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In The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future (PublicAffairs, 2023), Peter Gleick provides a comprehensive understanding of water in readable form. His book, as he describes in a recent podcast, is the culmination of more than four decades of water science and policy work, both individually and through the Pacific Institute which he co-founded and where he continues to serve as Senior Fellow.
The book, neatly summarized in its title, provides an exciting and fascinating tour of water’s journey from its creation soon after the Big Bang to your tap. Gleick skillfully explores water’s mysterious appearance on our planet and its role in shaping our environment, spreading humanity across the globe, and forming societies to manage and mismanage its use. He presents and discusses the positive and negative aspects of civilizations’ engagements with this vital, dangerous, and ubiquitous molecule, and he lays out a programmatic path for a positive water future.
Three Ages adds to the growing number of water “meta-books” which dauntingly attempt to span the full topic. These books include, most recently, Water: A Biography by Giulio Boccaletti (2021), Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource by David Sedlak (2014), The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman (2012), Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind by Brian Fagan (2011), The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century by Alex Prud’homme (2011), and Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon (2010). Gleick quotes from a few of these texts and thanks most of their authors in his Acknowledgements. Of all these meta-water-books, Gleick’s is the one I most recommend to family and friends, as well as to my water utility colleagues, customers, and elected leaders. It speaks to a general as well as to a professional audience, similar to Michio Kaku‘s work on physics.
Gleick has a gift of presenting himself as both approachable and erudite, equally comfortable in Aspen and the Inland Empire. One way he does this is by focusing on specific stories and vignettes rather than just on data and trends. He dedicates chapters to dive deeply into key moments in our understanding of water, from a genealogy of prehistoric great flood narratives, to the first water war, to the scientists who saved millions of lives discovering the sources of water-borne diseases.
Surprisingly, some of the most enjoyable parts of the book can be found in its footnotes. Writers often use either footnotes or endnotes to house citations as well as focused discussions that might be boring to the general reader. Gleick decides to use both devices, placing his citations in the endnotes, but reserving footnotes for quick, helpful, and sometimes shocking explanations as well as wry and even laugh-out-loud commentary on the body of the text, adding almost a Mystery Science Theater aspect to his own book. When reading, look forward to random and funny marginalia on luxury oxygen bars, Twain’s ubiquitous “whiskey” quote, the inventor of the train steam whistle, the “john,” laundry in space, and the benefits of knowing how to swim in ancient Mesopotamia.
As a local water manager, I especially valued Gleick’s connection of water history with the modern water industry. From the ancient canal inspector, one of the earliest known government officials, to the fight against disease through the development of water disinfection, Gleick takes every opportunity to point to the importance of building and maintaining water infrastructure and technologies, showing that the miracle of modern civilization — clean drinking water from the tap — has an extensive history important for each of us to understand. He also just as importantly draws our attention to where we continue to fall short, forcing us to face the overwhelmingly gendered impact of clean water scarcity on women and girls and the ridiculously affordable worldwide investment needed to make this resource universally available.
That said, there are two areas where I think Three Ages could have gone further. Gleick and the Pacific Institute have provided significant insight into the status and prospects of water, from comprehensive assessments of the world’s water to establishing minimum basic water requirements for human activities to tracking worldwide water conflicts. His program for the “Third Age of Water” for the future is both practical and pragmatic, and there will be few readers who disagree with it. What the book is missing, however, is the “how.” Specifically, how do we overcome our current political, social, and cultural obstacles to achieve this positive future? And how do we do so without setting aside our political, social, and cultural values of democracy and diversity of perspectives?
Ultimately, Gleick claims “[h]umanity has a decision to make,” a “clear choice,” that we face two paths for the future Third Age either following our current “hard path” to civilizational disaster or a new “soft path” to success. This duality strikes me as potentially simplistic, even a false dichotomy. Are there additional possible Third Ages, mixing “hard” infrastructure with “soft” priorities, that may also be positive for humanity’s relationship to water? Gleick’s five-point program, matching expanded water sources with expanded recognitions of water rights, water’s value, ecosystem health, and efficiency, suggests a diversity of Third Ages may arise from a combination of these important goals.
I agree with Gleick that a positive future Third Age is not only possible but inevitable, and it will certainly be the result of hard work, collaborations, and intentional compromises. Both professionally and personally, I am inspired by his description of the institutions needed for this future:
Here, Gleick provides an inspiring description of a water industry of the future, but one that we can make real in our current age.
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