The Last Drop
In 2019 ‘sustainability journalist Tim Smedley wrote Clearing The Air. It’s highly rated and was shortlisted for the Royal Society insight investment science book prize 2019. 
‘Read this book and join the effort
to terminate air pollution,’ Arnold Schwarzenegger says on the cover.
Tim Smedley ‘travelled the world to try and find the answer [to air pollution], visiting cities at the forefront of the fight against air pollution, including Delhi, Beijing, London and Paris.’ The book apparently includes insights from the scientists and politicians leading the battle against air pollution, and people whose lives have been affected by it.
Travelling the world of course will have contributed to air pollution. Lockdown in the UK has seen a reduction of 30-40% in pollutants.
Picador has just bought the rights for Tim Smedleys next book – The Last Drop: Solving the World’s Water Crisis.
The author will ‘travel the world to meet experts, victims, activists and pioneers, finding out how we can mend the water table that our survival depends upon.’ So he’ll do the same as with the last book, when he is able to travel at least.
The synopsis of the book is: ‘Water stress – not just scarcity, but also water-quality issues caused by pollution – is already driving the first waves of climate refugees. Rivers are drying out before they meet the oceans, and ancient lakes are disappearing. Fourteen of the world’s 20 megacities are now experiencing water scarcity or drought conditions. It’s increasingly clear that human mismanagement of water is dangerously unsustainable, for both the ecology and human survival. And yet in recent years some key countries have been quietly and very successfully addressing water stress.’
The book is due to be published in Spring 2022.
The previous book is promoted as being ‘essential reading for anyone who cares about the air they breathe.’ Presumably the new one will be ‘essential reading for anyone who cares about the water they drink.’ Pretty much all of us, then.