Posts

James Workman: My Local Wants vs. Their Global Needs — UN Water Forum Hints at Tensions of Competing Agendas

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Heavy hitters in the water world met at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 16 for a public-awareness marketing campaign. But who is the target audience? And what message do they need to hear?

The Stream, September 12: Botswana Bushmen Revive Crucial Water Source

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Botswana Bushmen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve have re-opened…

The Stream, March 16: Sources of Power

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As Japan's nuclear emergency unfolds, the Guardian reports on…

The Stream, February 4: Revisiting the Bushmen

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An appeals court in Botswana ruled that the Bushmen in the arid…

Q&A: James G. Workman on the Bushmen’s Fight for Water Rights and 21st Century Hydro-Democracy

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Workman says chances of the Botswanian government returning water rights to the Bushmen as 'pretty slim.'

James Workman: Who Owns the Rain—When Thirsty Democracies Deny Individual Liberty to Water

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James G. Workman reflects on a recent ruling that compromises the water rights of the Bushmen.

Heart of Dryness: Reversing the Politics of Water Scarcity from the Kalahari to Suburbia

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The final installment of our seven-part series of excerpts from James G. Workman's Heart of Dryness examines how we define water rights for the Bushmen in Botswana as well as suburbanites in the U.S.

Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought

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"...for every Bushman caught, accused, arrested and roughed up, several others sneaked in to gather or hunt, preferring to live freely without official help, without water that had strings attached."

Heart of Dryness: Botswana’s Bushmen Fight for Human, Water Rights

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The fifth installment of Workman's book details the Bushmen's painful legal battle for water access against the Botswana government, which had begun to use "intentional, compulsory thirst" on the indigenous community. Left little choice, the Bushmen pursued court action to make access to water a fundamental human right.

Heart of Dryness: The Rule of Water for Botswana’s Bushmen

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In the fourth installment of Heart of Dryness, author James G. Workman explains the historic transformation of water across Botswana's Kalahari. Workman continues to follow Qoroxloo, showing how the Bushmen have adapted to water scarcity and fluctuating hydrology.

Heart of Dryness: Water, Climate, and Energy

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The second installment Climate Change Coping Strategies of excerpts from James G. Workman's Heart of Dryness

Heart of Dryness: Climate Change Coping Strategies

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Since the dawn of Homo sapiens in arid Africa, nine tenths of our evolution has unfolded as foragers. Only relatively recently did our species embark on agriculture, and recent events suggest certain limits to that extraordinary experiment. Exponential population growth has combined with unprecedented climate change until half the planet’s land surface can now be classified as drylands—arid landscapes inhabited by a third of humankind.