Water is life. It is central to our survival and is also a part of everything else we do in our everyday lives––building and creating, recreation, cleaning, cooking, generating power, transportation, and more. But if there is one thing our species is especially good at, it’s taking anything that we use every day or have in abundance, for granted. Jim Rousmaniere’s new book Water Connections: What Fresh Water Means to Us, What We Mean to Water, seeks to remind, and further educate, us all on how much water affects our lives and how much we are affecting our water.
In this presentation Jim Rousmaniere will be talking about the citizen action in the cause of inland waters. The reference points will include Keene, Swanzey, Sunapee, Dover the Nashua River, and the White Mountains.
Journalist and historian Jim Rousmaniere spent six years studying human interactions with water—past and present—to produce an authoritative report on what water means to us and what we mean to water. His book takes in our changing ways around water power, floods and flood control, water pollution and water treatment, watershed protection and water technology. A graduate of Harvard whose journalism credits include covering national economics for The Baltimore Sun and editing The Keene Sentinel, he lives in New Hampshire with his wife, Sharon. He’s the father of three daughters, and is active in community affairs.