Author Discusses Unmaking America’s Water Crisis at UNF

Joanna Norris, Associate Director 

Department of Public Relations 

(904) 620-2102 

Award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett will lecture at the University of North Florida at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the UNF University Center as part of the tour for her new book, “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis.” 

From backyard grottoes in California to sinkholes swallowing chunks of Florida, Barnett’s book exposes how the nation’s green craze largely missed water—the No. 1 environmental concern of most Americans. Her lecture puts the state’s water woes into a national and global context and talks about how the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for Florida. 

Her new bookcombines investigative reporting with solutions from around the nation and the globe. Reporting from San Antonio to Singapore, Barnett shows how local communities and entire nations have come together in a shared ethic to dramatically reduce consumption and live within their water means. 

She is also the author of “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.,” a winner of the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards. Additionally, the book was named by The St. Petersburg Times as one of the top 10 books that every Floridian should read.  

Barnett, a journalist for 25 years, is a senior writer at Florida Trend magazine, where she covers investigative, environmental, public policy and business stories. Her journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states. 

Barnett earned her bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in environmental history, both from the University of Florida, and was the recipient of a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying freshwater supply.  

Following the lecture, which is free and open to the public, there will be a book sale and signing by the author. For more information, contact the UNF Environmental Center at (904) 620-5804. 

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