Accidental Gods

ReWilding our Water: From Rain to River to Sewer and back with Tim Smedley, author of The Last Drop

11 Jun 2025

Audio

Description

If you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you'll know that I believe the way forward is predicated on our finding shared values—I'd go for integrity, compassion, courage and generosity of spirit as the baselines—and then a suite of clear asks in the outer world and needs in the inner world. In logistical terms, at an absolute baseline, we need Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil. These are non negotiable and the fact that we currently have none of these is a grim indictment of how much we live in an economy that sucks the life out of everything rather than a society that grows. But we do have people who are working flat out to change the narrative on exactly these topics and this week's guest, Tim Smedley, is one of these. Tim is an award-winning sustainability journalist who has worked with the BBC, the Guardian, Sunday Times and Financial Times. He is also a celebrated non-fiction writer. His first book, Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution, was shortlisted for the UK's Royal Society Science Book Prize. His latest: The Last Drop: Solving the World's Water Crisis was a Times Book of the Year and has been described as 'Smart, Sobering and Scholarly' which it certainly is.This is one of those books that's both terrifying, utterly compelling and—I'm glad to say—ultimately inspiring. Yes, the world's water is in a desperate state. Yes, it has been horribly mismanaged almost everywhere by the kleptocracy that masquerades as a democracy in our modern world. But yes, we do have responses that will work, they have been carefully explored and water is one of those unifying elements that brings people together across tribal boundaries. We all need clean water and getting there means we need to find common principles by which we can live. Spoiler alert: turning water into a for-profit commodity is not a part of the solution. Regenerative agriculture, re-Wilding our waters, beavers (yay!) and sane water saving/sparing practices definitely are. Tim is so knowledgeable and his books are both brilliantly researched and utterly personal. He goes to the places he writes about and his first-hand experiences are priceless. I have put links in the show notes for both of his books, plus the Medium article on DeGrowth which is where I first came across his work. Please do explore afterwards. Tim's website https://www.timsmedleywriter.com/Medium on Degrowth: https://medium.com/the-new-climate/we-need-to-talk-about-degrowth-part-ii-4d71c44067b9Article in Prospect Magazine https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/environment-news/climate-change/70022/why-isnt-it-raining-extreme-weatherTim on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timsmedleyTim on Medium https://medium.com/@tjsmedleyTim on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/timsmedley.bsky.socialTim's BooksClearing the Air https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/clearing-the-air-shortlisted-for-the-royal-society-science-book-prize-tim-smedley/1246586?ean=9781472953339The Last Drop https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-last-drop-solving-the-world-s-water-crisis-tim-smedley/7544965?ean=9781529058178What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Transcription

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.

0 upvotes

🗳️ Sign in to Upvote

Popular episodes get transcribed faster

Other episodes from Accidental Gods

Transcribed and ready to explore now

What ought we be? Hope, despair and the resilience of life with Professor David Farrier

14 Jan 2026

Accidental Gods

Seeing Round Corners: Upgrading Democracy with Suzette Masters and Dr John Izzo

07 Jan 2026

Accidental Gods

December Solstice meditation - suitable northern and southern hemispheres

20 Dec 2025

Accidental Gods

View all episodes from Accidental Gods

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.

Report any issue

Accidental Gods

ReWilding our Water: From Rain to River to Sewer and back with Tim Smedley, author of The Last Drop

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other episodes from Accidental Gods

What ought we be? Hope, despair and the resilience of life with Professor David Farrier

Seeing Round Corners: Upgrading Democracy with Suzette Masters and Dr John Izzo

December Solstice meditation - suitable northern and southern hemispheres

Sign in to Audioscrape

Share this moment