One of the largest infrastructure projects in United States history, the Central Arizona Project moves water from the Colorado River across the desert to Phoenix. The watersheds that feed the river and its crucial reservoirs are now facing their driest years on record.
Why We Need to Care About Global Water Scarcity Now Hear from Traverse City native and Circle of Blue Founder J. Carl Ganter
By Craig Manning What happens when the taps run dry? That’s one of the key questions J. Carl Ganter will discuss at 5pm Thursday, March 18, during an event for the Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) International Affairs Forum (IAF) titled “Global to Local: Climate Change, Water, and Food.” The event will address how issues of water scarcity, pollution, and climate fluctuations could affect everything from the agricultural supply chain to global conflict. Born and raised in Traverse City, Ganter is an esteemed photojournalist whose work has appeared in publicationd from Newsweek to Rolling Stone. He’s also the founder of Circle of Blue, a journalistic organization that seeks to shine a light on global issues involving “water, food, and energy in a changing climate.” His IAF presentation will take attendees from the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil, to the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, pairing Ganter’s firsthand accounts with photos that encapsulate growing crises of water accessibility, scarcity, and pollution. “It’s easy to get stuck in numbers and abstracts when discussing matters like water and climate change,” Ganter said of his presentation. “My mission is to connect the dots on the ground with the issues, and then
to make those stories relevant to anyone, whether it’s kids in a classroom or global leaders on a major forum stage.” Northern Express caught up with Ganter ahead of his IAF event to discuss the global implications of water scarcity, the potential consequences of letting the issue go unaddressed, and why northern Michigan locals should start paying attention right now. Northern Express: You’ve said before — and many environmentalists agree with you — that water is going to be the driving issue of the 21st century. National Geographic recently ran a story about the relative fragility of the Great Lakes ecosystem and about how it’s the most important resource our continent has. Tell us a bit about what the “status quo” is at the moment, for water issues. Carl Ganter: You used the two best words: “fragility” and “system.” Water is what defines us. That’s why the first thing we do when we go to Mars is look for water. It’s this magical molecule, and life as we know it wouldn’t exist without it. But that system is incredibly fragile and finite. There’s only so much water on the planet, and we’re not making more. So we face a grand kind of crisis, a system crisis, and water is absolutely at the core, because it’s at the core of everything we
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care about. When we talk about water, we’re talking about food, because most water use goes to agriculture. When we talk about water, we’re talking about energy and energy production. When we talk about climate, whether it just climate or climate change, water is the definer. More and more, we are seeing stress points in the world [in terms of water]. We have very large urban centers on the brink of what a headline writer in South Africa termed “Day Zero,” which means the day when taps could run dry. Imagine a major city like São Paulo; Chennai, India; Cape Town, South Africa; imagine what happens if the taps actually run dry. [Those cities] came very close to running out of water. When rainfall patterns were changing, or the rain gods didn’t smile, the reservoirs neared single-digit capacity. If you’re in a township in Cape Town or Johannesburg, or a slum in Delhi, you typically have to walk to get your water. It may not be safe to drink; you may have to boil it. And then the sanitation side is pretty dismal. Some billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe drinking water on a regular basis. And some 2 billion don’t have adequate sanitation. If you don’t have sanitation, it contaminates the water.
Carl Ganter Carlconflict. Ganter Another side is the potential for We’ve seen water be a force-multiplying factor: Syria, Arab Spring, and other kinds of crucibles around the world, where water could be a point of serious contention. Express: Living where we do, surrounded by beautiful freshwater every day, it’s hard not to care about it at least a little bit, but it’s also easy to take for granted. Why should locals care about the topics you’ll be discussing, and what should they know as we face the future of this water crisis?
