By Peter H. Gleick
We’re living in a pivotal moment in history, on the cusp of either sinking into a dark period of growing poverty, accelerating ecological destruction, and worsening conflict, or moving forward to a new age of equity, sustainability, and stewardship of the only planet in the universe where we know life exists. I believe a positive future is not only possible, but inevitable, but solving our current crises and moving along the path to that desired future will require new, concerted, and sustained efforts.
Nothing better exemplifies both the threat and the promise facing us than the challenge of water.
Water is special, and we need to understand it differently from other aspects of the natural world. The story of water and the history of humanity are entangled in what I describe as the Three Ages of Water, from our early evolution to the dystopian or sustainable future that is coming. The First Age of Water on Earth encompassed the billions of years from the formation of our planet through the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the long transition from mammals that survived that killer asteroid, to the ultimate evolution of Homo sapiens.
In these early years, human populations grew from thousands to the first few millions spread over the continents, to Mesopotamia and Egypt, the floodplains of the Indus Valley in southern Asia, along the great rivers of China, across to Australia, and ultimately to the vast rain forests, grasslands, and savannas of the Americas. The First Age saw our transition from bands of hunter-gatherers to fixed communities and organized cultures. It saw the creation of language, writing, art, religion, and intentional agriculture. The earliest empires began to manipulate the world—and the water around them—building rudimentary dams and aqueducts, writing the first water laws and institutions, and fighting wars over water.
The First Age came to an end when rising human populations, expanding cities, the local depletion of wild plants and animals, the spread of water-related diseases, and growing pressures on natural resources demanded that we forge a new relationship with water. The answer to these challenges was to be found in the science, engineering, and social advances that define the Second Age of Water.
It has become fashionable to think of the era in which we live as the Anthropocene—the epoch when humans have become the dominant force on Earth driving changes in habitats and the survival of species, rewriting genetic codes, transforming landscapes and the oceans, and altering the very climate of the planet. At its heart is the acknowledgment that humans, for better or worse, now control our own fate and the fate of countless other species.
This is the Second Age of Water—our own age. The Second Age encompasses the intellectual, cultural, and philosophical blossoming of civilization; the hydraulic marvels of the ancient Greeks and Romans; the artistic and scientific advances of the Islamic Golden Age and the Renaissance; and ultimately the engineering and technological revolutions of modern times. During the Second Age, we replumbed the entire planet. Humans built the first dams of gigantic scale to hold back flood waters, store water for dry periods, and produce reliable clean electricity. We learned about germs and diseases and their links to dirty water. We invented the first physical, chemical, and biological systems to purify wastewater. We built aqueducts not tens of kilometers long dug out of dirt like our Mesopotamian and Roman ancestors, but thousands of kilometers long, through or over mountains, from glaciers to deserts. We deployed large-scale irrigation systems and the technologies to pump water from deep underground so farmers could grow food in places and at times never before possible. And we began casting our eyes, instruments, and then mechanical avatars outward to other planets and stars, looking for water and other evidence that we’re not alone in the universe. We are all children of the Second Age of Water.
Modern civilization is built on these advances, and we’ve benefited from them in countless ways. We, mostly, live longer, healthier lives. We’re, mostly, richer economically, socially, and culturally. Technology and access to information have exploded, as has our ability to understand and manipulate the world around us. Cholera, typhoid, and dysentery have been vanquished in the richer nations. While hundreds of millions lack adequate food, we’re technically able to feed 8 billion people because of the Green Revolution and advances in irrigated agriculture. While billions still lack safe drinking water or sanitation or suffer from extreme hydrologic events, we know how to build and operate sophisticated water systems that can provide safe water, take away and treat wastewater, and protect us from floods and drought. We take most of it for granted.
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