Describes an environmental research team's plan for a global economy

Saving the Planet: How to Shape an Environmentally Substainable Global Economy (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series)

Business & Money

Flavin, Christopher

Postel, Sandra

Brown,Lester R.

Economics

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Argues that a long history of mismanagement of water resources has endangered our water supplies, suggests ways to conserve water, and discusses the economic, political, and social aspects of water

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series)

Real Estate

Report assessing society's ability to sustain itself without hurting the next generation

State of the World, 1991: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society

Brown, Lester Russell

Starke, Linda

We have taken for granted seemingly endless supplies of water flowing from reservoirs wells, and diversion projects; access to water has been key to food security, industrialization, and the growth of cities. In this book from the Worldwatch Institute, Sandra Postel explains that decades of profligacy and mismanagement of the world's water resources have produced signs of shortages and environmental destruction. She writes with authority and clarity of the limits-ecological, economic, and political-of this vital natural resource. She explores the potential for conflict over water between nations, and between urban and rural residents. And she offers a sensible way out of such struggles. Last Oasis makes clear that the technologies and know-how exist to increase the productivity of every liter of water. But citizens must first understand the issues and insist on policies, laws, and institutions that promote the sustainable use of water.

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Worldwatch Environmental Alert)

W. W. Norton & Company; Incorporated

As we approach the twenty-first century, we are entering a new era-an era of water scarcity. We have taken for granted seemingly endless supplies of water flowing from reservoirs wells, and diversion projects; access to water has been key to food security, industrialization, and the growth of cities. In this book from the Worldwatch Institute, Sandra Postel explains that decades of profligacy and mismanagement of the world's water resources have produced signs of shortages and environmental destruction. She writes with authority and clarity of the limits-ecological, economic, and political-of this vital natural resource. She explores the potential for conflict over water between nations, and between urban and rural residents. And she offers a sensible way out of such struggles. Last Oasis makes clear that the technologies and know-how exist to increase the productivity of every liter of water. But citizens must first understand the issues and insist on policies, laws, and institutions that promote the sustainable use of water.

W.W.Norton&Company

The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different? For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture ― from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the United States. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies ― including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers ― water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the twenty-first century and beyond. Protecting rivers and vital ecosystems as the world aims to feed 8 billion people will require a doubling of water productivity ― getting twice as much benefit from each gallon removed from rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Pillar of Sand points the way toward managing the growing competition for scarce water. And it lays out a strategy for correcting a startling flaw of the modern irrigation age ― its failure to better the lives of the majority of the world's poorest farmers. Illustrations, maps

Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (Environmental Alert Series)

Science & Math

Earth Sciences

State of the World 2000 shines an intense light on the great challenge our civilization faces: how to use our political systems to manage the difficult and complex relationships between the global economy and the Earth’s ecosystems. The newest volume in the annual series that has become the bible of the global environmental movement--and indispensable for anyone concerned with the future of our world. State of the World 2000 provides national leaders and concerned citizens with a comprehensive framework for the global debate about our future in the new century. This annual survey by the award-winning Worldwatch Institute has become an invaluable analysis of negative environmental trends and a guide to emerging solutions. The book shows how our current fossil-fueled, auto-centered, throwaway economy is steadily destroying the very ecosystems that form the foundations of our lives. The great challenge we face in the next century is making the transition to a sustainable economy that reuses and recycles materials, is powered by renewable energy sources, and has a stable population. The authors argue that meeting this challenge will offer some of the greatest investment opportunities in history. Written in clear and concise language, with easy-to-read charts and tables, State of the World 2000 presents a view of our changing world that we, and our leaders, cannot afford to ignore.

State of the World 2000: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Society (State of the World (Paperback))

French, Hilary F.

The Worldwatch Institute

Conserving Water: The Untapped Alternative (Worldwatch Paper, 67)

Worldwatch Inst

Reforesting the Earth (Worldwatch Paper V83)

The Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity

For decades now we have wasted and mismanaged the world’s water supplies. Today, 27 countries are short of water, a quarter of the world’s population has no safe water, 46 per cent have no proper sanitation and each year four million children die of water-borne diseases. As most of the world’s major river systems cross several national boundaries, the scope disputes and the threat to international security is becoming more and more real.In The Last Oasis, Sandra Postel examines the economic, ecological and political factors affecting fresh water supply. She confronts the issues of mismanagement and profligacy and analyses and dangers of confrontation, both between nations and between rural and urban users. She also emphasises that the technology and know-how for effective water husbandry does exist. With methods already in use, farmers could cut their demand for water by 40-90 per cent, and cities by one-third, without sacrificing economic output or quality of life.Investing in water efficiency, recycling and conservation help meet rising demands and stave off disaster. But the priority is a common recognition of the gravity of the position, and with that a widespread push for institutions to manage sustainable use of water.

Routledge

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Postel, Sandra. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Postel, Sandra

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Postel, Sandra. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Saving the Planet: How to Shape an Environmentally Substainable Global Economy (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series)

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series)

State of the World, 1991: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Worldwatch Environmental Alert)

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Worldwatch Environmental Alert)

Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (Environmental Alert Series)

State of the World 2000: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Society (State of the World (Paperback))

Conserving Water: The Untapped Alternative (Worldwatch Paper, 67)

Reforesting the Earth (Worldwatch Paper V83)

The Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity