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Smarter ways with water

People need to find better and more productive ways to become allies with water — which might mean giving it space for its processes.
  1. Erica Gies

    1. Erica Gies is a journalist based in San Francisco, California and the author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge (Univ. Chicago Press, 2022).

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In just a few months this year, abnormally low water levels in rivers led China to shut down factories, and floods inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing around 1,500 people and grinding the country to a halt. A dried-up Rhine River threatened to tip Germany’s economy into recession, because cargo ships could not carry standard loads. And the Las Vegas strip turned into a river and flooded casinos, chasing customers away. It seems that such water disasters pepper the news daily now.

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Nature 611, S12-S14 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03648-x

This article is part of Nature Outlook: The circular economy, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 25 November 2022: In an earlier version of this story, the first sentence erroneously claimed that low river levels in China led to floods in Pakistan. In fact, the two events were separate. And in the final paragraph, the phrasing about society’s fundamental goals has been clarified.

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