Difference between revisions of "Category:Water"

There's an old saying that "In the West, whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting over." This category includes freshwater and ocean, quantity and quality.

Video overview

Earth Policy Institute overview/stats/status Link 2006

Extensive coverage of the California drought and climate change.

Where does my water come from?

Books

Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It by Robert Glennon 2009

The Holy Order of Water By William E. Marks (Google book)

Water Wars by Vandana Shiva

Water Wars by Vandana Shiva Google Book S&E Stacks TD345 .S53 2002

Cochabamba!: Water War in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera and Tom Lewis

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water by Maude Barlow McH Stacks HD1691 .B366 2008

Blue Gold video based on the book

California

Reisner, Wiliam Cadillac Desert explores how crucial the development of dams were to the West. Introduction. Chapter 1 includes John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War officer who was the first to explore the Grand Canyon by boat. White speaks of regionalism, an idea pioneered by Powell. NPR audio

Dirty Water is the riveting story of how Howard Bennett, a Los Angeles schoolteacher with a gift for outrageous rhetoric, fought pollution in Santa Monica Bay--and won. The story begins in 1985, when many scientists considered the bay to be one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. The insecticide DDT covered portions of the sea floor. Los Angeles discharged partially treated sewage into its waters. Lifeguards came down with mysterious illnesses. And Howard Bennett happily swam in it every morning.

By accident, Bennett learned that Los Angeles had applied for a waiver from the Clean Water Act to continue discharging sewage into the bay. Incensed that he had been swimming in dirty water, Bennett organized oddball coalition to orchestrate stunts such as wrapping brown ribbon around LA's city hall and issuing Dirty Toilet Awards to chastise the city's administration. This is the fast-paced story of how this unusual cast of characters created an environmental movement in Los Angeles that continues to this day with the nationally recognized Heal the Bay. Character-driven, compelling, and uplifting, Dirty Water tells how even the most polluted water can be cleaned up-by ordinary people. audio interview

Introduction to Water in California David Carle The food each of us consumes per day represents an investment of 4,500 gallons of water, according to the California Farm Bureau. In this densely populated state where it rains only six months out of the year, where does all that water come from? This thoroughly engaging, concise book tells the story of California's most precious resource, tracing the journey of water in the state from the atmosphere to the snowpack to our faucets and foods. Along the way, we learn much about California itself as the book describes its rivers, lakes, wetlands, dams, and aqueducts and discusses the role of water in agriculture, the environment, and politics. Essential reading in a state facing the future with an already overextended water supply, this fascinating book shows that, for all Californians, every drop counts. A new preface on recent water issues brings the book up to the minute. UC Press

The Great Thirst: Californians and Water—A History, Revised Edition. Norris Hundley, Jr.The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization of farmland and open spaces, persisting despoliation of water supplies, and demands for equity in water allocation for an exploding population. People the world over confront these problems, and Hundley examines them with clarity and eloquence in the unruly laboratory of California. The obsession with water has shaped California to a remarkable extent, literally as well as politically and culturally. Hundley tells how aboriginal Americans and then early Spanish and Mexican immigrants contrived to use and share the available water and how American settlers, arriving in ever-increasing numbers after the Gold Rush, transformed California into the home of the nation's preeminent water seekers. The desire to use, profit from, manipulate, and control water drives the people and events in this fascinating narrative until, by the end of the twentieth century, a large, colorful cast of characters and communities has wheeled and dealed, built, diverted, and connived its way to an entirely different statewide waterscape.

Video

California

Toxic Episode - Imperial Valley 1 In the burning fields of Southern California’s Imperial Valley, the honey bee population is dying, and so are millions of fish in the Salton Sea. Meanwhile, the squatters of Slab City try to live off the grid and hold on to what’s left of the American Wild West. VBS travels to this apocalyptic landscape.

California Drought 60 Minutes segment 12/09

Cadillac Desert is a four-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) video series on the remaking of America's West through startling feats of engineering and the consequences that this manipulation of water and nature has wrought. The first three programs are based on Marc Reisner's groundbreaking book "Cadillac Desert," an examination of how water created the modern American West--the most successful "hydrologic society" in history. The series begins with the story of Los Angeles and its unquenchable thirst for water in "Mulholland's Dream." The second program, "An American Nile," tell how the Colorado River became the most regulated river in history. Next in the series is "The Mercy of Nature" which tracks the political and environmental battles that ended in California's Great Central Valley being transformed from a semiarid desert into the richest agricultural region in the world. The fourth and final program is based on the award-winning book, "Last Oasis" by Sandra Postel. It examines the ramifications of the export of America's water development expertise to the rest of the world, and shows how conservation, recycling, and efficiency offer hopeful and sustainable solutions to the world's gathering water crisis. McHenry Library VT4840

From the Toilet to the Tap Today, cities around the world are shifting away from the historical focus of wastewater management (i.e. the miracle of making the wastewater go away somewhere where we can't see it) and adopting a new paradigm of re-use. David Sedlak, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley, studies wastewater and spoke about water recycling at the 2009 Nobel Conference on water conservation issues.

UC research on CA drought 7/09

California Water video KQED Quest. 10/9 story on mercury in SF Bay

sewage spills April 09 video KQED Quest.

United States

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hendrick Smith details widespread pollution of America's waterways in the PBS Frontline documentary Poisoned Waters. Audio interview April 20, 2009

River of Renewal looks at struggle over water on the Klamath River between farmers, fisheries and Native people. Documents the extensive recent fish kills of salmon due to water diversion.

World

PBS series narrated by Robert Redford, Saving the Bay explores the history of one of America’s greatest natural resources — San Francisco Bay — with four one-hour episodes tracing the Bay from its geologic origins following the last Ice Age through years of catastrophic exploitation to restoration efforts of today. Available online

Water Conflicts in Developing Nations Forum 01/06/2010 Panelists talked about ways to prevent and mitigate water conflicts due to issues such as scarcity, access, and pollution. The discussion was held in conjuction with a new publication by the Catholic Relief Service, Water and Conflict. Link

Ö Tede'wa, owners of the water : conflict and collaboration over rivers "A central Brazilian Xavante, a Wayuu from Venezuela, and a US anthropologist explore an indigenous campaign to protect a river from devastating effects of uncontrolled Amazonian soy cultivation. The film results from long collaboration between anthropologist Laura Graham and Xavante, and more recent collaboration with Wayuu. The Association Xavante Warã, a Xavante organization that promotes indigenous knowledge and ways of living in the central Brazilian cerrado ( a spiritually and materially integrated space that Xavante know as ʹró) and conservation of this unique environment, invited Graham to tell the story of its campaign to save the Rio das Mortes. 2009 McHenry DVD7701

More UC research on watersheds (2008)

World Wildlife Fund new 2008 report has extensive info on water, also video

The New Oil: Energy Demand and Water Aspen Institute 2009

Blue Gold video based on the book

Short video interviews with social entrepreneurs who are working on water issues (from Skoll Foundation)

Flow: For Love of Water (video 2007) includes Vandana Shiva, global overview, including chemicals and privatization.

How to capture rain water audio and video

Engineer Michael Pritchard invented the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

Other Resources

Audio interview with journalist Charles Duhigg who reports on the "worsening pollution in American waters" — and regulators' responses to the problem — in his New York Times series, "Toxic Waters.", which has led to Congressional hearings (10/09)

Heart of Dryness: How the Kalahari Bushmen Can Help California Endure the Coming Permanent Drought JAMES WORKMAN audio (Realplayer) 9/09

Water Public Relations scams from PR Watch 4/09

USGS Reports and facts about water resources in California including drought maps.

Los Angeles plan to capture rain water Audio 2/10 KQED California Report NPR

California Coastal Commission Water Quality Program contains information about water quality along California’s coasts. There are also other links and resources for information about important coastal projects.

California Department of Water Resources has a lot of information on the current drought in California and the plan to create a 2009 Drought Water Bank.

Great general site: info on Colorado River and general info on your city (thanks to P. Meier)

A history of the water problems in Southern California.

EPA including info on your watershed

Specific Water Issues:

Video overview on ocean health (beware greenwash ad at end).

California Water wars PBS story on allocation.

NPR/PBS audio series on CA water supply and Global Warming.

PBS video on "Peak Water" in Southwest.

Plastic's effect on Marine ecosystems. Includes videos.

Peripheral Canal around the Delta

How to capture rainwater (audio and video)