"Losing Paradise" presents case studies from across the Mediterranean region to provide an interdisciplinary framework for understanding problems of diminished and polluted water supplies. Stressing the importance of culture and history in addressing the Mediterranean water crisis, the authors demonstrate the need for an integrated legal, social and scientific management system appropriate to each country’s stage of development and cultural heritage. In a book talk at Mann Library in November 2010, contributing authors and co-editors Gail Holst-Warhaft and Tammo Steenhuis presented insights offered by this framework for identifying more promising approaches to critical issues of water management. The suggested solutions also serve as a paradigm for the rest of the world as it faces similar issues of water shortage.