Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI) Seminar Series

Title: " Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Water Security"

Dr. David Groenfeldt

Founder & Director of the Water-Culture Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico

Thursday, Dec 5, noon-1pm

ABSTRACT:

How will we climate-proof our cities, industries, and irrigated agriculture?   What ethical principles will guide our policies and investment decisions?   Hopefully we will apply principles different from those guiding current water resources management:  The iconic Rio Grande and Colorado rivers no longer reach the sea; freshwater bio-diversity loss is twice that of terrestrial species, and the groundwater in many rural areas is no longer safe to drink.  We need to develop clear and transparent ethics to guide decisions about the environmental and social impacts of new water policies and infrastructure.  The process of forging a new water ethic starts with identifying the ethics implicit in current water practices.  From this initial step we can more easily see where improvements are needed to bring our ethical principles in line with the requirements of sustainability.  But if we skip the ethical steps and jump directly to planning and designing new water infrastructure, we will be too easily tempted to ignore the many inconvenient truths that impinge on the desired outcomes.  I will discuss four categories of water ethics (environmental, social, cultural, and economic), how they contribute collectively to sustainability, and some practical ways to address them.  Adding ethics to the planning and design process is a smart investment in water security.

BIOGRAPHY: 

Dr. David Groenfeldt is the founder and Director of the Water-Culture Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, USA. He has previously worked on irrigation research at the International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka), the design and management of irrigation projects for the World Bank, and rural development consulting for various international agencies. More recently, he directed a watershed NGO in New Mexico, and in 2010 founded the Water-Culture Institute to address the underlying causes of unsustainable water management: our own values and ethics.  He is the author of Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis (Routledge/Earthscan 2013).

LOCATION: JGCRI, 5825 University Research Court (off of River Road), Suite 3500, College Park, MD 20740.http://www.globalchange.umd.edu/