Customer Reviews

Rivers for Life: Managing Water For People And Nature

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This book, like previous works by Sandra Postel, is a clarion warning call about the dangers in how we have been managing our waters. The message from this book that is of particular importance, is that truly successful, and therefore sustainable, environmental management is really just as much about managing people as it is about managing natural systems. For this reason, I have placed this important book on the reading list for my watershed management course at Harvard. And also, I am grateful that Sandra Postel agreed to write a front-end blurb for my recently published (by Green Frigate Books) book entitled Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water.

Sandra Postel writes in a clear and lyrical style which is entertaining to read. Her content is not overly technical nor is it patronisingly simplistic. Postel has a pleasing habit of rejecting jargon and buzz phrases.

I found her assertions, research and conclusions to be creditable. I enjoyed the breadth of the discussion.
She is not strident nor angry in her criticism of individuals or corporations, rather she lets good science do her talking.

Postel enjoys a wide audience and is often represented in university reading lists. She is one of the more enjoyable reads to be found there.

Postel and Richter have produced a well-written book full of interesting insights and statistics on rivers, their use and conservation. Rivers for Life has been very useful for me and my group Prodefensa del Nazas in our struggle to preserve the last remaining ecosystems of the Nazas, one of Mexico's great desert rivers, the largest endorrheic river in Mexico and probably North America.
If you are interested, even mildly, in water issues today, you have to read this book. More importantly, once read, you have to get involved in ensuring that the valuable ecosystem services rendered by your local brook, creek, lake, wetland or river are preserved for future generations.