The World's Water 2004-2005: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources

by Peter H. Gleick, Nicholas Cain, Dana Haasz

The quality and availability of fresh water are of critical importance to human and ecosystem health. Given its central role in the functioning of all living systems, water is arguably the most important of all natural resources.

Produced biennially, The World's Water provides a timely examination of the key issues surrounding freshwater resources and their use. Each new volume identifies and explains the most significant current trends worldwide, and offers the best data available on a variety of water-related topics.

This 2004-2005 edition of The World's Water features overview chapters on: conservation and efficiency as key tools for meeting freshwater needs; bottled water quality, costs, and trends; United Nations millennium development goals; groundwater issues; case studies of water privatization; the economic value of water; California water policy and climate change.

The World's Water is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information and analysis on freshwater resources and the political, economic, scientific, and technological issues associated with them. It is an essential reference for water resource professionals in government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, researchers, students, and anyone concerned with water and its use.

362 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2004

About the author

Dr. Peter H. Gleick (born 1956) is a scientist working on issues related to the environment, economic development, and international security, with a focus on global freshwater challenges. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources. Among the issues he has addressed are conflicts over water resources [1], the impacts of climate change on water resources, the human right to water, and the problems of the billions of people without safe, affordable, and reliable water and sanitation.
Gleick received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley. Gleick is the author of the biennial series on the state of the world's water, called The World's Water,[2] published by Island Press, Washington, D.C., regularly provides testimony to the United States Congress and state legislatures, and has published many scientific articles. He serves as a major source of information on water issues for the media, and has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Fresh Air with Terry Gross [3], NPR, and in articles in The New Yorker,[4] and many other publications. He has also been featured in a wide range of water-related documentary films, including "Running Dry" [5] and "Flow: For Love of Water" [6], accepted for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
He is the brother of noted author James Gleick and editor Elizabeth Gleick.