Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World

Water scarcity is on everyone’s mind. Long taken for granted, water availability has become dependent on economics, politics, and people’s food and lifestyle choices. But as anxiety mounts—and even as a swath of California farmland has been left fallow, and extremist groups worldwide exploit the desperation of people losing livelihoods to desertification—many are finding new routes to water security with key implications for food access, economic resilience, and climate change.

Water does not perish, nor does it require millions of years to form as do fossil fuels. However water is always on the move and we must learn to work with its natural movement. In this timely, important book, Judith D. Schwartz presents a refreshing perspective on water that transcends zero-sum thinking. By allying with the water cycle, we can revive lush, productive landscapes, like the river in rural Zimbabwe that now flows miles further than it has in living memory thanks to restorative grazing; the fruit-filled food forest in Tucson, Arizona, grown by harvesting urban wastewater; or the mini-oasis in West Texas nourished by dew.

Animated by stories from around the globe, Water In Plain Sight is an inspiring reminder that fixing the future of our drying planet involves understanding what makes natural systems thrive.

“Beautifully written . . . Richly researched and written in a deceptively easy and personal style, Water in Plain Sight renders the complex comprehensible, enjoyable, and thus accessible. . . . Schwartz—through her thematic focus on water—delightfully explains the key principles that can enable us to begin addressing our Anthropocene challenge while offering hope for regeneration of both planetary and human health.”—Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler