Reasons for hope and climate optimism – Dr Peter Gleick on the three ages of water

We were delighted to welcome Dr Peter Gleick, a leading scientist, innovator and communicator on water and climate issues.

He founded the Pacific Institute in 1987 to be one of the most innovative, independent non-governmental research centres to advance solutions for the world’s most pressing water challenges.

For the podcast we wanted to speak with him about his latest book entitled, The Three Ages of Water. The book covers Earth and humanity’s intricate relationship with water. From the prehistoric past where the cradles of civilisation were born around water, through to the current age and ‘imperilled present’, as Gleick calls it, where we learned to engineer water to our benefit, but also with unexpected consequences. And finally, the third age and hope for the future.

Now Dr Gleick rightly deserves to be on the legends series – as well as being a MacArthur Fellow, he’s also an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

As you’ll hear, he remains optimistic that we have the solutions to hand and with the right decisions, we can solve water.

The Three Ages of Water: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Ages-Water-Prehistoric-Imperiled/dp/1541702271

The Water Conflict Chronology: https://pacinst.org/water-conflict-chronology/

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.

Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.

And our charity partner, Frank Water.

And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.