The Three Ages of Water

April 3, 2023
This uneven offering by Gleick (Bottled and Sold)—cofounder of the Pacific Institute, which researches water conservation—examines water’s role in human history. Gleick begins with the “first age of water” (loosely dating from Earth’s formation through the rise of modern humans) and writes that some scientists believe water was first brought to an otherwise dry Earth by billions of asteroids during the planet’s infancy. Charting the “second age” (from the earliest human civilizations to the present), the author chronicles how ancient Sumerian city-states waged the first war over water nearly 4,500 years ago and suggests that by approximately 700 BCE, Assyrian irrigation channels had inaugurated the “era of large-scale water engineering.” Gleick’s focus strays as he approaches the present and serves up loosely related observations about how the storage of water behind dams across the world has “measurably altered the very rotation of the planet” and how waterborne illnesses kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. Nonetheless, Gleick takes an optimistic view of the future (the “third age”) and urges governments to recognize access to potable water as a human right. The history is eye-opening, but Gleick struggles to fit contemporary issues around water into a cohesive narrative. Still, there are some worthwhile insights in this meandering outing. Photos.

April 15, 2023
An expert warning on climate change with an emphasis on water. MacArthur fellow Gleick, a globally recognized expert on water, begins with statistics--e.g., 97% of the world's water is salt water, and 80% of the fresh water is used to grow food--and then devotes nearly half of the text to a history of the world. The author's first "age" of water runs from the Big Bang to the end of the Middle Ages, and the second is "our age," when scientific and industrial revolutions led to the "replumbing of the entire planet with hard infrastructure that dammed, channelized, collected, treated and redistributed almost every major freshwater source on Earth." Though we possess the ability to feed Earth's 8 billion people, deliver safe drinking water, and take away wastewater, it's not happening because these advances came with "the unintended consequences of pollution, ecological disruption, water poverty, social and political conflict, and global climate change." The third age of water will lead to a dystopian future unless we fix matters, and Gleick devotes the remainder of the book to that prospect. The most gripping (and distressing) chapters recount our disastrous abuse of freshwater ecosystems, which cover less than 1% of the Earth's surface and continue to shrink. Freshwater fish have the world's highest rate of extinction among vertebrates. When fossil fuels are exhausted, alternatives exist, but this is not the case with fossil water (wells, aquifers for irrigation). Gleick delivers a realistic solution in which economists do cost-benefit analyses that include the loss of free-flowing rivers, dislocated communities, floods, the costs of human ill health from pollution, pandemics, loss of wilderness and nature, and the "use-value" of natural ecosystems. However, this requires governments to spend money, nations to work together, and communities to "do what needs to be done." Ultimately, writes the author, "the chronic problem is a lack of will and commitment." A well-documented book with more hard facts than usual but not more optimism.

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Starred review from June 1, 2023

Thorough, meticulous, and eminently readable, this book by water expert and MacArthur Award-winning Gleick both defines and details the three ages of water: water in nature, the emergence of human civilizations and the lessons learned about manipulating water, and the choices that humans have now to prevent a future rife with inadequate resources and to manage and sustain what exists. The author provides a global survey of water that is thorough and culturally and religiously balanced. He does not advocate for just one way to solve all the planet's water woes. Instead, he offers readers a collection of solutions that work together. VERDICT This book urges readers to consider that there are already solutions to the world's water crisis, though humankind may not have the political, social, and cultural will to implement those solutions. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Marjorie Mann

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Starred review from May 1, 2023
Perhaps because it covers about 71 percent of the planet's surface, we often take water for granted. Scientist Gleick buoyantly conveys just how special water is as a basic natural resource essential to survival, a predominant constituent of the human body (accounting for roughly 50-60 percent of an adult's body weight), modeler of the environment, and major factor in human civilizations. He dives into our deep connection with water, blending history, science, technology, climatology, folklore, and policy. Early humans had an intimate relationship with water. The proximity to water fostered growth of societies and made agriculture possible. More recently, our association with water has been about control as we reroute or restrict it, engineer purification systems, design sewers for wastewater, and seek to eliminate waterborne infectious agents. Gleick foresees an optimistic future for water that emphasizes sustainability. He offers prudent policies ensuring the availability of safe water and adequate sanitation for all, addressing climate change, safeguarding the well-being of ecosystems, and reducing water waste. The menace of the bottled water industry, desalinating ocean water, how astronauts on the International Space Station reuse water, the dominant role of water in creation stories, and the origin of earth's water are all explored. An invaluable introduction to hydrology with crucial recommendations for managing the world's water.

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