May 25: Global Water Issues

John Clark, Sagamore Institute

When: Wednesday, May 25 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Where: North United Methodist Church, 3808 N. Meridian St. Indianapolis

The concluding session of the Mid-North Shepherd Center's Great Decisions Series

Scarcity of water in many regions creates problems and conflict for large numbers of the world's population. What policies should be adopted to ensure water quality? What international actors or governments will make the greatest impact on improving water governance?

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."


If you want to do some background reading for this issue, I'd recommend:

• 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.
• The Wilson Center has a very good program of research on Environmental Change and Security that discusses more than water, and that can manage to hire Matt Damon as narrator for its TV programs
• As is the case with energy, China is the crucial water player in the coming century. The RAND Corporation has a good study.
• For a couple of chapters about water as a conflict issue in Africa, see Scarcity and Surfeit: The Ecology of Africa's Conflicts.
• http://www.worldwater.org/
• CSIS offers a handy overview of a recent conference on water.