National Geographic Learning Reader: Water

Part of "The National Geographic Learning Reader Series", this title introduces students to the various real world challenges that both individuals and governments face in deciding how we should manage global freshwater resources.

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Bring your learning to life with compelling images, media and text from National Geographic. Global Challenges and Policy of Freshwater Use will help you develop a clearer understanding of the world around you through engaging content.

Organized into three units – historical context, current challenges, and potential solutions – Global Challenges and Policy of Freshwater Use introduces students to many of the real world challenges that both individuals and governments face in deciding how we should manage global freshwater resources. The selected articles pull from current events throughout the world to illustrate a variety of freshwater policy problems, including examples of the effects of changing climates on precipitation patterns, how growing populations and competing industry interests are having to adapt in a world with these changing patterns, and the controversy over what inherent and legal rights nature and wildlife should have in our water policy decisions.

Selected readings also confront issues associated with the consequences of large-scale water pollution and aquifer depletion, restoration potentials and dam removal, freshwater production and distribution technologies, and international relations that are significantly influenced by water usage and rights. Collectively, these articles create a reader that is designed to help students from a wide variety of disciplines get a more thorough appreciation for the challenges involved in global freshwater policy.