Water: A Natural History | 
| Author: Alice Outwater
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 25975
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0465037801
Dewey Decimal Number: 551.48
EAN: 9780465037803
ASIN: 0465037801
Publication Date: September 26, 1997
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Amazon.com
What happens when you flush your toilet? Environmental engineer and writer Alice Outwater knows, and she guides the reader through the technical ins and outs of such delicate matters as water treatment and sewage handling--subjects she writes about with considerable charm. Here you will learn how "raw sludge brew" is separated, how methane from sewage is converted to a source of power, and how aqueducts past and present really work. Outwater also describes in lay terms the complex ecology of rivers, making a strong case for the preservation of free-flowing streams in the place of dammed waterways. Her book is somewhat more narrowly focused than the title suggests, but it is highly interesting and instructive nonetheless.
Product Description
An environmental engineer turned ecology writer relates the history of our waterways and her own growing understanding of why our waterways continue to be polluted—and what needs to be done to save this essential natural resourse.Water: A Natural History takes us back to the diaries of the first Western explorers; it moves from the reservoir to the modern toliet, from the grasslands of the Midwest to the Everglades of Florida, throught the guts of a wastewater treatment plant and out to the waterways again. It shows how human-engineered dams, canals and farms replaces nature’s beaver dams, prairie dog tunnels, and buffalo wallows. Step by step, Outwater makes clear what should have always been obvious: while engineering can depollute water, only ecologically interacting systems can create healthy waterways.Important reading for students of environmental studies, the heart of this history is a vision of our land and waterways as they once were, and a plan that can restore them to their former glory: a land of living streams, public lands with hundreds of millions of beaver-built wetlands, prairie dog towns that increase the amount of rainfall that percolates to the groundwater, and forests that feed their fallen trees to the sea.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 What was, what is and what had been done to....... water............. August 27, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Water....
I have never read a book like this before, that brought me to an element and made me know it and feel it and understand what it is, how it is all about us....our changes made to water, our actions and consequences. Exceptional writing...leaves you somewhere between lost in imaging and mining your soul. Highly recommended !
Excellent view of the big picture April 20, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a must read for everyone. It was well documented and interesting, covering a lot of information in a small, easily read book. It's the type of book that should be used in classrooms as required reading, for it promotes a greater understanding of our world.
Clarity about the reason why our water is not yet clear/pure August 20, 2002
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Many of the books on the increasingly common water shortages spend a great deal of their time listing mind numbing statistics. This author is authoritative but has the sense to pick a few key reasons why our entire US water infrastructure needs the help of nature. Beavers and prairie dogs may be what we need, at least in this country, to improve the percolating powers of the earth to clean what science alone cannot remove from our water. This is one of the few books in this area that is readable by anyone over mid-teens. I highly recommend this book for a history of why the Clean Water Act is not enough.
most informative book on water and environment June 17, 2001
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book opens one's eyes about water, the way the water cycle was before the continent was despoiled, little things like water percolating through leaves and big things like the beaver dams constructed by 200 million beavers...now, there are 200 million people! We are ordering extra copies to give away, to inform and to intrigue people in all walks of life.
Jam-packed, Non-fat Eco-journey May 23, 2001
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is a superlative book; I recommend anyone living in the USA to read it. It is short, but each sentence is informative, there are no wasted words, no fat. It is scientifically and historically acurate to the smallest detail, but never dry. Outwater's writing style is flowing and musical, and each sentence takes you further and deeper into an Alice-in-Wonderland journey of the magic and marvel of each of the ecosytems she describes. She uses water as the vehicle for each journey, from molecules to the ocean. She describes the balances of Nature and how humans have fit in, or destroyed, these balances. I am a longtime outdoorsman, photographer, and conservationist, and had thought I was reasonably observant. But reading this book was like having a film removed from my eyes and being fitted with ultra-acute vision and hightened understanding and appreciation of our history and environment.
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