A Note on Water... By Mike Lees
*This discussion was prompted by my doctoral Mentor recently and led to some interesting discussions so thought I would share it here...
The current crisis situations concerning water shortages in areas of the United States, California, and Sao Paulo are indicative of greater systemic problems found within earth’s ecological systems (Fears, 2015; Gambino, 2015; Rigby, 2015). NASA researchers argued that the United States will face “megadrought” conditions thirty-five years from now that will last at least three decades long if current lack of sustainability concerns persist (Fears, 2015). In Sao Paulo Brazil, with a city population of 20 million, residents are finding that their taps are running dry and water only remains on for a few hours a day while others find themselves with no water for extended periods of time (Rigby, 2015). Each of these examples speaks to an endemic problem with far-reaching impacts into the future of human civilizations. Water is one crucial element amongst many in the living systems that constitute all of life on planet earth.
Without addressing the multi-faceted negative effects that current human interactions are having with earths’ living systems, bigger problems concerning sustainability lie directly ahead for future generations. Universities, on a global scale, contain the ability to bring whole-system awareness and thinking to the foreground in the lives of future generations (Barnett, 2011). But, this will first require that universities shift current academic focuses on research-only and entrepreneurial outcomes towards the inclusion of what Barnett (2011) described as liquid, therapeutic, authentic, and ultimately ecological sensibilities in the development of global student-citizens. Barnett called for higher education to become an, “ecological university…a university that takes seriously both the world’s interconnectedness and the university’s interconnectedness with the world” (p. 451). The ecological university model seeks to yoke academic research, entrepreneurialism, and rigor together with individual, societal, and ultimately the natural world’s well-being (Barnett, 2011). I believe that until universities engage the importance of ecological literacy and integral dynamic systems thinking as an inherent part of student educational foundations, the current and future water problems are only the tip of quickly vanishing icebergs.
References:
Barnett, R. (2011). The coming of the ecological university. Oxford Review of Education, 37(4), 439-455. doi: 10.1080/03054985.2011.595550
Fears, D. (2015, February 12). A ‘megadrought’ will grip U.S. in the coming decades, NASA researchers say. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/todays-drought-in-the-west-is-nothing-compared-to-what-may-be-coming/2015/02/12/0041646a-b2d9-11e4-854b-a38d13486ba1_story.html
Gambino, L. (2015, April 1). California restricts water as snowpack survey finds ‘no snow whatsoever’. Theguardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/01/california-governor-orders-mandatory-water-restrictions-drought
Rigby, C. (2015, February 25). Sao Paulo – anatomy of a failing megacity: Residents struggle as water taps run dry. Theguardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/25/sao-paulo-brazil-failing-megacity-water-crisis-rationing