World Water Day: Water Ethics
“The definition of ethics from the Greek means customary or habitual and what's customary or habitual with Americans regarding water use is that it's plentiful and it's clean and we don't have to think about it. We just use as much as we want until some conflict arises.”
– Rick Kyte, D.B. Reinhard Institute for Ethics in Leadership
If you think technology is going to be the big fix for issues and problems associated with the availability, use, and conservation of water, especially in the context of global warming, you might want to balance that view with a better understanding of how important is the ethic of water by listening to seven thoughtful leaders from the Center for Humans and Nature as part of their project, Fostering a Water Ethic.
In this Humans and Nature video, The Importance of a Water Ethic, their contributors contemplate the many compelling reasons why a water ethic is essential for helping us do the right thing by each other, by the generations that follow us, and by the whole community of life.
The video (12:39) features these EarthSayers addressing a water ethic and who are "thinking creatively about how people can make better decisions — in relationship with each other and the whole community of life."
- Dorene Day Midewaunnikwe (Water Woman);
- Jane Elder, Executive Director, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters;
- Cynthia Barnett, Environmental Journalist and Author;
- Jeremy Schmidt, Assistant professor, Carlton University;
- Rick Kyte, Director, D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership;
- Christiana Peppard, Associate Professor, Fordham University; and
- Josephine Mandamin (Ojibwe), Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve.
It's World Water Day and the perfect day to take twelve minutes out of your busy schedule to listen (here) to these seven bright minds and soulful thinkers.
You might also subscribe to their YouTube channel (check the box to receive an email notification when new videos are posted).
The Volume 9, Number 1, January 2016 issue of their journal, Minding Nature, is available as a PDF here on the Humans and Nature Website. It along with a white paper on the Principles of Water Ethics is also attached as a PDF.
Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, March 22, 2016, Portland, Oregon.
