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The Big Thirst
- The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
The water coming out of your tap is four billion years old and might have been slurped by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. We will always have exactly as much water on Earth as we have ever had. Water cannot be destroyed, and it can always be made clean enough for drinking again. In fact, water can be made so clean that it actually becomes toxic. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this delightful narrative excursion, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, which is both the promise and the peril of our unexplored connections to it.
Taking listeners from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, and from a rice farm in the Australian outback to a glimpse into giant vats of soup at Campbell's largest factory, he reveals that our relationship to water is conflicted and irrational, neglected and mismanaged. Whether we will face a water scarcity crisis has little to do with water and everything to do with how we think about water - how we use it, connect with it, and understand it.
Portraying and explaining both the dangers - in 2008, Atlanta came just 90 days from running completely out of drinking water - and the opportunities, such as advances in rainwater harvesting and businesses that are making huge breakthroughs in water productivity, The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, our crucial relationship to it, and the creativity we can bring to ensuring we always have plenty of it.
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Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
- The American West and Its Disappearing Water
- By: Marc Reisner
- Narrated by: Joe Spieler, Kate Udall
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants to transform the West.
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Too much mouth noise in narration
- By AES on 07-23-19
By: Marc Reisner
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Let There Be Water
- Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
- By: Seth M. Siegel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors - the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan - every day.
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More water politics story than water technology
- By normal person on 04-12-21
By: Seth M. Siegel
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No Immediate Danger
- Carbon Ideologies, Volume One
- By: William T. Vollmann
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come - the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort.
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Look at the brightside always and die in a dream!
- By Darwin8u on 04-14-19
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The Upcycle
- Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
- By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.
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A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
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Getting Green Done
- Hard Truths From the Frontlines of Sustainability Revolution
- By: Auden Schendler
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing "green" buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why?
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Green's Dirty Little Secrets
- By Martin on 07-10-09
By: Auden Schendler
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The Source
- How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers
- By: Martin Doyle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle explores how rivers have often been the source of arguments at the heart of the American experiment - over federalism, taxation, regulation, conservation, and development. Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the US Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation, the origins of the Army Corps of Engineers, the discovery of gold in 1848, and the construction of the Hoover Dam and the TVA during the New Deal, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina.
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Great historical read without compare.
- By Thomas P Dore on 04-10-18
By: Martin Doyle
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
- The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
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Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
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Coal
- A Human History
- By: Barbara Freese
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy, and even today powers our electrical plants, has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe.
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Uses Coal to push her Political Agenda
- By Kismet on 08-22-06
By: Barbara Freese
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The Idealist
- Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty
- By: Nina Munk
- Narrated by: Susan Nezami
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeffrey Sachs - celebrated economist, special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and author of the influential best seller The End of Poverty - disagrees. In his view, poverty is a problem that can be solved. With single-minded determination he has attempted to put into practice his theories about ending extreme poverty, to prove that the world's most destitute people can be lifted onto "the ladder of development."
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Sachs tries hard but the system is not there
- By Amazon Customer on 11-13-15
By: Nina Munk
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The Alchemy of Air
- A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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At the dawn of the 20th century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the worlds scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives.
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Great Book Thoroughly Researched
- By Terry A. Gray on 10-21-11
By: Thomas Hager
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
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Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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What listeners say about The Big Thirst
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Herder Deb
- 09-21-22
Thought provoking
Loved it.
Excellent information about water all over the world.
Highly recommend it to everyone.
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- Paul
- 05-13-11
Mandatory listening for EVERYONE
This is a superb book and one that should be required reading for every human being. Instead of reading some of the drivel (classics) in high school, kids should read about the single most important element in life, water. There is something enigmatic about our attitude about water. Our attitude about water is something akin to the old song line, "you only really appreciate something when you lose it". This book is not a polemic or screaming about yet another crisis. Although water is becoming a crisis, his point is educational. He talks about every aspect of water. I especially like the parts in which he described the chemistry and physical uniqueness of water. One fact about water that absolutely blew me away: Every molecule of water that is on the Earth has been here since its formation. We neither add nor subtract water. It just gets moved around. We are so spoiled regarding water in the US especially in the part in which I live. He points out the confusion in our minds about water. The author compares our 24/7 water accessibility with the supply in India. In most Indian communities, even the wealthy ones, water is only available one or two hours a day. In some parts of India, an entire day is consumed (mainly by school aged girls) walking to a distant water supply and carrying it back on their heads. For us, water is virtually free and we waste it with impunity. People complain about a dollar a month increase in the cost of water supply while they remain silent about a 10% cable TV charge. Is it really necessary to flush our solid waste with purified, chemically treated potable water? Suffice it to say that after reading this book, my head was straightened out and I now turn off the water when brushing my teeth. The book is very well written and Charles Fishman does a great job, as always. This book gets my vote for Science book of the year.
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17 people found this helpful
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- HCO3
- 10-20-12
Lots of Useful Information Uncritically Presented
An excellent review of water utilization and of the problems that we all face as the need for water increases on the background of finite supply. Mr Fishman obviously knows the subject to great depth, but he's such a Green ideologue that he ignores inconvenient facts. For example, when detailing the efforts that IBM has made at its Vermont plant to use water more efficiently he lists the savings that their efforts have yielded - and they are substantial. He then quotes the IBM official in charge of the effort as saying; "We did 50 different things [to get these results]." Well. these 50 different things most have cost something, but Mr Fishman never mentions what this cost was. Thus, there's no way for the listener to know what IBM's net savings were or if there even was a net savings.
In his very good description of the bottled water craze that has seized the US he mentions how the market has worked to effect the unnecessary use of water but failed to work in the necessary sector of water use. Of course, most of our water is supplied by government or government regulated utilities where there is no opportunity for market forces to work. When he discusses GE's water programs his disdain is palpable even when he grants them success. He obviously is not a fan of capitalism.
Fishman discusses an issue of critical importance to the very survival of human life. After all, separating the sewerage from the drinking water has saved more lives then all the doctors who have ever lived or ever will live. He knows the subject and covers it in great detail. He writes very well. The narrator is very good and the listener will learn a lot about the subject. You just have to realize that Fishman is the victim of his own zeal and innate bias. If you put this into the equation you can get a lot from this book. He depiction of how recent is a reliable water supply to the developed world and how fragile its continuance is should serve as a valuable warning to our on-going complacence about the future of our water supply. Just ramp up your bias filter.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Steven Schuster
- 04-28-13
Big Thirst - Well Written - Some Flaws
The Big Thirst is a well Written and interesting treatise on the world wide water situation. There are some minor flaws in the writing. The book could have been shorter. The author spends some time redundantly haranguing that Americans and developed nations waste a good deal of water and that we don't have coherent policies in place to deal with water shortages and droughts. Yes, I get it. That's why I purchased this audio-book. So there's little need to repetitively convince me. Otherwise and interesting book about an important issue, seldom discussed.
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- Brandon Lentine
- 02-05-24
Water is fascinating
I liked the amazing stories from around the world and what they are doing with water
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- Anonymous User
- 04-08-13
water & greed & stupidity are not scarce
is our water supply really endangered or scarce ?
should municipalities make water expensive or cost-free ?
is there any part of modern life not influenced by water ?
charles fishman provides an very entertaining answer to these questions
the text shows he has studied these issues across history and culture
but the lively and personal narrative style make it an easy read
my favorite parts of the book deal with human stupidity and ingenuity
the variety of responses to local water issues is simply astounding
at times greed and fear seem as influential as rainfall and water treatment
the bottom line seems to be that water is not really scarce
but it will become a valuable commodity within the next generation
as our grandparents would tell us, we must not take it for granted
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2 people found this helpful
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- AMColorado
- 02-22-14
Should be required reading for all HS students.
This is a great book. It does a great job of describing water issues in an interesting and entertaining way.
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- Jason
- 09-23-15
A must read...
This book teaches us the complexities of water and the nuances of how we use and abuse it. It gives you a deep insite to other cultures and their relationship with water. I recommend it to anyone who likes to drink water!
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- Joshua Kim
- 06-10-12
Distilling 'The Big Thirst'
The big idea in Charles Fishman's excellent The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water is that water is both an essential and scarce resource, and that almost universally governments and individuals have failed to manage this resource.
Our water failures are across the board.
We have failed to:
Put a realistic price on water consumption, allowing politics and sheer lunacy to determine who uses water and how much they use rather than the market and mechanisms of supply and demand.
Maintain, much less improve, our existing century old water infrastructure (the pipes, pumping stations, waste treatment facilities, reservoirs, etc) - leading to enormous water wastage and risks of water delivery failure.
Manage existing water supplies intelligently, including our failures to appropriately conserve and re-use water, and our continued insistence on sending high quality drinking water into our toilets and on to our yards and golf courses.
Educate ourselves about water and the water supply.
This last failure is, I think, particularly troubling across higher ed. Our students are not going to understand water locally, nationally or globally unless we teach them about water. Water can unify disciplines of economics, sociology, history, political science, chemistry, biology, environmental studies, and many more. We could use water as a lens to understand the interactions of science, history and politics. Water represents a teachable moment.
Fishman tells the water story by going to places and talking with people who are grappling with the management and delivery of water and water systems. From Vegas to India, Atlanta to Dubai, water economics and water politics are dominating the thinking and planning efforts of many companies and governments. The ed tech folks amongst us will particularly enjoy the description of how water is utilized in the making of computer chips (and be amazed how much embedded water is in your iPad).
Highly recommended. Smart, engaging, well-written, and disturbing.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Brock
- 06-03-14
Best educational book I've ever heard
My goal is always to learn something from the books I listen to, but sometimes it's endurance work to finish a science, biology, or even history related book. In the midst of many educational books I keep promising myself I'll indulge on a fun novel next, and take a break from the learning. This was not the case at all with The Big Thirst. I enjoyed every minute of this book, and because I enjoyed it so much, I probably learned more (and will retain more) than with any other educational book I've listened to.
My family is probably getting tired of hearing stories and facts about water at dinner each night. To me this book was awesome. I learned a ton about our world's most precious resource, and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Fishman writes with wit and humor, and knows how to keep things interesting as well as informative. The major stories he covers in the book are all very interesting.
As I re-read through many of the reviews on this book I was amazed to see some people say it is a "doomsday" type book about our world's water problems. I didn't get that at all. It is true today that more and more people are recognizing the importance of water availability for our futures, but he doesn't hype up this fear. I think the goal of The Big Thirst is just to make people stop and consider water, something we live most of our lives completely taking for granted.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE. No matter what type of books you enjoy listening to, I promise you will connect with the subject matter in this book, and enjoy learning as you listen to it.
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5 people found this helpful