Hydrosphere: Fresh Water Systems and Pollution (Our Fragile Planet)

Earth is the water planet, but only a tiny amount of the planet's water is fresh and usable, and water pollution has become a monumental dilemma as we enter the 21st century. Though developed nations now regulate some pollutants and as a result their waterways are cleaner, new chemicals are increasingly being released into the environment, resulting in a toxic soup that may be causing cancers, development problems, and other concerns in people and wildlife. And besides pollution, overfishing and engineering projects are destroying freshwater ecosystems. Hydrosphere is a concise examination of the pressing issues affecting our water supply. This potently written and illustrated new book explains how society needs to adopt a precautionary principle in water matters by better understanding the consequences of their actions before, not after, those actions occur.

Dana Desonie, Ph.D., a full-time science writer, was previously a research scientist in geochemistry at Columbia University's Lamon-Doherty Earth Observatory. She is the author of "Cosmic Collisions". She makes her home in New York City.