THE BIG THIRST--I heard about this book on NPR and requested my library buy it.

[raccoon]

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
by Charles Fishman

Publisher: Free Press
ISBN-10: 9781439102077


"For the past 100 years, the developed world has enjoyed a cheap, safe, and abundant water supply, but Fishman (The Wal-Mart Effect) warns that everything about water is about to change—how we use it, how we share it, and how we value it. In an engrossing, globe-trotting narrative, he introduces the reader to people already grappling with water shortages—Patricia Mulroy, Las Vegas's no-nonsense water czar known as the best water manager in the country; the inhabitants of a neighborhood in Delhi who line up twice a day for water they must carry home. Since water cannot be created or destroyed, the challenge we face is not so much about water scarcity but rather how we can use it more equitably and protect it—the meaning of "clean" has a wholly new connotation in an era when we can pollute water in new ways with residues of medicine and plastics. Fishman notes that some of the most innovative ways of conserving water are coming from big businesses, including IBM, which has cut the water use in its microchip production 27% in the past eight years. A comprehensive, remarkably readable panorama of our dependence on—and responsibilities to—a priceless resource."

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Thirst-Secret-Turbulent-Future/dp/1439102074

[LaurenG]

1. I heard the interview yesterday. We all need rain barrels

among other water saving measures, although I have heard that it's illegal in some places to capture water in rain barrels.

[FSogol]

2. We really need to get beyond the idea of grass and lawns in areas that don't get much rain.

The notion of a grass lawn comes from England were they get twice as much rain as most places in the US.

[LaurenG]

3. I agree with that but vegetables do require water . I live on over an acre so

a rain barrel wouldn't begin to cover the grass. I never water my lawn but I do water trees after about 3 weeks w/o rain.

My mother was a great advocate of xeroscape and the last home we lived in was in the desert and filled with cacti and other native plants.

http://www.google.com/search?q=xeriscape&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLD_enUS311US311&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=sWWkTcSpLaTj0gH9q4CFCQ&ved=0CCEQsAQ