speakers

Sandra Postel

Fellow, Water

Water

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Sandra Postel is a leading authority and prolific author on international water issues; she directs the independent Global Water Policy Project and in March 2010 she was named the National Geographic Society's first Freshwater Fellow.

In 1992 Postel authored Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, which now appears in eight languages and was the basis for a PBS documentary that aired in 1997. She is also author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (1999) and co-author of Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (2003). Her article "Troubled Waters" was selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing. Sandra has authored well over 100 articles for popular, scholarly, and news publications, including Science, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

videos

Our Nation's River: A System on the Edge

length: 9:58   credit: Alexandra Cousteau

Post Carbon Water Fellow Sandra Postel is one of the experts included in this short film featuring the Potomac river as an example of he threats to the US river system. The film was top of the list in this weeks America's Most Endangered Rivers report released by  American Rivers. For more about the movie and the Potomac read Our Most Endangered River? In the Shadow of the Capital.

Latest Publications

The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation Pump

Sandra Postel    Apr 19, 2012   

One of the more transformative technologies ever developed for the world’s poor farmers is a water-lifting device called a treadle pump. It looks and operates much like a Stairmaster exercise machine that you’d … >>

“Sewer Mining” – Efficient Water Recycling Coming to a Community Near You

Sandra Postel    Jan 23, 2012   

It sounds yucky at best, but mining sewage is growing in popularity, especially in Sydney, Australia, where a decade of drought forced some creative thinking about how to get, use and manage water. In 2004, when reservoir … >>

WATER: Adapting to a New Normal

Sandra Postel    Jun 22, 2010   

EXCERPT: Water, like energy, is essential to virtually every human endeavor. It is needed to grow food and fiber, to make clothes and computers, and, of course, to drink. The growing number of water shortages around the … >>

The Post Carbon Reader

Sandra Postel

How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world’s most … >>

press coverage

Postel op-ed in the LA Times

Sandra Postel  

Post Carbon Fellow Sandra Postel's op-ed on the Colorado river was published in the LA Times. From the article: Today, the Colorado delta is a shadow of its former self. Once one of the planet's most vital aquatic … >>