The Big Thirst: The Secret life and turbulent future of water by Charles Fishman chapters 1-5

            In Charles Fishman’s book The Big Thirst (2011), Fishman starts by providing several examples of how water is used and its presence in life in general. Given the fact that water is an important substance in our lives we take it for granted and do not see water as an important element and instead just misuse water. Fishman says that our relationship with water is invisible and that relationship should change. This distant relationship between the both has our golden age of water coming to an end and instead demanding to take management measurements on the conservation of water. Fishman wants the people to take awareness of the scarcity of water and in what ways can contribute as individuals and as a society to manage water. Companies that depend on the source of water have acknowledged this crisis of water that they have taken measures to manage water smartly. He also states that water goes beyond being taken by granted because the water system is another factor that is not considered. As a society we are still stuck in that era of golden age water believing that clean dependable tap water will always be available. Is this belief that makes it difficult for people to understand the money and effort it takes to sustain a system that has been in place for years. The only way people see the visibility of water it’s when it becomes unavailable.

Vocabulary:

Prosaic-   not having any features that are interesting or imaginative

Emporium- store offering wide selection of goods

Queasiness- causing a feeling of uneasiness

Profligacy- extremely extravagant or wasteful
Leach-   to remove soluble components from a solid mixture by the use of a solvent
Corroding-to undermine or destroy something gradually

Tone: sincere, optimistic, witty

 Rhetorical strategies:

Personification-  “But in terms of water’s fundamental character, it’s personality, water is elegant, it’s smart, it’s a little sly…” (pg 48)

Repetition- “We all know how it feels to be so thirsty…We all know how it feels to be so grungy…” (pg 25)

Metaphor-“The feel of water is as familiar as the feel of our own skin” (pg26)

Hyperbole- “Water speaks a whole range of languages, specialized and universal, utilitarian and poetic and romantic” (pg 26)

Antithesis- “Water is both mythic and real” (pg 2)

 Questions:

What conservation and management approaches have companies made in the water system?

How does the use of examples and repetition convey a relationship between water and the reader?

What effect has water’s scarcity in less developed countries had?

 Memorable quote:

“Water is as familiar as anything in ordinary life, and yet largely ignored, misunderstood, overlooked.” (pg 50)