We’re often told that protecting natural resources is a responsibility of federal and global scope — the environment doesn’t respect political boundaries, the experts say. A new book on the politics of water points out that water conservation is almost always a regional issue:

The water problems of Barcelona cannot be solved by conservation in New Orleans or Bangalore. … Unlike your mortgage payments or your electricity use or your driving habits, how you shower or water your lawn has no impact on the water availability of people an ocean away, and may well not have any impact on people a single time zone away.

With all the attention on global warming, have we forgotten that most environmental issues are inherently local?