LAURENCE C SMITH

An "eye-opening, sometimes alarming, and ultimately inspiring" natural history of rivers and their complex and ancient relationship with human civilization (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction).Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of human civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power, and can capriciously destroy everything in their path. Even today, rivers remain a powerful global force -- one that is more critical than ever to our future.In Rivers of Power, geographer Laurence C. Smith explores the timeless yet underappreciated relationship between rivers and civilization as we know it. Rivers are of course important in many practical ways (water supply, transportation, sanitation, etc). But the full breadth of their influence on the way we live is less obvious. Rivers define and transcend international borders, forcing cooperation between nations. Huge volumes of river water are used to produce energy, raw commodities, and food. Wars, politics, and demography are transformed by their devastating floods. The territorial claims of nations, their cultural and economic ties to each other, and the migrations and histories of their peoples trace back to rivers, river valleys, and the topographic divides they carve upon the world. And as climate change, technology, and cities transform our relationship with nature, new opportunities are arising to protect the waters that sustain us.Beautifully told and expansive in scope, Rivers of Power reveals how and why rivers have so profoundly influenced our civilization and examines the importance this vast, arterial power holds for the future of humanity."As fascinating as it is beautifully written."---Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and Upheaval

A vivid forecast of our planet in the year 2050 by a rising star in geoscience, distilling cutting-edge research into four global forces: demographic trends, natural resource demand, climate change, and globalization. The worlds population is exploding, wild species are vanishing, our environment is degrading, and the costs of resources from oil to water are going nowhere but up. So what kind of world are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? Geoscientist and Guggenheim fellow Laurence Smith draws on the latest global modeling research to construct a sweeping thought experiment on what our world will be like in 2050. The result is both good news and bad: Eight nations of the Arctic Rim (including the United States) will become increasingly prosperous, powerful, and politically stable, while those closer to the equator will face water shortages, aging populations, and crowded megacities sapped by the rising costs of energy and coastal flooding. The World in 2050 combines the lessons of geography and history with state-of-the-art model projections and analytical data-everything from climate dynamics and resource stocks to age distributions and economic growth projections. But Smith offers more than a compendium of statistics and studies- he spent fifteen months traveling the Arctic Rim, collecting stories and insights that resonate throughout the book. It is an approach much like Jared Diamond took in Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, a work of geoscientific investigation rich in the appreciation of human diversity. Packed with stunning photographs, original maps, and informative tables, this is the most authoritative, balanced, and compelling account available of the world of challenges and opportunities that we will leave for our children.

¿Cómo cambiará la civilización en los próximos cuarenta años si la población mundial se dispara hasta los nueve mil millones de habitantes, el nivel del mar crece de forma desmesurada, la temperatura atmosferica aumenta varios grados y la globalizacion continua a un ritmo frenetico?¿Que mundo dejaremos a las generaciones venideras?El mundo en 2050 es un experimento de prediccion de gran crudeza basado en los descubrimientos cientificos mas recientes. El resultado de este trabajo es una sintesis de aspectos fisicos, biologicos y sociologicos, que identifican los beneficios y los retos de nuestro futuro: ocho de los paises del Cerco del Norte seran lugares mas prosperos, poderosos y estables politicamente que en la actualidad. Sin embargo, los mas cercanos al ecuador tendran que enfrentarse a escasez de agua, poblaciones envejecidas y megaciudades superpobladas lastradas porel aumento de los costes de la energia y las inundaciones costeras.Un extraordinario trabajo de investigacion cientifica que combina lecciones de geografia e historia, documentado con mapas originales, fotografias y tablas, que sirven para apuntalar esta increible narracion sobre los retos y las oportunidades que encontraremos en el transcurso de tan solo cuarenta años.

¿Cómo cambiará la civilización en los próximos cuarenta años si la población mundial se dispara hasta los nueve mil millones de habitantes, el nivel del mar crece de forma desmesurada, la temperatura atmosferica aumenta varios grados y la globalizacion continua a un ritmo frenetico?¿Que mundo dejaremos a las generaciones venideras? El mundo en 2050 es un experimento de prediccion de gran crudeza basado en los descubrimientos cientificos mas recientes. El resultado de este trabajo es una sintesis de aspectos fisicos, biologicos y sociologicos, que identifican los beneficios y los retos de nuestro futuro: ocho de los paises del Cerco del Norte seran lugares mas prosperos, poderosos y estables politicamente que en la actualidad. Sin embargo, los mas cercanos al ecuador tendran que enfrentarse a escasez de agua, poblaciones envejecidas y megaciudades superpobladas lastradas porel aumento de los costes de la energia y las inundaciones costeras. Un extraordinario trabajo de investigacion cientifica que combina lecciones de geografia e historia, documentado con mapas originales, fotografias y tablas, que sirven para apuntalar esta increible narracion sobre los retos y las oportunidades que encontraremos en el transcurso de tan solo cuarenta años.