It is widely acknowledged that greenhouse gas emission-fuelled climate change is having a profound and negative impact on fresh water systems around the world. Warmer weather causes more rapid evaporation of lakes and rivers, reduced snow and ice cover on open water systems, and melting glaciers. What is less understood is that our collective abuse and displacement of fresh water is also a serious cause of climate change and global warming. If we are to successfully address climate change, it is time to include an analysis of how our abuse of water is an additional factor in the creation of global warming as well as solutions that protect water and watersheds.
Activists at the World Social Forum visit the fields in which the pro-land reform and pro-sustainable agriculture Landless Workers Movement works. Credit: Andy Lin.
The Our Water Commons network recently published a report summarizing 21 commons-based water strategies from around the globe. At this moment as the economic, climate and water resource threats loom large, it is critical that we learn from and build on successful community-based strategies.
Case Study 1: The Push for a UN Covenant on the Right to Water
Case Study 7: The Acequia System of Irrigation and Water Management
See all case studies
