Water in the Twenty-First Century

The past five years have signaled a massive transformation in the world's understanding of the connections between climate change and our planet's water cycle. A single volcanic eruption off Tonga increased global atmospheric water vapor (our most abundant greenhouse gas) by five percent. Water became a weapon in the Ukrainian war. Insurance companies began pulling out of covering wildfire insurance as forests dried in the western United States, while updated flood insurance premiums skyrocketed nationally. All rainwater was discovered to contain dangerous levels of forever chemicals. Devastating floods submerged one-third of Pakistan underwater. And the United States, for the first time, declared water a national security priority. This course examines how rapid transformations in earth's hydrological cycle will transform humanity's relationship to its most precious resource in the decades to come. We start with an overview of the centrality of water to climate change, the orphaned status of water in climate policy and climate talks, the systemic problems that have produced this disconnect, the incentives that sustain it, and the conflicts that result. We then spend each class looking at a specific water development from the past five years that serve as the context for shaping our understanding of the social, political, environmental, and security dimensions of our changing water cycle. In the final stage of the course, students critique or devise novel interventions to emerging water problems using systems thinking, scenario planning, and stakeholder-centered design.