--- title: A New Age of Water is Dawning description: To save the planet and ourselves, we need a new relationship with water canonical: https://time.com/6300886/climate-change-water/ author: Peter Gleick article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-08-03T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:01.885Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A New Age of Water is Dawning og:description: To save the planet and ourselves, we need a new relationship with water og:url: https://time.com/6300886/climate-change-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdde97bcc4d8b7d9/698a3f39cabb1d7fe0e51a1b/GettyImages-1243270345.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-CLIMATE-DROUGHT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A New Age of Water is Dawning twitter:description: To save the planet and ourselves, we need a new relationship with water twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdde97bcc4d8b7d9/698a3f39cabb1d7fe0e51a1b/GettyImages-1243270345.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # A New Age of Water is Dawning > Sponsored content. 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As scorching temperatures broke new records for the planet this summer, outdoor workers are increasingly vulnerable. In the U.S., there is no federal protections for heat and labor._ Aug 3, 2023 12:00 PM UTC  A dry cracked lake bed in drought-stricken Lake Mead on September 15, 2022 in Boulder City, Nevada. - Located outside of Las Vegas near the Nevada-Arizona border, Lake Mead provides electricity to several parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and is also the source of water for rural, urban and tribal lands across the southwest. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) A dry cracked lake bed in drought-stricken Lake Mead on September 15, 2022 in Boulder City, Nevada. - Located outside of Las Vegas near the Nevada-Arizona border, Lake Mead provides electricity to several parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and is also the source of water for rural, urban and tribal lands across the southwest. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images by [Peter Gleick](https://time.com/author/peter-h-gleick/) ## Peter Gleick Aug 3, 2023 12:00 PM UTC We’re living in a pivotal moment in history, on the cusp of either sinking into a dark period of growing poverty, accelerating ecological destruction, and worsening conflict, or moving forward to a new age of equity, sustainability, and stewardship of the only planet in the universe where we know life exists. I believe a positive future is not only possible, but inevitable, but solving our current crises and moving along the path to that desired future will require new, concerted, and sustained efforts. Nothing better exemplifies both the threat and the promise facing us than the challenge of water. Water is special, and we need to understand it differently from other aspects of the natural world. The story of water and the history of humanity are entangled in what I describe as the[ _Three Ages of Water_](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-gleick/the-three-ages-of-water/9781541702271/?lens=publicaffairs), from our early evolution to the dystopian or sustainable future that is coming. The First Age of Water on Earth encompassed the billions of years from the formation of our planet through the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the long transition from mammals that survived that killer asteroid, to the ultimate evolution of _Homo sapiens_. In these early years, human populations grew from thousands to the first few millions spread over the continents, to Mesopotamia and Egypt, the floodplains of the Indus Valley in southern Asia, along the great rivers of China, across to Australia, and ultimately to the vast rain forests, grasslands, and savannas of the Americas. The First Age saw our transition from bands of hunter-gatherers to fixed communities and organized cultures. It saw the creation of language, writing, art, religion, and intentional agriculture. The earliest empires began to manipulate the world—and the water around them—building rudimentary dams and aqueducts, writing the first water laws and institutions, and fighting wars over water. ### More From TIME The First Age came to an end when rising human populations, expanding cities, the local depletion of wild plants and animals, the spread of water-related diseases, and growing pressures on natural resources demanded that we forge a new relationship with water. The answer to these challenges was to be found in the science, engineering, and social advances that define the Second Age of Water. **_Read More:_** [**_Don't Ignore Your Climate Anxiety_**](https://time.com/6298051/climate-anxiety-essay/) It has become fashionable to think of the era in which we live as the Anthropocene—the epoch when humans have become the dominant force on Earth driving changes in habitats and the survival of species, rewriting genetic codes, transforming landscapes and the oceans, and altering the very climate of the planet. At its heart is the acknowledgment that humans, for better or worse, now control our own fate and the fate of countless other species.  Flood waters run through the Shougang Bridge after the Yongding River was discharged in Beijing, China, August 1, 2023. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images This is the Second Age of Water—our own age. The Second Age encompasses the intellectual, cultural, and philosophical blossoming of civilization; the hydraulic marvels of the ancient Greeks and Romans; the artistic and scientific advances of the Islamic Golden Age and the Renaissance; and ultimately the engineering and technological revolutions of modern times. During the Second Age, we replumbed the entire planet. Humans built the first dams of gigantic scale to hold back flood waters, store water for dry periods, and produce reliable clean electricity. We learned about germs and diseases and their links to dirty water. We invented the first physical, chemical, and biological systems to purify wastewater. We built aqueducts not tens of kilometers long dug out of dirt like our Mesopotamian and Roman ancestors, but thousands of kilometers long, through or over mountains, from glaciers to deserts. We deployed large-scale irrigation systems and the technologies to pump water from deep underground so farmers could grow food in places and at times never before possible. And we began casting our eyes, instruments, and then mechanical avatars outward to other planets and stars, looking for water and other evidence that we’re not alone in the universe. We are all children of the Second Age of Water. Modern civilization is built on these advances, and we’ve benefited from them in countless ways. We, mostly, live longer, healthier lives. We’re, mostly, richer economically, socially, and culturally. Technology and access to information have exploded, as has our ability to understand and manipulate the world around us. Cholera, typhoid, and dysentery have been vanquished in the richer nations. While hundreds of millions lack adequate food, we’re technically able to feed 8 billion people because of the Green Revolution and advances in irrigated agriculture. While billions still lack safe drinking water or sanitation or suffer from extreme hydrologic events, we know how to build and operate sophisticated water systems that can provide safe water, take away and treat wastewater, and protect us from floods and drought. We take most of it for granted. The Second Age brought great benefits to society, but it also created unintended consequences. By the twentieth century, we started to see and understand the first evidence of the loss of nature, the rise of environmental problems as the Industrial Revolution accelerated and populations grew exponentially, the first world wars, and skyrocketing pressures on natural resources. Rivers treated as dumps for our waste began to catch fire and die. While we know how to provide safe water and sanitation to all, deep “water poverty” persists and billions of people lack access to basic water services. Despite advances in medical knowledge, many water-related diseases persist, including new illnesses associated with pollutants like mercury, lead, pesticides, and complex agricultural and industrial chemicals. Violence associated with competition for access and control of water resources has worsened, as have intentional attacks on water systems during regional, religious, economic, and ideological conflicts around the world, as we’ve seen in recent years in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Peak water limits are being reached as rivers run dry, aquifers are depleted, and ecosystems are destroyed. Most worrisome to the future of water resources—and humanity—is climate change. As the twentieth century ended, scientists found irrefutable scientific evidence that the combustion of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are altering the very climate of the planet, with accelerating impacts in every community and for every natural resource, especially water resources, changing [flood](https://time.com/6299145/us-heat-flood-advisories/) and drought risks; melting ice caps, glaciers, and mountain snow; increasing demand for water to grow food; and damaging aquatic ecosystems. In short, the end of the Second Age of Water has become a race between the growing risks of ecological collapse, massive economic inequality, and political conflict, and the growing efforts to apply our hard-earned knowledge and technologies to prevent global disaster. It’s an awkward time: the awesome power to reshape the planet has come before we’ve fully embraced the idea that we must live sustainably on Earth; matured enough politically and socially to put aside prejudices, hatreds, cultural differences, and the baser instincts that threaten our very existence; or truly mastered the technologies that can both destroy and save us. Humanity has a decision to make. We stand today at the brink of a new age, at a fork in the road of our own survival. We can become another extinct species, a blink in time in the natural history of the earth, or we can recognize that water is so vital to our continued existence that we must find a new way to live with it, manage it, and protect it. A bad future is possible; it’s just not the future we would choose if we had a choice. The good news is we have that choice: we can envision a positive future, a path to get there, and we can take the steps along that path. In recent years, scientists and academics from multiple disciplines have begun to piece together solutions to the separate challenges of energy, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, climate, and, underlying all of it, water, and to offer a different vision—a vision of a way forward to a positive future. It is time to acknowledge both the benefits of the Second Age of Water and the need to move to the Third Age where we address the growing failures surrounding us and make the technological and social transition to sustainability. That transition won’t be easy, but it is both necessary and possible. In Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The Cheshire Cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Two paths lie before us: one to the dystopian visions of our sci-fi novels, apocalyptic movies, and pessimistic doomsayers; the other to a positive, sustainable world. Just as we can imagine a disastrous future, we can imagine a positive one, with a balance between humans and nature, growing equality and social cohesion, and healthy, stable societies. That’s the future I focus on in the Third Age of Water, one that includes smart, successful, sustainable solutions to our water problems. We are learning how to weave together a rich tapestry of actions, decisions, and policies of individuals, communities, and countries around the world, sometimes in surprising places and surprising ways, to address the unresolved water challenges of the Second Age. We know how to provide safe water and sanitation to everyone on the planet—no magic new technologies must be invented. We know how to use water more productively and efficiently to do the things we want as evidenced by the fact that we’re actually dramatically reducing total water use in the U.S., despite a growing economy and population. We know how to clean up and reuse the most contaminated wastewater, as is already being done in Singapore, Israel, and parts of California. We are learning how to restore and protect natural ecosystems that have suffered from our past abuse, including removing river-destroying dams like the Elwha and Klamath river dams in the western U.S. and protecting and restoring wetlands and fisheries. We are coming to grips with the need to resolve disputes over water peacefully and diplomatically, rather than with violence. We are starting to put in place energy and water policies that can reduce the emissions of climate-altering gases while also making our water systems more resilient to those climate impacts we can no longer avoid. I believe that a positive future in the Third Age of Water is not only possible but inevitable. Indeed, this optimism has permitted me to continue working on the critical global challenges of climate, water, and sustainability for four decades. Perhaps that’s because the alternative is simply too depressing to accept. It would be a cosmic shame if, alone in this small corner of the universe, our spark of intelligent life was not quite intelligent enough to overcome the challenges of living on a finite, delicate planet and fell back into a dark age of chaos, or, worse, went the way of the dinosaurs. That’s possible. But it needn’t be that way. If we fail to achieve a positive future for water, it won’t be because we can’t. It will be because we didn’t. The hopeful vision for water I offer is reachable and the blueprint for it is already apparent in innovative, successful water efforts under way around the world. Let’s accelerate the transition to this Third Age of Water. _This essay includes excerpts from Gleick's new book,_ [_The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future_](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-gleick/the-three-ages-of-water/9781541702271/?lens=publicaffairs) _(PublicAffairs/Hachette 2023)_ ## Transcript I hope your week is starting off right. It is a warm start. We also have a lot of haze in the sky for today. In July time and Georgia Public Broadcasting teamed up to report on the impact of heat on outdoor workers. We spent a day following Berkeley Wimpey on his nearly ten hour shift delivering packages for U.P.S.. Man, it's hot back here. I'm pairing the module with the phone right now. And now we're going to put it on you. Before Wimpy started his route, we put a special patch on him which took readings of his skin temperature and motion throughout the day. That's going to connect to the patch. Wow. Yeah, certainly. We knew it would be hot like the rest of the state. Summer is pretty much always hot in places like Rome, Georgia. And climatologists had warned us that the summer of 2023 was going to be scorching. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued an El Nino watch. But even still, we were all caught a bit off guard by the severity of this year's heat waves, brutal heat wave, triple digit high temperatures, the hottest days ever recorded on Earth. And people who work outside are especially vulnerable. The heat is very hot already. It's not even close to lunchtime yet. And I'm not sure exactly what the heat index is, but it's got to be already in the nineties. In fact, the day was actually cooler than forecast in this part of Georgia, in part because the sun was diffused by haze from Canadian wildfires in itself, another reminder of the warming climate. We're already poor in sweat. I've been through three or four things of water already today. We kept track of the heat and humidity during one shift using a wet bulb. Globe Temperature Thermometer 70. Three 974. This measurement gives the most accurate sense of how the weather feels. Wet bulb globe temperatures of 82 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit might not sound so high, but they are dangerous. Experts say that at those levels, workers should take a cool down break every 30 minutes. Humidity can be particularly dangerous because it inhibits the evaporation of sweat from the skin, which is our bodies. Best way to cool down. I say what? The ice way too hot. Be like last year, about about this time of the year it was very hot. Like it's going to turn out to be the day I got very sick because the heat I had a heat stroke. I get this headache and I don't have migraines. I don't really get headaches, but I have. What if I were to guess would be a terrible migraine? I mean, it was awful. I couldn't couldn't wear my sunglasses. It hurt my eyes, couldn't take them off. The sun hurt me. I wasn't sweating at all, but I was starting to get cold. Chills. I started off the day with a full charge and by lunchtime my battery was on and I wasn't talking right. When computing was making any sense, I wound up going to the hospital and apparently and I didn't know that this could even be a thing. And I was now seen it since then with several other drivers. Unfortunately, your kidneys begin to shut. If not treated properly. Heat stress can lead to cramps, dizzy spells and fainting or even heat stroke. And long term heat exposure can lead to kidney failure. We learned from the skin patch readings that at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. when the skin temperature reached what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration considers the extreme caution zone. Within this range, people are more susceptible to sunstroke, muscle cramps and heat exhaustion. In the U.S., there's no federal OSHA standard for protecting workers from the heat. California. Oregon. Washington and Colorado do have laws around heat and labor, but in most states, it's up to individual employers. Some 50 million American workers are vulnerable because they work outside. Official records show about 40 worker deaths from the Heat each year, but the actual number is likely much higher. Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, says that heat is one of the three main causes of death and injury in the American workplace. The driver nearly collapsing while trying to do his job in late July. Texas Congressman Greg Casar led a protest at the U.S. Capitol calling for OSHA to adopt federal heat standards as soon as possible. We remember those. We've lost. We respect one another and we hope and demands much better. Two days later, President Biden announced the administration is committed to creating protections for outside workers. Number one weather related killer is heat. We should be protecting workers from hazardous conditions, and we will. And those states where they do not. I'm going to be calling them out. Some business owners are against federal regulations. But heat is increasingly at the center of labor issues in the U.S., including during this summer's tense negotiations between UPS and its drivers. UPS trucks are not currently air conditioned, but the company has agreed that new vehicles will have a seat beginning in 2024. But workers say they also need more brakes to help their bodies cope on hot days. I'm feeling tired. It's hot and it's I it's only Monday. I got four more days of this after today to go. It's not the hottest it's going to be this summer. At this point in the day. Our wet bulb globe temperature readings showed it was 88.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Once temperatures reach over 80 degrees with high humidity, it's already dangerous to work as the temperature climbs above 90 degrees in those same conditions, Experts say humans reach the limit of what they can tolerate without long, consistent breaks. And. Wendy told us he'd already heard about another colleague who'd had trouble with the heat that same day. He came in to work today, only to have a supervisor have to go out there and assist him getting done with their out today because he was suffering from the heat. Once you go through that, the heat stroke spell, your body is never the same when it comes to he hates hard on you. The summer of 2023 has set new heat records for the planet and raised alarm bells around general human safety and scientists say there is every expectation that next year will be even hotter. It's been very difficult for me. 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