Prominent environmental scientist Peter Gleick spoke last night about freshwater issues facing the global community in the twenty-first century. Gleick, who received a Ph.D. in energy and resources from UC-Berkeley, is the president of the Pacific Institute and a past recipient of the MacArthur Fellow “Genius Grant.”

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Jason Chuang

President of the Pacific Institute and prominent environmental scientist Peter Gleick addressed Kresge Auditorium last night in a talk entitled “Troubled Waters,” raising issues about the current shortage of freshwater across the globe.

Gleick, who declared that “there is a serious water crisis out there,” spoke to a full audience in Kresge Auditorium with guarded optimism. To put the crisis in context, Gleick described three ages of water in the history of mankind.

According to Gleick, mankind was completely dependent on nature in the first age, building its civilizations around freshwater sources. The second age was marked by man’s mastery over water. Irrigation systems, dikes and dams were all manifestations of this second age, in which mankind had greater control over this crucial resource.

In the past few decades, a slew of large-scale water-related problems have arisen, necessitating a shift into a third age of water.

“Per capita water availability is steadily declining as population steadily increases,” he said. “More than a billion people today do not have safe drinking water. Approximately a quarter of the world’s population does not have access to water for adequate sanitation.”

Preventable water-related diseases such as dysentery and typhoid are rampant in developing countries and result in around two million deaths per year. Also, Gleick predicted that the number of conflicts over freshwater resources and allocation will increase in the years to come as access to water continues to be a contentious issue.

He argued that these crises demand a fundamental shift in the international community’s approach to water. This transition will lead to the third age, in which water policy will aim to meet basic human needs for water while taking environmental factors into account.

One way to do this, Gleick said, is for society to become more efficient in its use of water.

“If we chose to, we could use 20 percent less water than we do and still have a healthy, functioning economy,” he asserted. “To put it simply, we can do the things we want to do with far less water than we are using.”

As an illustrative example, he explained that the amount of water required to produce a square inch of semiconductor has been reduced from thirty gallons to six in recent years in response to environmental and efficiency demands.

Gleick also stressed the need for institutions to deal more seriously and comprehensively with water issues.

“Universities,” he argued, “should teach about water not only in the context of civil engineering, but also as an economic issue, a sociological issue, a historical issue.”

Despite concerns, Gleick’s perspective on the future path of the water crisis was ultimately optimistic. Although hesitant to make any concrete predictions, he voiced his personal opinion that sanitary water would ultimately be provided to 100 percent of the world’s populace, and that water disputes would one day be solved diplomatically, rather than violently.

“I do not know what the extent of human misery and ecological destruction will be before we figure things out,” Gleick said, “but ultimately I believe that we will figure it out — and I hope we do fast.”