Description
Book SynopsisFrom the contributors to The Conversation, a compelling essay collection on the world's water crises and the necessary steps to build a more sustainable and equitable water future for all. Water-related crises are affecting more and more communities, both in the United States and internationally. If we continue to delay upgrading our infrastructure and addressing rising environmental concerns, we risk further destabilizing already strained systemsor, worse, causing a catastrophic collapse. In The Conversation on Water, water scholar and professor Andrea K. Gerlak collects essays from The Conversation U.S. on critical issues related to water from leading experts in everything from public policy to environmental engineering. Gerlak pays special attention to the threats facing our water systems todaycovering insufficient infrastructure, climate change, and pollutionand integrates them with essays on technologies for harvesting water and Indigenous knowledge in governing the oceans. Sh
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword
Preface
Part I. Health and the Need for Clean Water
1. Nearly 60 Million Americans Don't Drink Their Tap Water, Research Suggests—Here's Why That's a Public Health Problem
2. The Importance of Replacing Lead Water Pipes from Coast to Coast
3. Wildfires Are Contaminating Drinking Water Systems, and It's More Widespread Than People Realize
4. Climate Change Threatens Drinking Water Quality across the Great Lakes
5. PFAS "Forever Chemicals" Are Widespread and Threaten Human Health—Here's a Strategy for Protecting the Public
Part II. Digging Deeper to Get More Water
6. Ancient Groundwater: Why the Water You're Drinking May Be Thousands of Years Old
7. As Climate Change Parches the Southwest, Here's a Better Way to Share Water from the Shrinking Colorado River
8. Farmers Are Depleting the Ogallala Aquifer Because the Government Pays Them to Do It
9. Millions of Americans Struggle to Pay Their Water Bills—Here's How a National Water Aid Program Could Work
10. Five Unusual Technologies for Harvesting Water in Dry Areas
11. Why Wall Street Investors' Trading of California Water Futures Is Nothing to Fear—and Unlikely to Work Anyway
Part III. Water in a Warming World
12. Two-Thirds of Earth's Land Is on Pace to Lose Water as the Climate Warms—That's a Problem for People, Crops, and Forests
13. Climate Change Is Making Ocean Waves More Powerful, Threatening to Erode Many Coastlines
14. As Coastal Flooding Worsens, Some Cities Are Retreating from the Water
15. Your Favorite Fishing Stream May Be at High Risk from Climate Change—Here's How to Tell
16. Trees Are Dying of Thirst in the Western Drought—Here's What's Going On inside Their Veins
17. California's Water Supplies Are in Trouble as Climate Change Worsens Natural Dry Spells, Especially in the Sierra Nevada
18. For Flood-Prone Cities, Seawalls Raise as Many Questions as They Answer
19. A 20-Foot Seawall Won't Save Miami—How Living Structures Can Help Protect the Coast and Keep the Paradise Vibe
20. Sea Level Rise Is Killing Trees along the Atlantic Coast, Creating "Ghost Forests" That Are Visible from Space
21. Climate Change Is Driving Rapid Shifts between High and Low Water Levels on the Great Lakes
22. As Flood Risks Increase across the US, It's Time to Recognize the Limits of Levees
Part IV. The Lifeblood of Human Society
23. For Native Americans, a River Is More Than a "Person"; It Is Also a Sacred Place
24. Louisiana's Coastal Cultures Are Threatened by the Very Plans Meant to Save Their Wetlands and Barrier Islands
25. Women Still Carry Most of the World's Water
26. Coronavirus Spotlights the Link between Clean Water and Health
27. Living near Water Can Be Beneficial to Your Mental Health—Here's How to Have More Blue Spaces in Cities
Part V. Preserving Our Oceans
28. How Marine Protected Areas Help Safeguard the Ocean
29. Where Does Plastic Pollution Go When It Enters the Ocean?
30. Scientists Have Been Drilling into the Ocean Floor for 50 Years—Here's What They've Found So Far
31. Blue Acceleration: Our Dash for Ocean Resources Mirrors What We've Already Done on Land
32. Why Indigenous Knowledge Should Be an Essential Part of How We Govern the World's Oceans
Contributors
Index
