The Big Thirst

The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

By: Charles Fishman

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

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.

©2011 Charles Fishman (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A timely warning about the dwindling global water supply." ( Kirkus)

Thought provoking

Loved it.
Excellent information about water all over the world.
Highly recommend it to everyone.

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.

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.

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.

Water is fascinating

I liked the amazing stories from around the world and what they are doing with water

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

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.

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!

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.

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.