When: Wednesday, March 23 7:00 PM
Where: Church of the Saviour, 6205 Rucker Road Indianapolis
Sponsored by the Bob Calhoun Memorial Great Decisions Series
For a sobering picture of where global crises are most likely to erupt, check out the BBC's "World's Water Hotspots." With the exception of Southern Australia and perhaps the Ogallala aquifer in the US, this map could be an accurate forecast of where international conflicts are raging 25 years from now. We know this, and yet somehow we keep marching ahead without changing our behavior. That's no surprise to those who have sprained their wrists reading Jared Diamond's essential book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Not every society facing ecological crises fails to change ... but a depressingly large number do indeed seem to "choose to fail."
Here in Indiana we have one of the country's top experts in the politics of water, Bill Blomquist.
Bill Blomquist joined the Department of Political Science in 1987. He teaches American politics, Indiana politics, constitutional law, and occasional courses in public policy or research methods. His primary research focus has been on water problems and policies in the western United States. His publications include Coordinating Water Resources in the Federal System (U.S. ACIR, 1991), and Dividing the Waters: Governing Groundwater in Southern California (ICS Press, 1992). His principal research effort at present involves a comparative study of policies governing surface water and groundwater use in Arizona, California, and Colorado. Professor Blomquist attended Ohio University from 1975 to 1979 and received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in economics, and a Master of Arts degree in political science. He received his Ph.D in political science from Indiana University - Bloomington in 1987. Bill was chair of the Department from 1995 to 2002. Among many other things, he organizes the biennial Bulen Symposium on US politics, held on campus every second December.
Bill will be addressing the Bob Calhoun Memorial Great Decisions series, a fascinating group of adults form the Church of the Saviour and the government class of Lawrence North High School. I will be very interested to see how the generations split on this issue of water for the future.
No RSVP required, free to the public. Address questions to Bob Hessong at RKHessong@aol.com
If you like this event, you should check out ...
- March 29: The Indiana Council on World Affair's version of this "Great Decisions" topic (featuring Bob Reardon and John Clark), or if you are feeling overwatered,
- March 29: Learn how sustainable environmental practices are consistent with profitable business at the talk by Ray Anderson.
For background information …
- The Foreign Policy Association assembles material on water politics for the Great Decision program, including a transcript of an interesting discussion
- It's hard to think of a critical issue that doesn't have at least one think tank devoted to it. The Pacific Institute is water's think tank.
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