Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Bum Rush the Commons

Bum Rush the Commons by Joseph Starr is a cautionary tale full of action and espionage.  Set in the not too distant future, water is now at a premium.  The world is experiencing a freshwater shortage on a massive scale.  The American army has been scaled down to next to nothing, and China is the new superpower.  The Chinese government is willing to go to extreme measures to get a hand on some of America's freshwater supply, including using their military for a full scale invasion.

I enjoyed the idea of this story, although I felt that the author could have gone into a bit more detail about what caused the water shortage in the first place.  Also, if there were a worldwide water shortage I would expect more famine, yet other than having a scaled down military force, America seemed largely unaffected.

This story made me reflect a lot on how dependent we are on the decisions of our leaders.  A leader with the wrong motives can get a whole nation stuck in a hole that is very hard to get out of.  We need to raise questions about our leaders' actions, and never stop or settle.

This book is a quick read and a very interesting story.  I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about conspiracies.


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