A recent headline over at
Bloomberg News—“Water Fights, Wandering
Homeless Are Planet’s Future”—brought to mind the first editorial I wrote for Water
Efficiency. Writing under the title, “Can Melting Ice Caps Inspire
Sabotage?” I summarized the 2007 London
conference entitled “Climate Change: The Global Security Impact,” where experts
warned global warming could exacerbate refugee issues as more of the world’s
poor found themselves escaping inhospitable climates. And while participants
like Sir Crispin Tickell, Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations,
insisted these displaced people would end up as either potential victims or
recruits for extremist terrorist groups, in the end the most important point
made at that London conference was that climate change left unfettered could
have ghastly consequences for our global water supply.
Water Fights, Wandering
Homeless Are Planet’s Future
In
an interview for the “Water Fights” article, Gary Braasch, discusses
his
book, Earth Under Fire: How Global
Warming Is Changing the World, and talks about some of the
impacts he anticipates as a result of climate change and rising sea levels. What
I found most important in relation to water efficiency and conservation was his
characterization of a future of extreme flooding followed by extended drought,
which would, of course, severely impact agricultural and sustenance farming
around the world. And just like Sir Crispin Tickell, Braasch warns of global
migration and hordes of displaced refugees descending upon areas that manage to
remain hospitable while the rest of the world descends into global warming
chaos.
Whether you think these claims
are melodramatic flourishes or opportunist rants, I think it’s worth restating
what I said two years ago—“I am not
much concerned whether or not you believe human actions are impacting the
world’s climate. I’d rather the lesson behind the rhetoric not be lost. Whether
we like it or not, we are in a codependent relationship with the earth, and
without water we will not survive….In
the end, whether it is Mother Nature or a pipe bomb, at some point there will be
an attack on your infrastructure. Planning for it now will help you prevail
during the onslaught and put you in a stronger position over the long haul.
Ultimately, the ethos of efficiency is “be prepared.” Cut waste, plan your
actions, and guard your resources, and you’ll be able to weather any adversarial
event that lands on your doorstep.”
So,
what are you doing to prepare for climate change and its possible impacts on
your water supply? Is global warming influencing your resource management
decisions, or are budgeting and managing costs still taking
precedence?