Cynthia Barnett, author of Blue Revolution

 

Listen to a recording of UUSC's Get-Together with Cynthia Barnett.

Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist who has reported on freshwater issues from the Suwannee River to Singapore. In her new book, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis, Barnett examines the illusion of water abundance and proposes that the most important part of the solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a shared water ethic among citizens, government and major water users.

A powerful meditation on water and community in America, Blue Revolution exposes how the nation's green craze largely missed water — the top environmental concern of most Americans. Combining investigative reporting with solutions from around the world, Barnett shows how local communities and entire nations have come together to dramatically reduce consumption and live within their water means.

An award-winning author and journalist, Barnett has a master's in American history with a specialization in environmental history. Her previous book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards. Learn more at Barnett's website.

Praise for Blue Revolution

"As Aldo Leopold is to the land ethic, Cynthia Barnett is to the water ethic. Her important and hopeful new book is rich with stories about innovative water projects around the world, demonstrating that we can choose thrift over waste, water gardens over cement ditches, local projects over mega-industries, smart over incredibly, stubbornly, self-destructively stupid. She calls us to a respectful water use that restores our spirits, even as it creates thriving biocultural communities. If you use water, you should read Blue Revolution."
—Kathleen Dean Moore, coeditor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril

"Barnett's clarion call to her fellow citizens imagines an America where it's ethically wrong to waste water. Using compelling stories from around the globe, she shows that America's future depends upon our coming to value water — not only in the price we pay, but with profound appreciation for each drop."

—Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It

"The roots of a new water ethic are found in the practices of millions of individuals, businesses, and other organizations around the world. Barnett shows how good water use practices can go viral, with massive benefits for society and nature. Blue Revolution offers affordable, practical, down-to-earth solutions for America's water crisis."

—Stephen R. Carpenter, director of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and winner of the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize