When The Rivers Run Dry: What Happens When Our Water Runs Out? - Softcover

"If ever a book has been written that demands to be read it is this one. This is that rare thing - a journey through a hugely important and complex subject in the company of a natural storyteller who makes you feel intelligent." (Tim Smit)

"Of all the travel books I have ever read this is the most frightening, the most inspiring and the most important...A book every politician must be made to read and understand." (David Bellamy)

"Environmental journalist Fred Pearce's book, When the Rivers Run Dry could not be better timed" (Robin McKie The Observer)

"...Pearce argues powerfully that unless mankind can rethink its whole attitude towards the use and misuse of resource, the consequence could be famine, pestilence and even war for huge numbers of human beings." (Trevor Grove Daily Mail)

"Veteran science writer Pearce (Turning Up the Heat) makes a strong - and scary - case that a worldwide water shortage is the most fearful looming environmental crisis. With a drumbeat of facts both horrifc...and fascinating...the former New Scientist news editor documents a 'kind of cataclysm' already affecting many of the world's great rivers." (Publishers Weekly)

The world is running out of water. Even in the UK our reservoirs empty and there are drought warnings and hose pipe bans each year. Some of world's largest rivers now trickle into sand miles from the ocean, exhausted by human need. Water is 'the new oil' - except we can live without oil; there are no alternatives to fresh water.

From Kent to Kenya, Fred Pearce explores the complex origins of the growing world water crisis. His vivid reportage reveals the personal stories behind failing rivers, barren fields, pollution, desertification, floods and water wars.

Is there hope? Yes - but only if we revolutionize the way we treat water. This phenomenally important book shows us just how essential it is that each one of us takes responsibility for the way we use this crucial resource now - before all our rivers run dry.