[10/6/03] Peter
H. Gleick Wins Prestigious MacArthur Fellowship
Pacific Institute Cofounder Lauded for Research and Vision on Water Issues
OAKLAND, California
Dr. Peter H. Gleick, President and cofounder of the Pacific Institute
of Oakland, California, was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship
for his leadership and vision on global freshwater issues today.
Im
tremendously honored and excited by this recognition, said Dr.
Gleick. This is acknowledgment of the vital importance of water
for all of us, and of the need for new thinking and new efforts to bring
safe and reliable water to the billions who lack it.
Those of
us who live in the richer nations of the world take clean water for
granted, while in developing countries, millions of people, many of
them children, die every year from preventable, water-related diseases.
Although many people and organizations are working to stem this toll,
our efforts have not met the challenge; up to 76 million people could
perish over the next twenty years unless we make a greater commitment
to meet basic human needs for water for all.
Water is,
of course, not just an issue in the developing world. In far too many
places in the industrialized world, our water use is wasteful and unsustainable.
Growing populations and economies, climate change, the destruction of
wetlands and watersheds, and controversies over privatization and globalization
are all putting severe stress on our supplies of fresh water.
But we cant
just build our way out of this bind. Traditional approaches to increasing
supply building large-scale water projects like dams, reservoirs,
and pipelines are too expensive and destructive to be built without
first ensuring that we use water efficiently and for the right purposes
The good
news is that by using a combination of efficient technology, appropriate
regulation, and innovative economics we can greatly reduce the amount
of water we use without sacrificing our quality of life or our natural
environment.
Dr. Peter H. Gleick
will travel to Texas, Washington, and New Mexico in October to present
new research on water conservation and efficiency, to discuss the global
water crisis, and to chart a new, more sustainable approach to providing
water for all. Dr. Gleick and the Pacific Institute are also preparing
a major new study on the potential for urban water use efficiency and
conservation in California.
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