Mirage

By Cynthia Barnett,

Book cover of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.

Book description

Part investigative journalism, part environmental history, Mirage reveals how the eastern half of the nation-historically so wet that early settlers predicted it would never even need irrigation-has squandered so much of its abundant freshwater that it now faces shortages and conflicts once unique to the arid West.

Florida's parched swamps…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mirage as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love this book because I learned so much about the quality and quantity of water in Florida. Because of this book and the knowledge I gained, I was able to publicly refute a former senator’s op-ed extolling the benefit of holding tanks for water underground, which, as Barnett explains, causes arsenic infiltration.

The quality of Florida’s water has been a serious concern since 2007 when the book was published and continues to be today. 

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