Our Poisoned Waters

The author of Our Poisoned Sky provides an objective perspective on the state of the world's fresh and salt waters and how the twentieth century's problems--including sewage, oil spills, and industrial wastes--have affected them.

Grade 7 Up. Dolan presents factual evidence that the purity of fresh and salt waters everywhere is being threatened by the needs of a growing worldwide population. After an introduction to the hydrological cycle and aquifers, he cites some grim statistics and examples of water pollution and overuse. The death of the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union, due to the divergence of its feeder rivers for irrigation and the use of pesticides, is a stark reminder of how development can rapidly cause unforeseen environmental degradation and human misery. Endangered wetlands, dams, oil spills, and sewage and garbage problems are all explained. These serious situations are followed by a more hopeful discussion of legislation that has been passed to keep waters clean, conservation efforts and activities, and organizations that young people can join to protect water resources. While the lack of photographs is unfortunate, this overview does provide an extensive and up-to-date bibliography and is a good starting point for further research.?Janet Woodward, Franklin High School, Seattle, WA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Early on in this excellent examination of the state of one of the earth's most important resources, Dolan (Our Poisoned Sky, 1991, etc.) warns readers not to take on faith doomsday scenarios, and later reminds them that the not-yet-hopeless fight for clean water requires a lifelong commitment. In between, he outlines the tolls of irrigation, salinization, and the burning of fossil fuels (leading to acid rain); he discusses the depletion of aquifers, the ruining of the great European rivers--the Elbe, the Danube, and the Rhine, which have become open sewers--and the Everglades, the US's most threatened wetlands. Dolan spells it all out, without making more sordid than necessary the contributions of greed, stupidity, and unrestrained population growth to the damage. Balanced and objective, this is a good overview of an impending global calamity, driven more by statistics and common sense than fear. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 7^-12. In this companion to Our Poisoned Skies (1991), Dolan uses real-life accounts to demonstrate humankind's impact on the water supply rather than cite the litany of statistics that makes many environmental books unreadable. To balance the anecdotes, he explains the science behind the human dramas and chronicles attempts to conserve and clean our water. This is an admirably objective treatment of the issue, one that is careful to note that we must balance our use of resources, neither plundering nor preserving them at the cost of our own lives. Dolan's final chapter, "Can You Be of Help?," encourages readers to become scientifically savvy and read different perspectives on the issue before taking a stance. He also warns them to be wary of both gloom-and-doomers and corporate and government interests. An extensive bibliography is appended. Randy Meyer