Summary
With climate change threatening the entire planet, The Man Who Made it Rain is a fable for our time and a warning signal about our future. Beginning with the Marin County drought of the 1970’s, battles over water between farmers, city dwellers and environmentalists are inevitable. In a few short years, wars may well be fought over control of clean water as scientific data provides startling evidence of what is to come. Water is the new oil. Just like oil, prices for water are about to rise rapidly while supplies shrink. The Man Who Made it Rain paints a picture of what happens when a God-given right suddenly becomes a hot commodity.
Journalist Michael McCarthy weaves together a narrative of real life events that occurred during an unrelenting drought in 1976-77 in Marin County, California. He then jumps ahead to the present day when global climate change is becoming harsh reality, and projects forward to a fictional future when weather-related disasters create havoc around the globe. High atop the Himalayas a giant glacial lake stands ready to burst its banks, wiping out everything in its path, including the son of the U.S. president on a mountaineering expedition. The monsoon rains are coming, bringing the threat of massive flooding with the destructive power of an atomic bomb.
As the past, present, and future come together in a triple climax, the reader gets a horrifying glimpse of what happens when the world runs out of water.
J. Dietrich “Diet” Stroeh
inspiration for The Man Who Made it Rain
J. Dietrich “Diet” Stroeh is one of the founding partners of CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group, Inc. (CSW/St2). Diet’s primary focus as a civil engineer is on infrastructure development, with an emphasis on the planning, design and management of water and sanitary sewer distribution systems. His 45 years of professional experience and ability working with local and regional agencies allows him to provide creative and innovative design solutions to waste water disposal and water management challenges. He is thoroughly familiar with the engineering, institutional, economic, planning and environmental aspects of water resource management.
The majority of Diet’s professional expertise derives from his 20 years with Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) — the last 6 years as General Manager. Under his management, MMWD developed a major new in-county water supply and implemented a comprehensive water management plan, including conservation education. Diet was also instrumental in achieving a national record in county-wide water conservation during the 1976-1977 drought.
A registered Civil Engineer with California, Diet received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada. His current and past memberships in community and industry organizations include:
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Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District—Director
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American Water Works Association (AWWA)—6,000-member California/Nevada
Section—past President and National Director
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Bay Area Water Works Association (BAWWA)—past member and Director
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Marin County Flood Control—Novato Advisory Board—member
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Citizen of the Year—City of Novato 1992
A California native and long time resident of Marin County, Diet is proud of his five children and seven grandchildren. Since 1940 he has lived in Novato, California, thirty minutes north of San Francisco.
About the Author
Journalist Michael McCarthy writes about environmental, social change and outdoors issues, in both news and feature articles for San Francisco-area magazines and newspapers, as well as in various books and online. He is the author of travel guidebook Picnics in Paradise: Short Walks and Easy Bike Rides in Wine Country and Marin County. From 1992 to 1997 Michael achieved international recognition as editor and publisher of Spare Change, a controversial magazine sold on the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia, by homeless and street-involved people. He was awarded the Ethics in Action Award in 1997 by Canadian Businesses For Social Responsibility. His journalism experiences appear in The Book of Revelations: A Journalist Spends Five Years on the Street.
