This week, Brett sits down with professor, researcher, and award-winning author, David Sedlak to talk about his latest book, Water for All – Global Solutions for a Changing Climate. David started his career as a researcher looking to solve our world’s water quality challenges but eventually shifted his focus to working on how to cope with, or even prevent, water scarcity in the United States and throughout the world.
They discuss the “Six Water Crises”; the “Great Acceleration”; the difference in the scope of challenges between rich and poor countries, as well as rich and poor within a country; the role of dams in a post-Acceleration nation and world; salinization of farmland soils out West and what we need to do about it; and his artful distinction between optimism and hopefulness as it relates to the future of water.
To buy Water for All, try here before you go to Amazon or the other big guys: https://www.midtownreader.com/book/9780300256932
You can get his first book, Water 4.0, there as well. Here’s the link for it: https://www.midtownreader.com/book/9780300212679
Why not check out David’s TED Talk. It’s really good, and it’ll give you a sense of what he’s about while you’re waiting for your copy of his books to arrive. Find it here: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_sedlak_4_ways_we_can_avoid_a_catastrophic_drought?language=en
David talked about what got him interested in working on water issues, and one of the motivators was an environmental disaster that was discovered in the late 70s, known as Love Canal. If you’re not familiar it, here’s a decent place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
To keep up with the other good work David is doing, including as director of the Berkeley Water Center at the University of California, Berkeley, check out his page here: https://ce.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/sedlak
This episode of Water for Fighting is brought to you by my friends at RES.
RES is the nation’s leader in ecological restoration, helping to restore Florida’s natural resources with water quality and stormwater solutions that offer communities guaranteed performance and outcomes. Check them out at www.res.us
This Episode is also thanks to my friends at Collins Land Services.
When it comes to your disaster recovery and land management needs, you’re looking for the perfect combination of competence, reliability, and affordability. And that means you’re looking for Collins Land Services. Check them out at www.collinsland.com
Please be sure to check out the Florida Specifier Podcast hosted by Ryan Matthews and myself as part of a new venture where we’re striving to become Florida’s first source for environmental news, educational tools, and unique perspectives on our state’s natural environment and the events that shape it. To learn more about its flagship print publication and more, visit The Florida Specifier.
You can follow the show on LinkedIn and Instagram @flwaterpod, and you can reach me directly at FLwaterpod@gmail.com with your comments and suggestions for who and/or what you’d like to know more about.
Production of this podcast is by Lonely Fox Studios. Thanks to Karl Sorne for making the best of what he had to work with. And to David Barfield for the amazing graphics and technical assistance.
And finally, a very special thank you goes out to Bo Spring from the Bo Spring Band for giving permission to use his music for this podcast. The song is called Doing Work for Free, (Apple Music | Spotify) and you should check out the band live, or wherever great music is sold. 4
