sky is falling at the mere mention of selling some of our vast stores of fresh water to the U.S... What Wood does well is connect some of the scientific and environmental dots that we may otherwise see as isolated news stories about floods or storms or droughts or crop failures or forest fires. They may seem like random events now, but they won’t after you’ve read this book." -- The Quill & Quire, April 2008 (starred review)
"Wood, a journalist and former editor at Maclean's magazine, provides an engaging introduction into the ecology and economy of North America's water supply now and in the near future... Dry Spring is a rebuttal to the arguments of hypernationalist Canadians such as Maude Barlow and her ilk who stand on guard to zealously protect our water from Uncle Sam.
"Wood, a journalist and former editor at Maclean's magazine, provides an engaging introduction into the ecology and economy of North America's water supply now and in the near future... Dry Spring is a rebuttal to the arguments of hypernationalist Canadians such as Maude Barlow and her ilk who stand on guard to zealously protect our water from Uncle Sam.
They argue against the commodification of water. Wood counters that solving many of our water woes will require exactly that, and that much of the rhetoric about NAFTA and water exports is in fact propaganda." -- The Winnipeg Free Press, April 13, 2008
"[I]t's refreshing that Wood, breaking the custom of environmental books, doesn't lay it on too thick. He takes us to where runaway fires, drought, hurricanes and floods provide stark testimony to the speed of climate change, but he is too good a writer to flay the reader with endless horror stories... Would someone now please organize a nationally televised debate between Wood and Barlow?" -- Report on Business Magazine, April 2008
"[Wood]compiles strong evidence that we have stretched natural water systems to the limit and, in many cases, are already creating environmental deficits by damming rivers, draining aquifers and depleting ground waters to meet people's wants. We North Americans are the planet's gluttons, using nearly seven times as much water per person than the frugal Danes... To address this mess of our own making, Wood argues convincingly for using the tools of the market. If water were priced to represent its real environmental cost, we would use it more sparingly and trigger entrepreneurial creativity to help us use it more efficiently." -- The Vancouver Sun, April 12, 2008
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
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Peak Water,
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This review is from: Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America (Paperback)
We are in "Peak Everything" (food, water, oil, space). This is a good overview of changing global climate and the consequences for water - both fresh and ocean. We have tended to substitute water (and oil) for knowledge. We now must apply the knowledge and use water (and oil) more carefully. We are seeing seasons shift - earlier springs, prolonged fire seasons, "late" autumn and winter, earlier and smaller snow melt and more prolonged period of aridity and higher evapotransporation. The media frequently gets it wrong. You long for a handy reference that puts things in context, gives you a big picture and keeps you grounded with objective information. This is a calm, easy to read, matter-of-fact source.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dry Spring,
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This review is from: Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America (Paperback)
Great book a must read for anyone concerned with our planet and way of life.
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First Sentence:
Walled by dry hills and high plateaus to east and west, the Okanagan Valley is a sliver-shaped Shangri-La set about a long Zen brush stroke of blue lake. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
national treatment, dry spring, water exports Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Great Lakes, North America, Colorado River, Las Vegas, British Columbia, Lake Superior, Theresa Point, Milk River, Lake Mead, San Diego, Colorado Delta, Los Angeles, American Southwest, Lake Erie, Arctic Ocean, Pacific Northwest, All-American Canal, Lake Ontario, Southern California, Hudson Bay, Middle East, Lake Huron, Gulf of Mexico, Imperial Valley Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Walled by dry hills and high plateaus to east and west, the Okanagan Valley is a sliver-shaped Shangri-La set about a long Zen brush stroke of blue lake. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
national treatment, dry spring, water exports Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Great Lakes, North America, Colorado River, Las Vegas, British Columbia, Lake Superior, Theresa Point, Milk River, Lake Mead, San Diego, Colorado Delta, Los Angeles, American Southwest, Lake Erie, Arctic Ocean, Pacific Northwest, All-American Canal, Lake Ontario, Southern California, Hudson Bay, Middle East, Lake Huron, Gulf of Mexico, Imperial Valley Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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