by Judith Schwartz
Chelsea Green Publishing
5/2/2019, paperback
SKU: 9781603589161
Water scarcity is on everyone's mind. Long taken for granted, water availability has become dependent on economics, politics, and people's food and lifestyle choices. But as anxiety mounts--and even as a swath of California farmland has been left fallow, and extremist groups worldwide exploit the desperation of people losing livelihoods to desertification--many are finding new routes to water security with key implications for food access, economic resilience, and climate change.
Water does not perish, nor does it require millions of years to form as do fossil fuels. However water is always on the move and we must learn to work with its natural movement. In this timely, important book, Judith D. Schwartz presents a refreshing perspective on water that transcends zero-sum thinking. By allying with the water cycle, we can revive lush, productive landscapes, like the river in rural Zimbabwe that now flows miles further than it has in living memory thanks to restorative grazing; the fruit-filled food forest in Tucson, Arizona, grown by harvesting urban wastewater; or the mini-oasis in West Texas nourished by dew.
Animated by stories from around the globe, Water In Plain Sight is an inspiring reminder that fixing the future of our drying planet involves understanding what makes natural systems thrive.
Reviews:
"Our freshwater crisis isn't just caused by drought and overconsumption--it's also the product of deforestation, unmanaged grazing, the destruction of wildlife, and other benighted land management practices. Fortunately, there are solutions. Water in Plain Sight reveals that restoring our planet's ecosystems can help replenish our most precious resource. In her inspiring, erudite book, Judith Schwartz introduces readers to the Amish farming consultants, Texas dew harvesters, and Zimbabwean graziers who are developing world-changing approaches to ecological restoration and water stewardship. Water in Plain Sight proves that our water woes aren't inevitable, and that the most sustainable path forward lies in partnering with nature rather than attempting to wrestle it into submission." --Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager
"Insightful, informative, and inspirational--Schwartz connects the dots between soil, climate, and water, bringing solutions to light." --David R. Montgomery, author of Growing a Revolution
About the Author:
Judith D. Schwartz is a journalist whose work explores nature-based solutions to global environmental and economic challenges. She writes on this theme for numerous publications and speaks at venues around the world. She is the author of Cows Save the Planet and Water in Plain Sight. A graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and Brown University, she lives in southern Vermont.