Blue Planet Run is not your ordinary coffee table travel book. In fact, it isn’t even a travel book. It’s a book about the global water crisis, using more than 250 provocative photographs combined with stark statistics and inspirational texts that present stories of people’s struggles with and solutions to water issues around the world.
“It is beautiful and disturbing at the same time,” says Rick Smolan, co-creator of the book with his partner, Jennifer Erwitt.
You’ll learn that nearly one in six people around the globe currently lack access to drinking water; 50 percent of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by those with easily preventable water-borne diseases; women and girls in Africa spend 40 billion hours a year searching for and carrying water back to their families.
- Thanks to a water system funded by the Blue Planet Run Foundation, children in the Vietnamese village of Dong Lam Hamlet no longer have to spend their day fetching water.
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Doan Bao Chao
You’ll flip through images of children walking along massive pipelines, used to relocate water for crop irrigation, that plow through acres of trash; once-fertile lakes now parched and deserted; clearly polluted rivers and wonder why you’re looking at such upsetting images.
But the book is also inspirational.
Read about the book’s Water Heros, individuals who did something to address and combat water issues in their communities, from starting nonprofits to designing a system that uses lightweight plastic to conserve water and irrigate crops at the same time.
Turn the page and see stunning photos of an Indian river ritual, smiling children playing in Africa, or an Incan soul-cleansing ritual in Ecuador that may make you want to hop on a plane and explore some remote corner of the world. And sign on for a voluntourism project while you’re at it.
- A team of recreational spelunkers drops into the Neversink Pit, a 160-foot-deep pit, which is part of an underground aquifer system in Alabama.
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George Steinmetz
What surprised Smolan while working on the book is how every one of us is affected by the global crisis, not just a few people. “’We’re All Downstream’ would have been a better title,” he says. ”If you outlaw DDT in the United States, but it’s still sold to farmers in Chile and we’re buying food [produced in] Chile from Fairway’s [grocery] in New York City, we’re not getting rid of the problem.”
It wasn’t difficult to get sponsors and participants to sign on. Robert Redford wrote the forward, and some of the world’s top photojournalists, journalists and environmentalists contributed to the project. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, agreed to make the book available as a free download at Amazon for students, teachers and others who might not be able to afford its $45 price tag.
“That’s an incredible statement about the passion people feel about this project, that they’re willing to give up profits for it,” says Smolan.
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Courtesy of Earth Aware Editions
Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World
By Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt. Earth Aware Editions, 2007; $45.
Blue Planet Run, the book, also chronicles Blue Planet Run, the race—a nonstop, around-the-world relay race staged in 2007 to bring awareness to the water crisis that featured 21 runners from 13 countries who spent 100 days running around the globe. It was sponsored by the Blue Planet Run Foundation, which seeks to provide safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027.
Blue Planet Run 24
In an extension of the original 2007 relay, Blue Planet Run Foundation is sponsoring Blue Planet Run 24, a series of 24-hour relays around the world to continue raising awareness and funds for global water projects. Teams and solo runners can also run 12-hour and six-hour events. Between runs, participants and community members can gather at the Blue Planet Run 24 Village to learn about the cause and enjoy food and live entertainment. The first run was held on May 3-4 in Black Mountain, N.C. The next relay will take place on Sept. 13-14 in Minneapolis, Minn.
For more info on the project, visit www.blueplanetrun.org.
Scary beautiful
by Kevin on June 7, 2008
This book definitley makes you think especially if you live in a semi-arid climate like we do in Northern California. The governor just past an emergency drought declaration after two winters of below average rainfall. I don't think it will be long before we see mandatory conservation rules in effect. This book really opened my eyes to the enormity of the water problem -- in a beautiful and at times haunting way. We've got a copy of the book in our office and it's been an eye opener for all who have read it.