"A Dry Spring" is an addendum to "A Green Winter in Iraq" and is simply the addition of more stories from my time in Iraq. However, there are a few accounts of a more mature and graphic nature included, please be aware of that before you let anyone under the age of 18 read the extended account of this deployment.

Between global warming and ever-increasing consumption, the world is fast running out of water. And while water's scarcity will challenge the success of North America's fastest-growing regions, other areas of the continent will experience dramatic flooding. "Dry Spring" looks at how the coming water crisis will devastate communities unless urgent action is taken. In many areas, the damage has already begun. Author Chris Wood relates compelling stories of people all over the continent coping with new conditions: Okanagan orchardists facing an uncertain future; a Mexican fisherman on the now-dry Colorado River Delta, which has been reduced to desert because of upstream usage by the American West; a Las Vegas water cop who monitors excessive lawn watering; a New Brunswick couple fleeing their coastal house because of the encroaching ocean; and more. Wood also shows how practical solutions like xeriscaping, water "recycling," and run-off containment can preserve water for future generations.

Dry summer, wet winter climate? This is your must have plant guide. Selecting plants suited to your climate is the first step toward a thriving, largely self-sustaining garden that connects with and supports the natural world. With gentle and compelling text and stunning photographs of plants in garden settings, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates by Nora Harlow and Saxon Holt is a guide to native and climate-adapted plants for summer-dry, winter-wet climates of North America's Pacific coast. Knowing what these climates share and how and why they differ, you can choose to make gardens that maintain and expand local and regional biodiversity, take little from the earth that is not returned, and welcome and accommodate the presence of wildlife. With global warming, it is now even more critical that we garden in tune with climate.

"As it warms, our world is running out of fresh water--fast. Lakes, aquifers and rivers are disappearing, but we consume more water than ever. What will this mean for North Americans? Dry spring shows dramatically how water loss will devastate countless communities over the next 25 years--cities and farms, forests and coastlines, ranches and orchards. The scarcity of water challenges the soaring success of some of our continent's fastest-growing regions: the American Southwest, the arid plains of Western Canada, the cross-border Great Lakes Basin. Yet while unprecedented dryness afflicts such areas as these, violently wet storms pummel many others. And drought and flooding will only worsen over time. In years to come, Canada will get more water and the U.S. less; Wood demonstrates provocatively what this will mean for political relations. He concludes with inspiring examples of choices we can all make that will help us preserve our water for future generations."--Book jacket.

Pp. 36.