What is the biggest challenge we face on water in 2016 and beyond?
In preparation for our May 4th Business Forum on Water, OEC Water Program Director Samantha Murray got a chance to sit down and talk to national expert Robert Glennon about our evolving relationship with water in a changing climate.
SM: How do you think our relationship with water will change in the coming decades?
RG: We will have to confront scarcity. At the moment, we Americans are spoiled. When we turn on the taps, out comes a plentiful supply of water for less than we pay for cable television or cell phone service.
SM: What is the biggest challenge we face on water in 2016 and beyond?
RG: We have a proud and virtually unmatched tradition in the United States of providing everyone with water and sewage treatment. What happened in Flint was a betrayal of the public trust by every level of government. Flint is about lead, to be sure, but more broadly, it’s about the failure to maintain our water and wastewater infrastructure. I strongly believe we need to find the resources to continue the proud tradition. If people lose confidence in the public water supply, they will opt out of the system.
SM: What are the top three things we can do to prepare for these challenges?
RG: Data collection: you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Halting the tragedy of the commons: in many parts of the country, groundwater remains virtually unregulated. Pricing water sensibly.
SM: What role should businesses play in this effort?
RG: Food and beverage companies have long understood that water is their most important ingredient. Recently, I think the broader business community has begun to realize that water supply and water treatment affects their bottom lines. The Carbon Disclosure Project recently surveyed Global 500 companies. Two-thirds of them responded that they are suffering water shortages in either their direct operations or their supply chains.
“What about China?” is a common refrain when Oregonians talk about tackling climate change. “If not them, why us?”
It’s time for the question to change. The United States and China–the world’s top two emitters of climate pollution–are taking the reigns on a unique opportunity to lead on climate.
Last November, the US and China made a joint announcement on climate change targets. This set the stage for President Obama to submit US targets in in
Our state is facing a budget shortfall of nearly $1.8 billion for the next two years. This immense financial challenge calls for all of us to pitch in on finding a solution.
At Oregon Environmental Council we realize balancing all our state’s needs is difficult. But we also know there’s hope this legislative session. We know we can make a difference by finding solutions for healthy transportation options; clean energy jobs; clean engines for clean air; p
Listening, learning and taking action. It’s what we’re witnessing right now across Oregon, and it’s the strategy we’ve embraced since 1968. Oregon Environmental Council holds at its very core a simple idea: if we come together to find common ground, we will succeed in protecting what we love.
Please join us in this spirit of unity. As part of our Grassroots
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Oregon Environmental Council works directly
OEC and our supporters tracked a number of ballot measures in the spring and summer of 2016. Here are the original descriptions, each with an update as of July 2016:
In May:
Fix Our Streets Portland
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Thanks to the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition bill, Oregon will transition off of coal-fired power completely by 2030. Clean renewable energy,
I personally we think we people absolutely do not have the right to be arrogant or nonchalant when it comes to our water supplies. Water pollution is a real problem and as far and unaffected we might be as of the moment, there will come a time when scarcity will hit even the most privileged of us at the rate we’re going. We all have to step up and help in even the little ways we can to alleviate the growing problem of water pollution.
Inah Villanueva
March 2, 2017 (4:36 am)
I personally we think we people absolutely do not have the right to be arrogant or nonchalant when it comes to our water supplies. Water pollution is a real problem and as far and unaffected we might be as of the moment, there will come a time when scarcity will hit even the most privileged of us at the rate we’re going. We all have to step up and help in even the little ways we can to alleviate the growing problem of water pollution.