Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink"*
“In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of the dire future the Earth will face if global warming continues at the predicted rate. As many as 70 percent of extant species may become extinct if temperatures increase by more than 3 degrees Celsius per year. Millions of people may die from floods, droughts, blizzards and other erratic weather patterns. Currently arable land will become arid desert, and water resources, (already scarce in some regions,) will become more strained.
To combat these dire consequences, the IPCC advises people to take a two-pronged approach toward dealing with global warming: mitigation and adaptation.” [1]
This essay will begin by defining the differences between mitigation and adaptation, and will then explore some specific adaptation responses concerning water as a resource in the physical world. It will conclude by suggesting why Christians should have particular concern for the quality and availability of water.
Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are quite distinct responses to climate change. Climate mitigation basically focuses on scientifically proven evidence that greenhouse gases are present in the atmosphere, and are increasing in quantity. It looks at how these gases get into the atmosphere, acknowledging that human industrial processes over the past 200 years are at least in part responsible, and in seeking a limitation, if not complete reversal of these processes, a climate mitigation response considers that humanity can also have an impact on the future rate of emissions. “Mitigation relies on regulation, and the IPCC's mitigation measures include, first and foremost, a reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide”.[2] It is anticipated that much of the discussion at the United Nations Climate Change conference in
Climate adaptation involves responses which seek to deal with what are perceived to be inevitable consequences of climate change. These responses fall into two broad categories: one which is tactical in that it seeks to respond to the immediate effects of climate change, and the other which is strategic and which involves planning and preparing for future consequences of climate change.
“No matter what we do, we are unlikely to avoid all of the impacts of climate change. Adaptation is unavoidable. Adaptation is reducing our vulnerability to actual or expected climate change effects. It is mostly about thinking ahead”[3]
Water is a major constituent part of the planet’s environment. It constitutes 71% of the earth’s surface, of which 2.14% is found in the form of ice caps and glaciers and only 0.62% is ground water. The rest is salt water. Water is used for consumption and cleaning, for transportation and energy generation, and within many of the world’s major religions it also is imbued with profound spiritual significance.[4]
Scientific assessments of the impact of climate change on the planet’s water resources predict rising sea levels caused primarily by thermal expansion and also by melting polar ice, as well as a reduction in the rate of replenishment of freshwater reserves through a combination of over-consumption and insufficient regular rainfall in certain areas. At the same time, increased global temperatures attributed to climate change, are also considered responsible for an increase in erratic rainfall patterns and flooding incidences in other areas.
Future adaptation efforts concerning water will need to include relocating human settlements away from areas projected to become arid land or inundated by water in the next century and into areas where precipitation is predicted to increase, and where agriculture can thrive, for example at higher altitudes. There will also need to be initiatives to deliver better waste water stewardship, and reduced clean water consumption, particularly in the agricultural industry. Alongside these tactical initiatives, there is the need to implement strategic, long-term measures, including possibly generating precipitation using vessels which spray sea water into the atmosphere in order to produce artificial clouds, which will also be sufficiently dense so as to reflect more of the sun’s rays back into the upper atmosphere, thus reducing warming. This latter response is roundly endorsed by climate economists who, not surprisingly, consider mitigation efforts such as carbon taxation an unsatisfactory response.[5]
Beyond all the aforementioned adaptation efforts, it would seem that development of existing seawater desalination processes is the most obvious means of providing significant new reserves of freshwater for the increasing demands of industrial, agricultural and domestic users. For some, however, desalination is not as ideal a solution to climate change as it could be:
“It is important to acknowledge that some adaptation strategies will lead to more greenhouse-gas emissions. Responding to water scarcity by re-using and treating wastewater, or through deep-well pumping and desalination, will increase fossil-fuel use”.[6]
There is, nevertheless, evidence of good carbon-neutral practice in the modern desalination plants that are being built in
It is inevitable that there are significant cost implications with such initiatives, and once again there lies with the developed world a moral responsibility for meeting much of the financial burden, not least because products originating from the developing world and consumed in the developed world carry with them a hidden cost: the cost of utilizing scarce natural resources. In the case of water costs, this is termed “Virtual” or “Embedded Water”, which recognizes that “the production of the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the goods we consume require vast amounts of water for irrigation, processing and packaging. (…) In the case of the
In a part of the world where water has historically been in short supply, it naturally features significantly in the lives of the people of the Bible. Nothing is more serious to them than absence of water (1 Ki. 17:1ff.; Je. 14:3; Joel 1:20; Hg. 1:11), and conversely rainfall in due season is a sign of God's favour and goodness. An equally serious threat to life is water that has been polluted or rendered undrinkable. The potential that now exists in times of accentuated climate change for water to be used as weapon in - or even as a cause of - war, was recognized in Biblical times where it was common practice in time of warfare for an invading army to cut off the water-supply of beleaguered cities. Initiatives to mitigate against this is evidenced in the tunnel built by Hezekiah in Jerusalem, running from Gihon, outside the city walls of his day, to the Pool of Siloam (2 Ch. 32:30).
Frequently water is symbolical of God's blessing and of spiritual refreshment, as in Ps. 23:2; Is. 32:2; 35:6-7; 41:18, etc., and the longing for it indicates spiritual need (Pss. 42:1; 63:1; Am. 8:11). In Ezekiel's vision of God's house (47:1-11) the waters that poured out from under the threshold represented the unrestricted flow of Yahweh's blessings upon his people.
Water was also used for symbolic cleansing in the approach to God (Ex. 30:18-21), and it eventually featured in John's baptism of repentance and significantly in the Christian rite of Baptism for cleansing, initiation and incorporation into Christ.
A further spiritual significance given to water is that of danger and death. The story of the Flood, the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the general fear of the sea and deep waters expressed by the psalmist indicate that water could also in Yahweh's hands be an instrument of judgment.
An awareness of the physical and spiritual significance of water in its sacred texts and traditions, by those with a background in, and better still, a living engagement with, Christian heritage and teachings (cf. Luke 12:48), should serve to give the phrase “moral responsibility” already used twice above added weight and motivation for urgent action to secure the best possible availability and provision of the precious resource that is water.
“Those of us who live in the high-income industrialized nations with standards of living purchased on the back of profligate use of natural resources have a particular responsibility in our use of resources, an imperative to care for those elsewhere in the world marginalized by global climate change”[10]
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Books
Northcott, M. S. (2007) A Moral Climate – the Ethics of Global Warming DLT,
Spencer, N. & White R. (2007) Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living SPCK
Articles:
Ingeniør Nyt, Denmark 4-9-9 Top-økonomer blåstempler Lomborgs sky-skabende skibe
Making Water Desalination: option or distraction for a thirsty world Phil Dickie WWF 2007
Report by the Office for National Statistics: The impact of
The Hidden Cost of what we consume (2009) http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org
Water Aid: Country Information sheet
Wise Moves: Exploring the relationship between food, transport and CO2 Tara Garnett, Transport 2000 Trust (2003)
World Bank Working Paper no 69 Climate Variability and water resources degradation in Kenya Hezron Mogaka et al (2007)
* from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
[1] http://science.howstuffworks.com/mitigationandadaptation.htm
[3] Lomborg, B Adapting to
[4] E.g. BBC2 TV Natural History documentary The Ganges 4-9-9
[5] Danish Engineer News feed: http://nyhedsbreve.ing.dk/g.php?4023872-10291887-bc7eadf2-http://ing.dk/artikel/102110-top-oekonomer-blaastempler-lomborgs-sky-skabende-skibe%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dnyhedsbrev%26utm_campaign%3Dingformiddag
[6] Lomborg (as above)
[7] Making Water WWF (p. 41)
[8] Climate variability and water resources in
[9] The Hidden Cost of what we consume (2009) http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org
[10] Spencer & White P98.
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