Books by Sandra Postel

REPLENISH

THE VIRTUOUS CYCLE OF WATER AND PROSPERITY

For centuries, we have disrupted the natural water cycle in an effort to control water for our own prosperity. But we have reached a tipping point. Big dams, diversions and levees are not only harmful to freshwater ecosystems, they are now frequently less effective in building water security.

Sandra Postel argues that with the risks of floods, droughts, wildfires, and water shortages, on the rise we must look to solutions that work with, rather than against, nature’s rhythms. She takes readers around the world to explore innovative projects that are doing just this, and makes the case that scaling up such efforts will be essential for the security of our food, communities, and economies in the coming decades.

Clear-eyed treatise….Postel makes her case eloquently.” — Booklist, starred review

“… a wise, sobering, but ultimately hopeful book.”  — Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

LAST OASIS

FACING WATER SCARCITY

Appearing in eight languages and the basis for a 1997 PBS documentary, Last Oasis frames the many dimensions of the world’s water challenges and demonstrates how conservation and efficiency improvements can meet new water needs at lower economic and environmental costs than traditional supply projects. These measures constitute our “last oasis” – and they have barely been tapped. Postel calls for a water ethic that places the preservation of freshwater ecosystems at the heart of water management.

“Last Oasis is the call to arms most often cited by others in the field.” — Marq de Villiers, author of Water: The Fate of our Most Precious Resource

Last Oasis “is marked by lucidity, balance, levelheadedness and, at bottom — and for this we can be thankful — optimism.  Los Angeles Times Book Review.

The PBS documentary, Last Oasis, produced and directed by Linda Harrar, is program four in the Cadillac Desert film series.

PILLAR OF SAND

Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?

Irrigation has been a powerful tool of human advancement for 6,000 years. In Pillar of Sand, author Sandra Postel examines the challenges to our modern irrigation society – from mounting water scarcity and salinization of soils to rising tensions between countries over shared rivers. She shows how innovative technologies and strategies can improve irrigation’s sustainability and alleviate hunger and environmental stress at the same time.

“Postel gives a lucid and authoritative account of humanity’s dwindling supply of fresh water and what to do about the shortage before it causes dangerous social and economic problems worldwide.” — E. O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned Harvard biologist in selecting Pillar of Sand, one of his three favorite books of the year for the Washington Post (Dec 2000).

“… a perspective that is almost breathtaking.” Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist.

Pillar of Sand has been selected for course use at more than 130 colleges and universities.

SAVING THE PLANET

How to Shape an Environmentally Sustainable Global Economy

Authors: Lester R. Brown, Christopher Flavin, and Sandra Postel

Two decades after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the world faces a choice between reforming its economic and political systems or risking a future of irreversible ecological decline, according to Saving The Planet. “The challenge is to go beyond responding to disasters, to shaping environmentally healthy societies,” say the book’s authors, Lester Brown, Christopher Flavin, and Sandra Postel.

RIVERS FOR LIFE

Managing Water for People and Nature