Comments on: James Laps Up 'When the Rivers Run Dry' by Fred Pearce https://www.greenprophet.com/2009/05/rivers-run-dry-fred-pearce/ Sustainably Driven. Future Ready. Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:45:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Jacob https://www.greenprophet.com/2009/05/rivers-run-dry-fred-pearce/#comment-2859 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:40:58 +0000 http://greenprophet.com/?p=9088#comment-2859 I read Fred Pearce's book in the summer of 2007. Regarding swhat it said about Pakistan in Chapter 4, I very recently read an old book: “The Road to Huddersfield: A Journey to Five Continents” by James Morris (Pantheon, 1963) – about the World Bank investments at that time. The following is interesting in the context (pages 206 – 207):”It is extraordinary how quickly the ethos of empire has faded, how soon the satraps have lost their accents and the streets their commemorative names, as the whole edifice of a discredited idea crumbles into limbo. When the British look back upon their years of climax they may well think of the Indus, which came relatively late in their imperial career, as the apex of their achievement, the very best of the things they did. More than anything, perhaps, the application of water to the growing of food is a memorial of the great civilizations. When the Babylonian empire disintegrated, so too did the marvelous waterworks of Iraq, and the Land of the Twin Rivers decayed into ignominious squalor. Whenever a weak pharaoh governed Egypt, he let the canals silt up and the irrigation devices rot. If the United States withers at last, I suspect that the tremendous riverworks of the West will longest be admired as physical evidence of her genius. Bismarck, wishing to express his opinion of the freckless Irish, once suggsted that they should change places with the Dutch: the Dutch would soon make Ireland a prosperous republic, and the Irish would presently let the Dutch dikes leak and drown themselves. Thus the mesh of canals in the bowl of the Pubjab expresses the energies of the British at their strongest and most self-controlled , far more effectively than any tattered battle flag or stately home.”

]]> By: James https://www.greenprophet.com/2009/05/rivers-run-dry-fred-pearce/#comment-2858 Tue, 26 May 2009 12:16:56 +0000 http://greenprophet.com/?p=9088#comment-2858 Fred Pearce is well-placed to review books too – here is a link to his recent review of several recent books looking at climate change:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/09/scienceandnature-climate-change

]]> By: Tania Hershman https://www.greenprophet.com/2009/05/rivers-run-dry-fred-pearce/#comment-2857 Wed, 20 May 2009 16:36:25 +0000 http://greenprophet.com/?p=9088#comment-2857 A fascinating review of what sounds like a fascinating and crucial book. I don’t normally read non-fiction, but I think I might have to read this one before it is the concept of water that becomes fictional.

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