Water

The most recent edition of Lapham's Quarterly is called Water.  Generally, I mark essays or excerpts from books that I find interesting, then comment on them as time permits.  For this edition, while I found the reading enjoyable, I had not left any pieces of paper for future comment until reading almost two thirds of the articles.

The first one which struck me was, in some ways, a summary of many other essays in that it detailed the decline and/or end of a particular environment with water references.  Throughout history, man has harnessed, diverted and drained countless waterways for energy, irrigation, and housing in the name of progress.  And, while it is easy to argue that man's ingenuity in accomplishing such impressive engineering feats has advanced the overall standard of living of humanity, it is also easy to forget the price that has been paid through the destruction of the natural world and the removal or elimination of the indigenous people who previously occupied or employed that water.

Whether it be the Marsh Arabs who lived for centuries in the wetlands create by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, or the million plus inhabitants of the area flooded to create the Aswan Dam, there are numerous examples of the few being sacrificed for the many, along with the water source that had provided life and inspired culture for those few. 

Certainly, there are times when the progress of civilization requires the sacrifice of nature and its specific inhabitants to provide the building block for that advancement.  And, while we can debate whether such progress is truly progress or not, we should not lose sight of the damage that we wreck upon our planet and the inhabitants of those areas we claim through legal (eminent domain) or illegal methods.  They say that history is written by the victors, but fortunately this edition of Lapham's provides at least a glimpse into the beauty that existed before the sharp heel of progress was employed, and the lives of the people who were displaced to provide the comforts never shared with those who sacrificed the most.

The other note I have made so far refers to an excerpt from the book New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.  According to the author, the book itself is a comedy about coping, set in a time frame decades after the initial disaster, in this case the disaster of rising sea levels.  The excerpt recounts the blindness of the people who ignored the growing threat of climate change as it would effect sea level (one might say, us now!), how sea level rise passed a tipping point and went from inches to feet per year, disrupting all aspects of life on the planet, and then how after that first shock, or Pulse, as Robinson calls it, a time of massive change to combat future ramifications of this new normal in nature, reflected in hindsight, the ultimate example of locking the barn door after the horse had fled.  Which meant that if some were surprised by the First Pulse because they had refused to listen to the scientists (or pay attention to the planetary signs), then even more were surprised by the Second Pulse since they thought they were "handling" it.  Funny how we are all so eager to listen to our leaders when they tell us everything is OK or when they can provide a scapegoat for our problems, but not so willing when they confront us with our own culpability in a problem or the sacrifice we might need to make to address an issue.  The essay ends with the statement that "History is humankind trying to get a grip.  Obviously not easy.  But it could go better if you would pay a little more attention to certain details, like for instance your planet". 

As I age, I occasionally find myself engaging in comments about the "good old days".  A common avocation among all generations who reach their golden years.  In the case of water, I recently had a conversation with someone in which I recalled drinking from the backyard hose on a particularly hot day.  Can you imagine?  Now, perhaps there was a danger even after letting the water run a bit to replace the scalding water with fresh, that some harmful particles from the hose itself, not to mention the aged pipes, might exist.  Still, with the proper procedure, drinking from the hose, not to mention drinking from a neighborhood stream, was safe at some time for previous generations.  Safe and commonplace. 

Today, bottled water is a multi-billion dollar industry, with upwards of 390 billion liters of bottled water sold annually, an increase of about 90% in 10 years.  If you happen to pay attention to any of the numerous bottled water ads, you might be convinced that the water comes straight from the spring into the plastic bottle in your hand, pristine and pure.  Of course, the truth is that, Flint, Michigan water aside, the water from your tap is fine.  Purchasing a reusable water bottle and refilling it at the tap could save us personally and communally, not only in the cost of the water itself, but in the disposal of all those plastic bottles, pieces of which are now showing up in all strata of ocean life as microbits. 

Even purchasing a large, refillable jug of water from the market and refilling your own bottle from that, should you have real proof that your tap water is unsafe, is better than buying a 24 or 36 pack of bottled water.  And, of course, digging into that industry and discovering that an alarming percentage of bottled water comes from the same source as your tap water, says more about our gullibility to believe modern advertising (lies, in other words), than our desire to drink safe water.

Even worse, while most people live with running water that comes from their faucet and proper sanitation that provides a method of waste removal that reduces the instance of exposure to polluted water, there are still upwards of 750 million people who must walk outside their home for water, sometimes miles each way, and not always to a source that is clean.  If we imagine that some of our global conflicts have been caused or contributed to by a disagreement over natural resources, oil, gold, etc, I would not be the first person to suggest that some future conflicts will be over access to potable water. 

Water is the source of all life, it being well documented that a person can survive for a couple of weeks without food, but only days without water.  Its importance is undeniable, yet its value, based on our eyes which see water virtually everywhere, is low.  Let's hope that our assumptions about the availability of clean water will not be undone by our reckless treatment of the planet, and our willingness to remain blind to the limits of Earth's ability to withstand our greed.