This is a good book in that it surveys in some detail, and with examples, current pluralistic thinking about water and its problems. It is mildly repetitive and a bit academic in tone but worth the read for certain. If you are not aware then read this book and become aware! It is a bad book in that it seeks to propose the sorts of pluralistic social and political policies that have failed every time they have been tried in confronting immutable reality back to Suetonius's "Lives of the Caesars". The authors' conclusions are a recipe for more and bigger statism and social revolution. They conclude with an absolute requirement for the increased involvement of women. That is not the way to confront impending disaster. And, though they paint a rosy picture of such activities, the authors barely touch on the many failures of that sort of thing. Are we, I sometimes wonder, taking immigrants from Mexico and points south rather than giving them their entitled outflow from the Colorado and Rio Grande (that trickle at the Gulf)?
I well remember when I was first exposed to environmental modeling and the coming water shortage. It opened my mind and scared me half witless. I didn't sleep well for weeks. Perhaps it was because I had seen my first dead animals in the woods the week before and they haunted my dreams; perhaps because I was in the fourth grade; or perhaps it was because it was the mid 1950's. So I have been worrying and waiting for this book for half a century. This is no joke; no tempest in a teapot!
Later I was trained as an engineer and later as math modeler and I learned that huge problems usually have simple solutions that the bright folks have forbidden. Figure 1.3 (Global Population Trends) shows half the answer. Cut population drastically. The other half is contained in developing technology which the authors discuss not at all. Cheap and "clean" energy (in engineering not gaeian terms), closed systems, fungus based food systems, and desalination [The oceans are HUGE compared to fresh water sources.] could buy us an urbanized future like several science fiction novels. The authors don't go there.
Their approach is to talk about where we are and "viable alternative" ways to work our way forward. All well and good if you are only interested in the next half century or so till we really hit the wall. A previous reviewer mentions the rumors that folks like the Bilderbergers are working on plans for perhaps an 85-90% population drop as an excuse for genocide. Lay that particular brand of racist ugliness at Margaret Sanger's feet where it belongs! The problem with population reduction is that if you don't do it "right" civilization will collapse entirely. If you don't do it at all the ecosystem will do it for you and it will be messy as hell... literally. And I hope somebodies besides me are thinking about it. And for their and your guidance, a world population of less than 250 million is a good target (That's 96%.) if we want to get through the next few hundred millennia.
But again, do become aware before the steamroller of social and political egos rolls over you while you are looking the other way. This is a good place to start.
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