Creating a better future
Cry Me a River
Imagine a world without water.
I’ve just returned from a few days in Melbourne, where I’d been for some meetings, a conference, and a keynote speech at the Young Water Professionals annual meeting, part of the Australian Water Association’s national conference, OzWater 2009.
Preparing for that speech got me thinking. As a climate activist, I think about many aspects of climate change impacts, but drought and water scarcity is one that particularly scares me.
Over the summer of 2004- 2005, I participated in a Southeast Asia field school as part of my geography minor at the University of Sydney. A small group of Sydney students paired up with local students and together we met communities and did field research along the Mekong Delta – in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. For the people we met, the Mekong was the basis for their culture, livelihoods, and life.
We met strong people who were fighting mega-hydro electric dams in Thailand, and we met communities in Laos who had lost those battles and been forcibly relocated to build a dam to generate electricity for neighbouring Thailand. These people were now living on the edge of subsistence and in extreme poverty, without electricity and without the ability to provide for their families through subsistence farming and fishing along the river as they had done in the past.
Most of us take water for granted in urban Australia.
As I’m sure you have read about already, 2500 scientists from over 80 countries gathered in Copenhagen last week and issued a statement to Governments urging them to wake up to the crisis our world is in. They issued warnings that climate change is occurring much faster than they had originally predicted. Emissions are rising faster, and the consequences more serious, than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “worst-case scenarios”.
And Sir Nick Stern, author of the landmark Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change for the UK Government a few years back, had a few dire things to say about water.
"Much of southern Europe would look like the Sahara. Many of the major rivers of the world, serving billions of people, would dry up in the dry seasons or re-route."
"What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world, for many decades."
These are the things that we have time to prevent now, but our window of opportunity is rapidly closing. So next time you get thirty and drink some water, think about what actions you can take to make sure we protect this precious resource, the basis of all life on Earth and a fundamental human right. You could give your politician a call and have a chat about water, or get involved in your local community climate action group.
A final thought - talking with some of the young water professionals after my speech, one of them told me that 1 litre of bottled water takes 7 litres of tap water and 1 litre of crude oil to produce.
Does anyone else think the way our economy is organised just does not make sense at all?
Anna Rose is the founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
I’ve just returned from a few days in Melbourne, where I’d been for some meetings, a conference, and a keynote speech at the Young Water Professionals annual meeting, part of the Australian Water Association’s national conference, OzWater 2009.
Preparing for that speech got me thinking. As a climate activist, I think about many aspects of climate change impacts, but drought and water scarcity is one that particularly scares me.
Over the summer of 2004- 2005, I participated in a Southeast Asia field school as part of my geography minor at the University of Sydney. A small group of Sydney students paired up with local students and together we met communities and did field research along the Mekong Delta – in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. For the people we met, the Mekong was the basis for their culture, livelihoods, and life.
We met strong people who were fighting mega-hydro electric dams in Thailand, and we met communities in Laos who had lost those battles and been forcibly relocated to build a dam to generate electricity for neighbouring Thailand. These people were now living on the edge of subsistence and in extreme poverty, without electricity and without the ability to provide for their families through subsistence farming and fishing along the river as they had done in the past.
Most of us take water for granted in urban Australia.
As I’m sure you have read about already, 2500 scientists from over 80 countries gathered in Copenhagen last week and issued a statement to Governments urging them to wake up to the crisis our world is in. They issued warnings that climate change is occurring much faster than they had originally predicted. Emissions are rising faster, and the consequences more serious, than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “worst-case scenarios”.
And Sir Nick Stern, author of the landmark Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change for the UK Government a few years back, had a few dire things to say about water.
"Much of southern Europe would look like the Sahara. Many of the major rivers of the world, serving billions of people, would dry up in the dry seasons or re-route."
"What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world, for many decades."
These are the things that we have time to prevent now, but our window of opportunity is rapidly closing. So next time you get thirty and drink some water, think about what actions you can take to make sure we protect this precious resource, the basis of all life on Earth and a fundamental human right. You could give your politician a call and have a chat about water, or get involved in your local community climate action group.
A final thought - talking with some of the young water professionals after my speech, one of them told me that 1 litre of bottled water takes 7 litres of tap water and 1 litre of crude oil to produce.
Does anyone else think the way our economy is organised just does not make sense at all?
Anna Rose is the founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Phil James on September 10, 2009 at 4:34pm -
I agree with all of the above comments. I consider it a crime against humanity to flush a toilet with chlorinated, fluorinated, filtered water that has been piped many miles from its source which, if a dam, most certainly destroyed a large area of bushland, and if from a desal has cost billions to build, and will cost billions to run both in dollar terms and in C02 emissions.
I am a firm believer in using technology to reduce our environmental impact however sometimes it is more cost effective, both in dollar and C02 terms to utilise older style technology eg water tanks to help solve the problem at hand.
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Comment by James Vosper on March 23, 2009 at 5:51pm -
Residents of Scotland Island in Sydney's Pittwater do not have access to mains water. The average per capita consumption is 15% of the adjacent mainland population. We can all work harder to conserve water via our behaviour and purchase choices.
People are becoming increasingly aware of "virtual water" in the products that we consume. Furthermore, when manufactured goods are exported the water goes too.
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Comment by Hans Manson on March 20, 2009 at 12:09am -
Yes Anna, clean drinking water will be and is a major problem World wide, but should we not look into our own back yard first before we worry as to what is occuring else where? Should we not be setting an example and provide the technology and expertice to assist others to follow? After all we reside in the dryest continent yet this fact has not hit home and we continue to squander nor safe this valuable resource called Water. All we do is just pump it out of the strained rivers to ever increasing thirsty cities and regionally unsuitable agricultural crops. Cropping and city pipelines, I have a lot to say on this matter and have done such over several decades, but it is like slamming into a Granite cliff face when political thinking is still in the 18th and 19th century, "Whack in another pipe, boys. Oh, but we are thinking 21st century, it is the North-South Pipe Line and Desalination, which incidently will not solve the problem. Who cares if Desalination increase atmospheric pollution. Shovel in more coal, boys. Put the blame of Global Warming on the house holders by showing how many black balloons float up from each house".
Anna, I am ashamed of what some of my generation and the next have done and what they continue to do all for the sake of self indulgent importance and power.
Anna, in my work I cover this Continent and seen what occurs in other Lands. I have shed many a tear at the destruction and pollution witnessed. It is horrific to see a large river flowing under the ice and the water breaking through, is a lifeless jet black and the base of floating chunks of ice of the same colour.
Hans of Ecosketch.
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Comment by Lee Stewart on March 19, 2009 at 3:23pm -
Water is becoming a more scarce resource and the predictions are that it is going to get worse. I read some where that one of the reasons there is conflict in Sudan is about access to clean water supplies and a recent report from the UN says that the next wars could be over water. I agree with Anna that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.
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Comment by Marcus Lam on March 19, 2009 at 11:02am -
Yes, it's unusual how people take water for granted when it's such an important mineral. The issue is, a lot of us don't realise the situation has become serious. Once we're educated, hopefully we'll be more willing to take action.
I've noticed that older people seem to respect natural resources better. Maybe some young people don't recognise what they're losing.
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