Water in Plain Sight

May 9, 2016
In this earnest but uneven volume, environmental writer Schwartz (Cows Save the Planet) places water in a wide human and ecological context, focusing on “innovators from around the world who are finding new routes to water security.” She looks, for example, at the work of Allan Savory, who calls for a holistic approach to land stewardship and restoration. Schwartz describes how improperly managed water and soil lead to “poverty, crop failure, social breakdown, unrest, and repression,” and she travels to Zimbabwe “to see holistic planned grazing in action.” In California, Schwartz addresses the ongoing drought. She notes that large percentages of the state’s water supply go to agriculture and wonders whether it is smart to grow “thirsty crops like rice, cotton, and alfalfa in a mostly dry, often hot landscape.” When farmers in the Imperial Valley ship alfalfa to China to feed cows there, they are essentially “exporting water—which the region can ill afford to spare.” Other chapters cover the relationship between water and Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca Forest as well as the water crises in São Paulo, Brazil, and Kimberley, Australia. Some sections prove less engaging than others, but Schwartz does well to highlight this timely, important topic. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary.

May 15, 2016
The bad news is that the world's water, carbon, and energy cycles are out of whack; the good news is that solutions to these problems are within reach.Journalist Schwartz, who challenged much of the conventional thinking about global warming in Cows Save the Planet (2013), goes beyond that brief on holistic livestock management to look more broadly at how nature manages water and thus regulates heat. The author has traveled the world--Africa, Australia, North and South America--and spent significant time with farmers, ranchers, engineers, and scientists to understand the dynamics of plants, soil, and water and to see how these are related to climate change. Readers who stick with her will become familiar with transpiration, infiltration, and condensation (yes, dew is a major player here) as she discusses water problems and solutions. Interwoven into her occasionally challenging essays on plant biology and soil chemistry are profiles of the hardworking men and women she met and observed dealing with water problems and finding solutions that could be copied or adapted elsewhere. Schwartz demonstrates how mistreatment of the land disrupts the water cycle and leads to floods and droughts. If there is one take-home message, it is that the amount of rain that falls is not as important as what happens to the rain, how fast it moves, and where it goes. The author argues that intensive agriculture, improper grazing, urbanization, engineered water infrastructures, and forest burning lead to desertification, the loss of moisture that makes the soil bare and lifeless. Happily, she includes success stories from Slovakia, India, Africa, and Mexico that show "tremendous hope--and suggest there are multiple ways to fill the water bucket." Some demanding passages require perseverance on the part of general readers, but the stories that surround them are important and rewarding.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016

With a refreshing, optimistic tone, journalist Schwartz (Cows Save the Planet) looks into how diverse groups of people across the globe are working to align the land with the water cycle again in an era when water scarcity is already a reality for many societies, and threatens even more. Schwartz identifies how organizations such as the Permaculture Research Institute and Holistic Management International, small farmers, and creative innovators are reviving the health of the soil, encouraging the renewal of ecosystems, and, ultimately, generating more water in arid places. Discussing everything from collecting dew in the desert to reinventing agriculture, Schwartz introduces an array of individuals committed to restoring order to ecological systems around the world, using methods to make rainfall "more effective" and relying on other sources of water often ignored or not thought about before. Reviewing basic biological concepts including infiltration, transpiration, and condensation, Schwartz succeeds in revealing the important role water plays in biodiversity and the environment. VERDICT For readers interested in world water scarcity issues.--Venessa Hughes, Buffalo, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
In her optimistic Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth (2013), which won the Nautilus Book Award for Sustainability, environmental writer Schwartz mapped out a path to climate-change recovery through improved soil-management practices. In this equally inspiring follow-up, she demonstrates how paying closer attention to nature's own methods for delivering moisture where it's most needed will help forestall a looming, worldwide water crisis. Traveling the globe in search of real-world solutions to water conservation, Schwartz spent time with farmers, engineers, and scientists in countries as far afield as Mexico and Slovakia. In Zimbabwe, she visited the home territory of septuagenarian Allan Savory, whose Africa Centre for Holistic Management has reversed kilometers of soil erosion using sustainable animal-grazing techniques. In west Texas, she discovered a rancher couple gathering large amounts of dew using an innovative catchment system. Other chapters describe novel irrigation systems and urban waste-water-recycling methods. Schwartz's overview provides much needed hope for everyone concerned about the future of one of Earth's most precious resources.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)