Water always wins : thriving in an age of drought and deluge / Erica Gies.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Chicago, IL : The University of Chicago Press, 2022Copyright date: ©2022Description: 327 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780226719603
- 022671960X
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 333.9116 G455 | Available | 33111010986780 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 333.9116 G455 | Available | 33111010849467 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Winner of the Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, Water Always Wins is a hopeful journey around the world and across time, illuminating better ways to live with water.
Nearly every human endeavor on the planet was conceived and constructed with a relatively stable climate in mind. But as new climate disasters remind us every day, our world is not stable--and it is changing in ways that expose the deep dysfunction of our relationship with water. Increasingly severe and frequent floods and droughts inevitably spur calls for higher levees, bigger drains, and longer aqueducts. But as we grapple with extreme weather, a hard truth is emerging: our development, including concrete infrastructure designed to control water, is actually exacerbating our problems. Because sooner or later, water always wins.
In this quietly radical book, science journalist Erica Gies introduces us to innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement who start by asking a revolutionary question: What does water want? Using close observation, historical research, and cutting-edge science, these experts in hydrology, restoration ecology, engineering, and urban planning are already transforming our relationship with water.
Modern civilizations tend to speed water away, erasing its slow phases on the land. Gies reminds us that water's true nature is to flex with the rhythms of the earth: the slow phases absorb floods, store water for droughts, and feed natural systems. Figuring out what water wants--and accommodating its desires within our human landscapes--is now a crucial survival strategy. By putting these new approaches to the test, innovators in the Slow Water movement are reshaping the future.
Includes bibliographical references.
Descending into chaos -- Water in geologic time: how ancient rivers can help ease droughts -- From megadams to microbes: water's relationship with tiny forms of life -- Beavers: the original water engineers -- Reclaiming historic water knowledge in modern India -- Planting water: how water shaped culture in ancient Peru -- Let floodplains be floodplains: antidote to the industrial era -- For future humans: protecting water towers in Kenya -- Future coastal, where fresh water meets salt -- Our shared future: living with water.
"Water Always Wins transports us around the world and back through time, exposing us to better ways to live with water. Gies introduces us to water experts the world over as they search for clues to water's past and present, using close observation, historical research, ancient animal and human wisdom, and cutting-edge science to effect change. We become more aware of the ways in which modern civilizations speed water away, erasing its slow phases on the land. But that's when, Gies says, "the magic happens": the slow phases absorb floods, store water for droughts, and feed natural systems. Innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement are accommodating that desire, and showing us how to forge a more resilient future"-- Provided by publisher.