Last Call at the Oasis: The Global Water Crisis and Where We Go From Here
Last Call at the Oasis: The Global Water Crisis and Where We Go From Here
From the company that brought you Food, Inc. and Waiting for “Superman”, this companion book to the documentary film explores the looming crises surrounding the world’s most essential, most threatened, resource.
Water scarcity is poised to become the most explosive issue of our time. Global population is soaring toward the 10 billion mark. Climate change is producing unprecedented droughts as well as devastating flooding. Less than 1 percent of the world’s water is fresh and potable—and no more will ever be available.
We can’t afford to continue our profligate ways with water. Yet forging reasonable compromises over water regulation is incredibly difficult, as raging controversies and conflicts over water supplies in the American Southwest and “fracking” in the Northeast suggest. “Water wars” may soon threaten the peace in regions from the India/Pakistan border to sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East.
Based on the forthcoming film by Academy Award®–winning director Jessica Yu, Last Call at the Oasis explains the facts behind these interlinked crises and describes the work that far-seeing reformers, policy-makers, scientists, engineers, and business leaders are doing to craft solutions.
Karl Weber is a writer and editor based in New York. He collaborated with Muhammad Yunus on his bestseller Creating a World Without Poverty , edited The Best of I.F. Stone, and, with Andrew W. Savitz, coauthored The Triple Bottom Line: How Today’s Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success—And How You Can Too. He edited the previous best-selling Participant Media Guides, Food, Inc. and Waiting for “Superman.”
Contributors Include:
Robert Moran on how oil and mineral development pollute and divert water supplies—often beyond public scrutiny
Peter H. Gleick on discovering the “soft path” to global water security
Robert Glennon on how the power of markets can help protect the world’s water
Lynn Henning on how a family farmer became a passionate “water activist”
Alus Prud’Homme on how the water crisis affects us all
Gary White on how innovative social and economic strategies can make clean water available even for the world’s poorest people
Hadley Arnold and Peter Arnold on how arid regions like America’s Southwest can wisely husband water supplies for cities and farmers alike
Robyn Beavers on how today’s smartest businesses are making sustainable water management a competitive advantage
Zem Joaquin on nine “ecofabulous” ways of saving water at home- and doing it wiht style
Bill McDonough on how smart design can preserve water’s “endless Resourcefulness” for generations to come
No resource on earth is more precious—or more endangered—than water. Last Call at the Oasis is a powerful tool for learning about the water challenges we face as well as the remarkable solutions available to us—if we have the will to use them.