Water in the anthropocene. It inundates us, yet leaves us thirsty. It floods crops, yet leaves crops to wither in the fields. It swells over our shorelines and is drying up in lakes and rivers. It is the very unpredictability of water that keeps us at its mercy.
Civilizations grew from lands near water. Many of those civilizations are now on the brink. Jakarta is sinking into the Java Sea. Reservoirs serving over 23 million people in Mexico City are drying up, and who can forget Cape Town that just a few years ago escaped Day Zero by a hair’s breadth? Over a fifth of the world’s basins experience flooding, which can introduce toxins into drinking water, or drought, forcing women and girls to travel ever farther to secure water for their families, placing them at greater harm for sexual assault and depriving them of the very education they need to improve their lives.
Modern infrastructure serves to worsen the scarcity of potable water while further exacerbating climate inequities. We explore the problems and examine solutions to the challenge of water in the coming years.
Panelists:
Caleen Sisk
Caleen Sisk is the Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, located along the McCloud River watershed in Northern California. For more than 30 years, Caleen was mentored and taught in traditional healing and Winnemem culture. Since assuming leadership responsibilities in 2000, Caleen has focused on maintaining the Human Right to Water and the protection of Indigenous sacred sites.
Dahlia Sabri
Director of International Water Resources Association. Dahlia Sabri is an expert in water resources engineering with over 18 years of experience in water-related projects in the private sector, the UN, and other international organizations. She has worked as a water engineer and contributed to several interdisciplinary international projects.
Dr. Peter Carter
Peter is a medically-qualified doctor, with a background in environmental health policy. He is the director of the Climate Emergency Institute, as well as an IPCC Expert Reviewer and co-author of Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival.
Paul Beckwith
Paul is a Climate System Scientist who has taught at the University of Ottawa in the Laboratory for Paleoclimatology, as well as at Carleton University. Paul is a well-known climate educator on YouTube with over 1,000 videos pertaining to climate science.
Regina Valdez
Regina is a Climate Reality Program Director, Leader and Mentor based in New York city. She is also a GreenFaith Fellow and a LEED Green Associate.
Where: Sharm El-Sheikh International Conference Center, Luxor Room
