Edited by Rick Docksai
Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter H. Gleick. 2010. 211 pages. AMACOM. $26.96.
Consumption of bottled water has skyrocketed over the last few decades, says globally recognized water expert Peter Gleick. However, he thinks that the tide may be turning. In Bottled and Sold, he describes a “war on bottled water” now under way in offices, recreation centers, restaurants, and private homes across the globe.
Consumers and businesses are increasingly forgoing bottled water and getting their water exclusively from the tap, Gleick notes. Cities are banning municipal purchases of it, and some restaurants are eliminating it from their menus. Environmental concerns are a prime motivator: Every plastic bottle requires water and electricity to produce it and to move it onto a store shelf. Other critics worry about the human costs; they believe that bottled water imposes undue burdens on low-income persons. And some just hold a philosophical grudge against corporate ownership of water.
Whatever their reasons, says Gleick, the boycotters are sufficiently numerous to put the most prominent bottled-water industry associations on “crisis footing.” Bottled and Sold is a book that environmentalists, water experts, and all who follow consumer trends will want to read.
Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future by Matthew Kahn. Basic. 2010. 260 pages. Paperback. $26.95.
Construction and housing in cities around the world will be forced to adapt to global climate change, forecasts environmentalist Matthew Kahn. In Climatopolis, he describes how increased flooding, higher temperatures, and erratic weather patterns in general will force planners to redesign urban housing units worldwide in the next few decades.
Climate change will affect different cities differently, he argues. Coastal cities will face unique health and economic difficulties, while inland cities may be confronted with mass migrations of “climate refugees.” In addition, architects and home buyers in many places will have to plan ahead for increased risks of floods, droughts, or wildfires.
Kahn expresses hope that, through innovation and careful planning, cities might ensure a desirable quality of life for their residents in the face of long-term climate change. He includes a “top five” list of U.S. cities that are currently best-protected against climate change’s effects: Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Buffalo, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Climate researchers, engineers, and urban planners will all find Climatopolis educational.
How to Catch a Robot Rat: When Biology Inspires Innovation by Agnès Guillot and Jean-Arcady Meyer. 2010. 226 pages. MIT Press. $29.95.
Human engineers draw some of their best inspirations from nature, according to technology researchers Agnès Guillot and Jean-Arcady Meyer in How to Catch a Robot Rat. The authors introduce readers to “the new bionics,” a field that integrates biology and engineering.
Guillot and Meyer share examples of recent innovations in new bionics. For example, observations of the iridescence of butterfly wings gave rise to new high-resolution video screens. And studying the powerful auditory systems of owls, which can track even the most muffled sound in a nighttime forest, clued a German company in on how to build an acoustic camera whose hyper-sensitive microphones can locate and capture sounds inaudible to humans.
Many more breakthroughs are soon to come. Some aquariums have debuted robotic fish that look and swim almost exactly like real fish. Prototype walking robots move faster than present-day ones because their designs are based on the bodies of cockroaches. And new drone airplanes have wings that flap like birds and insects.
Guillot and Meyer are hopeful that, over time, new bionics will create robots that behave like animals, too: They will learn, think, and adapt to changes in their environments. How to Catch a Robot Rat is an engaging introduction to revolutionary new fields in robotics that is appropriate for experts and general audiences alike.
Outrageous Fortunes: The Twelve Surprising Trends That Will Reshape the Global Economy by Daniel Altman. 2011. 244 pages. Holt. $25.
China’s seemingly invincible economy won’t flourish forever, says economist Daniel Altman. In Outrageous Fortunes, he forecasts that the Chinese economy’s structural weaknesses will overtake it later this century and cause the nation to grow poorer even after so many decades of growing richer.
Many nations around the world will experience financial turbulence as they strive for the highest possible living standards but are hampered by market instability and shortages of human and material resources. National economic policies will shift back and forth, and waves of immigration will challenge both developing and industrialized economies.
Keeping track of the global marketplace’s daily rising and falling indexes while still maintaining sight of the long term could seem difficult, says Altman, but he assures readers that it’s actually fairly understandable. If we grasp the deep-rooted economic factors that sway a country’s economic path, we can make fairly accurate guesses as to where the path will lead.
He identifies a series of factors that he expects will markedly shake up the markets of China and Europe, demolish the World Trade Organization, and generate unexpected new job opportunities in the United States. He spots some impending risks, as well, such as worldwide expansion of “black market” activity. Outrageous Fortunes is an economic treatise that is incisive and approachable enough for economists and general audiences alike.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. 2010. 334 pages. W.W. Norton. $25.95.
Travel to Mars is feasible, but the astronauts who attempt it will have to contend with tremendous psychological and physical pressures—cramped confinements, sterile surroundings, and isolation more profound than any humans before them have ever experienced—says science writer Mary Roach in Packing for Mars. She visits space-travel research stations to witness the isolation chambers, antigravity rooms, and other experimental units that astronauts today are using to prepare for future voyages into deep space.
As she describes each exercise the flight crews undertake, she shares the unique forms of vertigo, disorientation, visual illusions, and other sensations that the low-gravity environs of space will impose on human space travelers. Roach adds the even more grueling experiments into how weeks or months of immobility would impact astronauts’ bodies—a key concern, since missions to other planets might require keeping the human crew in hibernation states for the duration of the voyages.
Roach’s Packing for Mars is a reality check into the challenges of deep space and how humans can gear up now to meet them. It’s worthwhile reading for aspiring astronauts, space enthusiasts, and all who take great interest in humanity’s potential future in space.
Rethinking Risk: How Companies Sabotage Themselves and What They Must Do Differently by Joseph W. Koletar. 2011. 242 pages. AMACOM. $29.95.
Most business executives are vigilant about identifying strong competitors and important technological developments, but they often fail to watch for the broader array of real-life risks, argues Joseph Koletar in Rethinking Risk. The consequences, he concludes, fill newspaper headlines: BP’s oil rig breaks and wreaks havoc on the Gulf of Mexico, Toyota must recall hundreds of thousands of cars due to faulty brakes, and 9 million Mattel toys made in China are found to be laced with lead paint.
Koletar, who directed the fraud investigations of Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche, argues that the mistake that BP, Toyota, and other leaders in these and similar incidents made was not greed or carelessness, but rather a failure to plan ahead and avert the approaching danger. Most disasters are preventable, he says, but the leadership has to be aware and pay attention to the information at the ground level.
Koletar presents action strategies for business and organization leaders who want to raise their own foresight and keep their operations safe over the long term. Through examples of businesses that did not watch for risks, he teaches lessons on risk analysis, employee training, accountability, organizational intelligence, and the risk mechanisms that a business can put in place to stay aware and secure. Rethinking Risk is a guide that leaders in any industry or sector may want to consult.