Innovation Pipeline

Drinking water supplies around the world are in desperate straits, as illustrated in a recently released report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States.
The 196-page report was a collaborative effort of 13 federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center and Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory, an international research center headquartered in Woods Hole, Mass.
Among the report’s key findings is a stern warning for the western U.S.: “Drought, related to reduced precipitation, increased evaporation and increased water loss from plants, is an important issue in many regions, especially in the West. Declines in mountain snowpack are important in the West and Alaska where snowpack provides vital natural water storage.”
Water experts and innovators everywhere are deeply concerned that people will not shift their habits before there’s an emergency. Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland Calif. “Good information is necessary and critical but it may not be the so-called ‘gating factor.’ I’m no longer convinced we’ll take action on problems before they become pronounced. The climate system of our planet is fundamentally being changed and we’re running out of time.”


Gleick spoke last week at the American Water Works Assoc. meeting in San Diego. “Part of the problem is with our institutions and policymakers — they only respond well after we have a disaster.”
Gleick says he sees four issues as central to the water problems facing the planet.
• We underestimate the severity of future climate change
• Climate change will happen faster and it’s more difficult to change
• There are impacts outside of impacts we’re used to dealing with
• We are overestimating our ability to adapt and change
Gleick takes a hard line when it comes to building new water infrastructure. “No infrastructure should be built until consideration is given to the climate change. We need to integrate climate change into the design so that we’re managing existing infrastructure with greater flexibility.”
Changing consumer behavior and shifting industrial practices around water is not easy. It’s like turning a very big ship. To get it headed in the right direction takes time, which is in short supply.
“We’re living in a world of constrained resources,” says Peter Williams, chief technology officer at IBM’s Big Green Innovations. Williams says IBM is trying to better connect the business processes to operations and simplify the operations. Let’s hope efforts like IBM’s and messages like Gleick’s start sticking and help move this ship in a new direction, otherwise we’re in for a really difficult future. Lee Bruno