Of the dozens of papers presented at the POMS meeting that dealt with sustainability, not one focused on the critical manufacturing resource of water. But Charles Fishman’s newly published book, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and
Turbulent Future of Water (Free Press, 368 pp.), may very well raise our awareness of what he calls a “silent revolution” in water usage in the biggest economy in the world.
Why is this a sustainability topic worth discussing in class? Perhaps because of a 2007 UN study predicting: “Major cities in the West, like Phoenix and Las Vegas, may have to be abandoned as badlands”? Las Vegas, which has one of the biggest water shortages in the country, now pays residents $40,000 an acre to take out their lawns and put in rocks and local plants.
The golden age of water, as Fishman calls it, was the last 100 years, where we lived in a “kind of aquatic paradise…our water has been abundant, safe, and cheap”. He writes: “We don’t take it for granted because we don’t notice it enough to take it for granted”. But the new scarcity of water may take us “from the golden age of water to the revenge of water”. Water is the key ingredient in making computer chips, blue jeans, iPhones, kleenex, rice, and steel. A 2-liter Coke takes 5 liters of water to produce. The population increase by a factor of 4 during the past century was marked by a water consumption increase by a factor of 7. Here in Florida, we use 50% of our water in gardening!
The good news is that we getting the message. US farmers use 15% less water than 30 years ago, with a 70% bigger yield. GE and IBM are not only reducing water usage, by have created new divisions to teach towns and companies how to manage it.
You can listen to Fishman’s NPR interview at npr.org.