Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Erica Gies

Increasingly frequent floods and droughts amplified by climate change inevitably spur calls for higher levees, bigger drains, and longer aqueducts. But this engineered infrastructure designed to control water – plus urban sprawl, industrial agriculture and forestry — are actually making water disasters worse. Now scientists, farmers, landscape architects, and urban planners are asking a revolutionary question: What does water want? Our development speeds water away, erasing wetlands, floodplains, and forests that absorb floods, store water for droughts, and grow food. Practitioners of the Slow Water movement — inspired by geology, microbes, beavers, older cultures, and cutting-edge science — are making space for water within our human habitats, collaborating with natural systems to forge a more resilient future. Erica Gies is an independent journalist, National Geographic Explorer, and the author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an age of drought and deluge, published in the U.S., U.K., and China. She covers water, climate change, plants and critters for Scientific American, The New York Times, bioGraphic, Nature, and other publications. Honors include the Sierra Club’s Rachel Carson Award, Friends of the River’s California River Award, the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism Award, and the Harvey Southam Lectureship at the University of Victoria.

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