Sam V's List: water crisis

After reading a few things -- namely this from Ezra Klein, this from Brad Plumer, and a Prospect article by Jon Margolis -- I resolved to learn more about the world's water woes. After all, I'm already a giant energy nerd, so why not become a giant water nerd?Perhaps I should lose some weight, and be a more modestly-sized nerd. In any case, number one on my reading list was When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce. Read the Salon review here.The one-word review of Pearce's book is: Terrifying. Whether he's writing about the Indian peasant farmers who draw from poisoned wells every day, the oblivious Arizonans who run fountains in the desert, or the apocalyptic moonscape that is the Aral Sea (once a thriving fishery, now a toxic cesspool), Pearce manages to convey the immense wreckage human activity is making of our lifeblood. No, not oil. The other precious fluid.