New Book, “Water, ” Flawed By Factual Errors

My review of Water; The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon appeared in the Feb. 1, 2010 issue of Barrons.

That review noted mistakes in the book, but the review ran long and the editors needed to cut a lot of the detail in order to fit the available space.

The following includes the out-takes that concern just a sampling of the errors as regards water in California.

FLAWED DATA, EMOTIONALLY LOADED VERBIAGE

This book’s biggest flaw lies in the use of old, often second-hand, irrelevant and incorrect data.

And while this is bad enough, the prose is littered with constant overstatements and emotionally loaded verbiage that  steadily corrode the book’s credibility.

In one egregious example, Solomon wrote about “privileged farming businesses that were still guzzling from the trough of socialized irrigation water,” and noted that, “The same volume of water–250 million gallons per year–could support 10 agricultural workers or 100,000 high-tech jobs….” and that “California’s agribusinesses were using 80 percent of the state’s scarce available freshwater but producing just 3 percent of its economic output.”

Disregarding the reality that those 100,000 workers still have to eat, giving Intel more water won’t prompt it to create more jobs, the gallons per worker seemed out of whack.

As it turns out, every part of that statement was incorrect.

U.C. DAVIS STUDY EXPOSES BOOK’S FACTUAL ERRORS

Indeed, Current data from the University of California, Davis (http://aic.ucdavis.edu/publications/moca/mocamenu.htm) indicates that California agriculture uses about 11.14 billion gallons per year (p. 3-25, table 3.21) and has approximately 744,920 (p. 5-7) workers directly involved, that works out to 15 million gallons instead of the 25 million in Solomon’s book.

If one accepts the U.C. Davis contention that another 700,437 workers have jobs that depend on agriculture (p. 5-7), that works out to 7.7 million gallons per worker.

It is also significant that, just as silicon is part of a semiconductor, water is raw material for and a substantial part of the ultimate, edible products.

GREATER EFFICIENCY MAKES NUMBERS LOOK BAD

Significantly that report shows that the number of workers per gallon has been going down as farmers begin to use water more efficiently. The UC Davis study indicates that ag production per unit of applied water increased 38 percent from 1980 to 2000 (p. 2-1).

Thus, Solomon’s number is not only inaccurate but ultimately irrelevant because the better that farmers get at using water, the “worse” his comparison appears.

NUMBERS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT CONTEXT

But there are more errors. California Department of Water Resources figures show that agriculture uses approximately 41 percent of water, not 80 percent. (UCDavis, p. 3-25, table 3.21). As for Solomon’s statement that ag accounts for “just 3 percent of its economic output,” that may or may not be correct. Depending on which specific indicator is selected, the UC Davis study puts cites several specific measurements ranging from 7.3 to 1.2 percent (p. 5-8).Without a definition Solomon’s 3 percent is meaningless.

These are just one small subset of numbers that were fact-checked. Indeed, a book reviewer is not usually in the position or re-researching an author’s work. But when the language is slanted, it indicates there may be an axe to grind. And grinding axes often times means the assertions may not be as reliable as presented.

All of this leads this reviewer to wonder: If these easily checked facts cannot be trusted, what else between the covers might be as questionable?

Water; The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon, HarperCollins, New York, (January 5, 2010), ISBN-10: 0060548304, Hardcover, 608 pages, $27.99