This review essay investigates Andrea Ballestero’s A Future History of Water (Duke University Press, Durham, 2019), Jeremy Schmidt’s Water: Abundance, Scarcity, and Security in the Age of Humanity (New York University Press, New York, 2017), and Wade Graham’s Braided Waters: Environment and Society in Molokai, Hawai’i (University of California, Oakland, 2018) within the wider theme of water-human relationships. More specifically, these books provide insight into the human dimensions of water management as they explore the process of how water impacts and drives economic, social, and political change. By doing this, Ballestero, Schmidt, and Graham highlight water’s agency and the vital role it plays in a variety of locations and situations. Broadly speaking, works like these help move water beyond discussions limited to ecological science, giving this resource a starring role in crucial discussions ranging from policy and economics to community development and social equity. In this regard, environmental issues are holistic matters that must engage cultural, economic, political, and religious dimensions as well as ecological issues. Collectively these books show that water’s fluctuating nature dictates the structure of our world, permeating every issue from the daily to the global while reinforcing the need to look critically at this life-giving resource.

中文翻译：

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水管理的纠葛

这篇评论文章调查了 Andrea Ballestero 的《水的未来历史》（杜克大学出版社，达勒姆，2019 年）、杰里米·施密特（Jeremy Schmidt）的《水：人类时代的丰富、稀缺和安全》（纽约大学出版社，纽约，2017 年）和 Wade Graham's Braided Waters: Environment and Society in Molokai, Hawai'i (University of California, Oakland, 2018) 在更广泛的水与人类关系主题内。更具体地说，这些书籍在探索水资源如何影响和推动经济、社会和政治变革的过程时，提供了对水资源管理的人文层面的洞察。通过这样做，巴列斯特罗、施密特和格雷厄姆强调了水的作用及其在各种地点和情况下的重要作用。从广义上讲，像这样的工作有助于使水超越仅限于生态科学的讨论，让这一资源在从政策和经济到社区发展和社会公平的重要讨论中发挥主导作用。在这方面，环境问题是必须涉及文化、经济、政治和宗教层面以及生态问题的整体问题。总的来说，这些书表明，水的波动性质决定了我们世界的结构，渗透到从日常到全球的每一个问题，同时加强了批判性地看待这种赋予生命的资源的必要性。