Sandford - Rain Comin Down

Books by
Robert William Sandford

Cold Matters

The State and Fate of Canadas Fresh Water

9781927330197, softcover

This timely book gives the concerned reader an opportunity to take part in the conversation about our global environment in a way that transcends traditional scientific journals, textbooks, public talks or newspaper articles that are so often ignored or forgotten. In the end, Cold Matters will change the way you think about ice and snow.

Ethical Water

Learning to Value What Matters Most

9781926855707, hardcover

This ground-breaking and approachable work, by two of Canadas most authoritative experts on water issues, redefines our relationship with fresh water and outlines the steps we as a society will have to take if we wish to ensure the sustainability of our water supply for future generations.

Quenching the Dragon

The CanadaChina Water Crisis

9781771602938, hardcover

Part environmental manifesto, part travelogue and part diplomatic odyssey, Quenching the Dragon arms readers with vital new perspectives on global hydrology and sustainability in the context of how former and current world leaders frame the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

Restoring the Flow

Confronting the Worlds Water Woes

9781897522523, softcover

Passionately conceived, clearly written and citing concrete examples from all over the world, Restoring the Flow is an approachable yet authoritative source, one of the many implements concerned citizens, government officials, business people and policy-makers can use and reuse in understanding and addressing this ever-growing global crisis.

Saving Lake Winnipeg

9781927330869, hardcover

The toxins produced by algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg each summer are a growing threat to human health, agriculture and the general economy in both Canada and the US. Robert Sandfords third RMB Manifesto speaks on behalf of the Central Great Plains to convince government, industry and society that drastic change is needed if we are to avoid similar troubles in other bodies of water throughout North America.

Storm Warning

Water and Climate Security in a Changing World

9781771601450, softcover

This highly considered, accessible and readable book explains how changes in the water cycle have already begun to affect how we think about and value water security and climate stability and what we can do to ensure a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

For Vi and Vis Guys,
the informal local group of wonderful musicians who have become a reed through which they sing themselves and the world from grief into wholeness and joy,
and whose inspired company and enthusiasm for playing together motivated their number one fan to endlessly hum the words to Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
And to write this book.

INVOCATION
Rain Comin Down

I have spent of lot of time watching and thinking about water. This was not because I was predisposed to do so, but because of the importance of water to me personally in terms of how it gradually established my identity, how it played such a vital role in forming the country I live in, and how the presence or absence of it is now shaping the future of virtually every other nation on Earth. It could be said that this book is about how I caught up with how important water is to life and to what I was doing with my life.

If you are lucky enough to live where water is not generally scarce if, say, you live in a country like Canada as I do it would be easy to imagine that you have the luxury of taking abundant water for granted. We live in a changed world, however, where no abundance can ever be taken for granted, now or in the future. The surface of our planet and the composition of its atmosphere have been so altered and continue to change so quickly that even in Canada we are compelled to think differently about water, and to value it as we never have before. We are waking up to the fact that there has never been a time in the history of this country when it was more important to know where the water you drink comes from; how much of it we use and for what purposes; and the condition in which we return it to the river for others downstream to use. We are also waking up to the fact that in the future water is about to become more precious than we can imagine today.

My life work is to translate complex scientific research outcomes with respect to water and climate into language the average person can understand and that decision-makers can use to craft timely and durable policy. In this work, the most important thing I have learned is that if you want to understand climate change, follow what is happening to water. If our society is the ship we have to steer to avoid ending up on the climate rocks, then water is the medium through which we must slowly and carefully turn our runaway Titanic .

The reason why we follow water is because its remarkable chemistry and molecular properties shape the character of the world around us. We follow the water because in one form or another it is all-pervasive; seen or unseen, it is omnipresent. It is in the air as a vapour, on the ground as lakes and rivers, and in the ground as soil moisture and groundwater. It is present in or around every living thing. It is also in us and in all our food. Pull on any thread in the fluid fabric that holds our world together and you will see that thread connected somehow to every other one, and all of them connect in some way to water. This book is about these threads.

One cannot but be surprised, when studying water seriously, where that interest can take you. As this book will demonstrate, it takes you from the very origins of the cosmos right down to how the unique structure and remarkable qualities of water as a molecule shaped the formation of the Earth. You can know what it is like to ride Earthward on the tail of a comet. It takes you to the depths of the global ocean that came into existence because of comets, and by way of evaporation into the upper reaches of the Earths atmosphere. An inquiry into the nature of water can carry you on the winds to the centres of storms, inviting you to imagine falling with raindrops to Earth and then gathering with other raindrops in tiny streams that flow into great rivers which sometimes go round and round in lakes. The study of water takes you into the very roots of trees, into the soil and into the dark courses of ancient underground rivers. It takes you from the thirst of one person to the thirst of nations, and from the demographics of the past to how the availability of water may alter patterns of human settlement in decades to come.