Author Stephen Solomon recently suggested we need an “Al Gore of water”—a public champion to raise the profile of water scarcity threats and opportunities, as Gore has done for climate change. Solomon, an economics journalist, makes a bid for that role himself with his new book Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization. It’s one of the first Big Important Books of 2010, a 496-page survey of water’s role in shaping civilizations throughout history, from Roman aqueducts to the oceanic “moat” that protected a young United States.

Read the interview here: ‘Water’ author Stephen Solomon talks resource intelligence | Grist.