Aqua Shock: Water in Crisis

by Susan J. Marks

Overview

An objective look at America's rapidly shrinking water supply

Once believed to be a problem limited to America's southwest, water shortages are now an issue coast to coast, from New England to California. In Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America, author Susan J. Marks provides a comprehensive analysis of the current conflicts being waged over dwindling water supplies. She presents the findings of university studies, think tanks, and research groups, as well as the opinions of water experts, including Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security. The book

• Explains where our water comes from and who controls it, as well as the cost of water on cash, commodities, and capitalism
• Describes the risks of running out of water
• Details how we can preserve and protect our most precious, yet most undervalued natural resource

Right now, battles over water supplies rage across the country. Aqua Shock is an objective look at how we arrived at this crisis point and what we can do-and should be doing-to solve the water crisis in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781576603321
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/14/2009
Series:	Bloomberg , #41
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Susan J. Marks is an award-winning journalist and author. She spent more than a dozen years at the Denver Post, primarily as Sunday business editor and special projects editor/business. She has also written for BusinessWeek, the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Woman’s World, ColoradoBiz, and the United Communications Group. Her work has received awards and recognition from local, regional, and national organizations, including Gannett, the Colorado Press Association, and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She lives in Denver.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1 Liquid Gold.

2 Where Our Water Comes From: A Global Perspective.

3 The Disappearing Act.

4 Danger! Safe Water at Risk.

5 On Governing Water.

6 America's Water Gods.

7 The Cost of Water: Cash, Commodities, and Capitalism.

8 Can Our Water Be Saved?

Glossary.

Recommended Resources.

Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"We must shift from  business as usual—what we at EarthPolicy Institute call Plan A—to a plan of  action tosave our environment—Plan B. That plan includesrestoration  of aquifers. We can arrest the fall in watertables by increasing water  productivity—getting themost use from every drop of water that we do have.  Thatmeans, as Aqua Shock details, recycling, re-use,conservation, and  re-thinking how and where we use watertoday. We can do it, but time  is not on our side. We must actnow before it's too  late." 
—Lester R. Brown
President  of Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

"Susan J. Marks's book, Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis inAmerica, brings to our attention the dire straits that Americafaces in the future because of water shortages and pollution ofexisting sources.  It is time that the American public awakensto these conditions and takes steps, however costly, to changethem.  Aqua Shock will help achieve this desiredgoal."
—Joel A. Tarr
Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy,Carnegie Mellon University

"Thankfully, Marks not only spells out in rich detail how and whywe as a country find ourselves in the present predicament, but alsohow we can emerge from it and satisfy our thirst for water in asafe and sane manner.  It is within our power to solve thisproblem, and we must."
—Ronald F. Poltak
Executive Director, New England Interstate Water Pollution ControlCommission