Peter Gleick
About Peter Gleick
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Peter Gleick - Forbes
Peter Gleick's stories. ... These posts are the personal musings of Dr. Peter H. Gleick. Gleick is co-founder and President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, ...
Books by Peter Gleick
“The Three Ages of Water” (2023)
Three Ages Of Water
“Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water” (2011)
Peter Gleick knows water. A world-renowned scientist and freshwater expert, Gleick is a MacArthur Foundation "genius," and according to the BBC, an environmental visionary. And he drinks from the tap. Why don’t the rest of us? Bottled and Sold shows how water went from being a free natural resource to one of the most successful commercial products of the last one hundred years—and why we are poorer for it. It’s a big story and water is big business. Every second of every day in the United States, a thousand people buy a plastic bottle of water, and every second of every day a thousand more throw one of those bottles away. That adds up to more than thirty billion bottles a year and tens of billions of dollars of sales. Are there legitimate reasons to buy all those bottles? With a scientist’s eye and a natural storyteller’s wit, Gleick investigates whether industry claims about the relative safety, convenience, and taste of bottled versus tap hold water. And he exposes the true reasons we’ve turned to the bottle, from fearmongering by business interests and our own vanity to the breakdown of public systems and global inequities. "Designer" H2O may be laughable, but the debate over commodifying water is deadly serious. It comes down to society’s choices about human rights, the role of government and free markets, the importance of being "green," and fundamental values. Gleick gets to the heart of the bottled water craze, exploring what it means for us to bottle and sell our most basic necessity.
“Water is Key: A Better Future for Africa” (2008)
Award-winning photographer Gil Garcetti has created an important visual document intended to show the world why Water is Key. The book contains eighty compelling black and white photographs that illustrate the immediate need for safe water and the dramatic results that can be achieved through the help of world leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and involved citizens. Short essays by leaders such as President Jimmy Carter and outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan are accompanied by quotes from NGO staff and West African villagers themselves. Gil Garcetti intends Water is Key as a call to action and plans to spend a substantial part of his energies in the next two years to making his campaign a successful one. All of his royalties from bookstore sales of this book will be donated to a safe-water NGO.
“Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources” (1993)
Among the most compelling environmental issues of today and tomorrow are those concerning the world's fresh water resources. Peter H. Gleick's important new volume, Water in Crisis, addresses the timely and sometimes controversial aspects of world water use. At stake are water quality, quantity, and possible future conflicts over shared international water resources. Nine essays by leading specialists from fields as diverse as hydrology, zoology, and law, among others, cover such issues as the status of developments in international water law; hydroelectric power; the possible effects of climatic change on water resources; and the state of fresh water fisheries. Particular chapters explore access to clean drinking water and sanitation; the use of water for energy and food production; the quality of rivers, lakes, and inland seas; and the condition of natural aquatic ecosystems. A joint project of the Pacific Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute, this book is a comprehensive guide to the world's fresh water resources. Hydrologists, engineers, policy makers, professionals in the environmental sciences, as well as lay readers will find Water in Crisis a dynamic resource and information-packed reference. More than 200 tables of fresh water data supplement this important volume.
At a glancePeter Gleick
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