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• 1 2025-02-13T18:34:45+00:00 Water Series 32 plain 2025-05-13T02:32:22+00:00

  ...there are only two directions--to be turned toward the water or to be turned away from the water. We are of consequence to one another--the river, its body, your body and mine. How we embrace the world and enact our desires upon it through practices of thirst and quench, desire and sate, determines the world we live in and how we know it anew, as a relative. (Natalie Diaz, "Fusings" 46)

  
  Diaz underlines how we are connected to the planet's hydrosphere, reminding us that water is the solvent of life itself. We come from water. It remains the medium through which vital processes unfold within our cells, such as the transportation of nutrients and the regulating of temperature, and water facilitates the chemical reactions that define our existence. Our dependence on water extends beyond our individual physiology, as water sculpts the landscapes we inhabit, dictates the rhythm of ecosystems that sustain us, and has historically served as the cradle of civilizations. Water is the lifeblood of all living beings in our world and we fill it with feces, lead, and radioactive particles, pharmaceuticals, garbage, and microplastics; we change its ph. The climate emergency is fundamentally a water crisis, as its most profound impacts are manifested through the radical disruption of the global water cycle.  
  
  Once in a thousand year calamitous flood events are increasing in frequency. This is because as global temperatures rise, the atmosphere can hold more moisture—approximately 7% more water vapor for every degree Celsius of warming—which leads to more intense and prolonged rainfall. This increase in heavy precipitation events overwhelms natural and built drainage systems, triggering flash floods and riverine flooding. Additionally, climate change intensifies extreme weather events such as hurricanes and atmospheric rivers, which can unleash vast amounts of rain in short periods. Sea level rise, driven by melting glaciers and thermal expansion of ocean water, exacerbates coastal flooding, particularly during storm surges or high tides. On land, earlier snowmelt and the accelerated thawing of glaciers add more water to rivers in the spring, heightening flood risks. Saturated soils from repeated rainfall reduce the ground’s ability to absorb water, increasing surface runoff, especially in urban areas with impervious surfaces like concrete. Finally, deforestation and land-use changes diminish the land’s natural capacity to absorb rainfall, further contributing to the frequency and severity of floods. Together, these climate-driven changes amplify both the likelihood and impact of flooding events worldwide. Paradoxically, the same atmospheric dynamics contribute to prolonged and more severe droughts in other areas, as traditional precipitation patterns shift and land surfaces lose more water to evaporation.
  
  And yet, we are made of water. We need water. When there is no water, there are fires. When there is no water, there is starvation. What can water teach us? How can we relate to water, when it is life-generating, and life-sustaining, but also deadly?
  
  In this series, we respond to the water crisis.
  
  Sources:
  
  
  Diaz, Natalie. 2024. “Fusings.” Borders, Human Itineraries, and All Our Relation: The Alchemy Lecture, edited by Christina Elizabeth Sharpe, Duke University Press, pp. 43–68.
  Horton, Helena. 2024. “Floods Fuelled 19% Drop in Income from Farming in England in 2023.” The Guardian, July 12. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/12/floods-fuelled-19-drop-in-income-from-farming-in-england-in-2023.
  Kassam, Ashifa, and Faisal Ali. 2024. “Why Were the Floods in Spain so Bad? A Visual Guide.” The Guardian, November 1, 2024, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/31/why-were-the-floods-in-spain-so-bad-a-visual-guide.
  Neimanis, Astrida. 2017. Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology. Bloombury.