2004 Conference Report

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2004 Conference Report
by Edward "Chip" Ordman

Star 2004: Earth's Waters in Crisis: a Scientific, Spiritual, and Moral Challenge

Water is wondrous, scientifically and spiritually, and is essential to life on our blue planet. Water inspires the human imagination in religion and the arts. It is a major source of ritual and symbol in religious traditions. Yet today the world's waters are in crisis, due to population, pollution, climate change and a multitude of competing local, regional and global demands.

Urgent problems of water supply, water pollution, global warming and related issues were addressed in scientific, biblical, and philosophical terms at IRAS's 2004 Star Island conference, organized by conference co-chairs Jeanie Graustein, George Fisher (an interview with whom follows this article) and Sol Katz.

Sol, Director of the Krogman Center for Childhood Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading expert on the anthropology of food, introduced the scope of the problem: "By 2025, when another 2.6 billion people will be living on Earth, potable water supplies will be in a much worse condition than they are now. There will be serious shortages for about two-thirds of these new people and overall water demands will exceed available supplies by 56% using today's standards of use."

Water imagery occurs early and importantly in virtually all major religions, and often in language that lets us find common symbolism and understand common needs. Frederick Denny, Professor of Islamic Studies and the History of Religions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, noted that the word Arabic word "shari'a," which has come to denote the totality of Islamic law, is derived from the ancient Arabic word for "source" in the sense of "water hole" or "drinking place." He illustrated Islamic thought concerning water by discussing water management issues in the current Islamic world.

V.V. Raman conducted the morning chapel services, devoting a day each to the various major religions with a stress on water imagery in each. The chance to hear appropriate songs or hymns in different languages - he recruited performers from the conference ranks when he could and brought tapes in addition - was a special treat for those of us with eclectic musical or linguistic interests. Many of the evening chapel speakers pursued similar themes, embedding references to the role of water in their own faith or in their own life stories. I particularly enjoy these and other personal elements of the IRAS meetings at Star - the fact that personal histories, experiences and beliefs can be called into play to cast light on the serious scientific and religious discussions in a way that is missing at so many more conventional conferences.

Barbara Rossing, Associate Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, was one of several speakers addressing biblical perspectives. She paid especial attention to apocalyptic visions, arguing that the vision of the Book of Revelation is not one of world destruction but of world renewal. "Revelation 21-22 with its view of the River of Life and world-healing tree is a down-to-earth ecological vision that we urgently need today." She then turned to more practical issues, discussing the process that led to the Roman Catholic Bishops' Statement on the Columbia River Watershed as an example of how we can embrace an ecological reading of the biblical water of life imagery for the world's watersheds, aquifers and communities today.

David Haberman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a specialist in the religions of India, spoke about pollution of the Yamuna River in India (the major branch of the Ganges) and how this connects with the surrounding religious culture. He quoted influential local residents as speaking of the river with the words "I realized that Mother is sick" and the resulting efforts, based on the local religious culture, to clean up the river. David also discussed the process by which religious impulses can be mobilized to produce practical results in the economic and political spheres, joining the other speakers to show that this is not just a Western phenomenon.

Scientific background on the role of water and current research on global warming was given by such authorities as Owen Gingerich, Research Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science at Harvard (water's chemical characteristics, described in the context of the cosmic formation of the elements); Ursula Goodenough, Professor of Biology at Washington University (the role of water in cell processes); and co-chair George Fisher, Professor of Geology and Director of the Center for Global Studies in Culture, Power and History at Johns Hopkins University (water and the Earth's climate).

George provided excellent scientific background but also movingly appealed to religious motivations and images. "Our addiction to super-sized SUV's is affecting the world climate system...the trouble with addictions is that they're just so darn addictive. We need a spiritual transformation." We also need an economic transformation. In the face of a cusp in the world petroleum supply-demand balance, rapidly increasing oil prices could easily be forecast - one forecast at the meeting that was proven accurate within a month after the meeting! The United States, if it wishes to maintain either world economic leadership or its present standard of living, needs to devote considerable research effort to how we are going to save and replace petroleum and natural gas in our economy.

(I can't resist adding that if we could be leaders, as George urged, in inventing and engineering ways of making fuel-efficient vehicles, that would be far more beneficial to our economy in the intermediate or long term than devising new legal arrangements that encourage increased pollution and larger gas-guzzling vehicles.)

Holmes Ralston III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University and winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize for Religion, addressed philosophical issues. Economic issues were taken up by Bonnie Colby, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Arizona. These proved to be less separable than one might have expected. Holmes: "We need to use water ecosystemically, thinking in terms of the hydrology of the watershed, of the flourishing of the bioregion." A major issue here is the treatment of water as a commodity. Agricultural land is being purchased in many areas of the American west not for use in agriculture but so that the water rights can be transferred elsewhere. Even in water-rich New Hampshire, towns are considering proposals to sell large quantities of local groundwater (under long-term contracts) for use as bottled water overseas. How can or should long-term decisions about water be made? Holmes's talk intersected Bonnie's here, for me. What is the natural unit (of government or society) to make such decisions? A large or small unit? One coinciding geographically with a surface watershed or an underground aquifer?

I cannot but help noting, not quite facetiously, that if we pollute our water sufficiently that tap water in the United States is no longer potable and we are all forced to purchase bottled water to drink, our gross national product will become considerably more gross. Who will profit?

Public health issues were raised by Les Roberts, a winner of the Schnitker Award for Outstanding Contribution to International Health who has worked, among other places, as an epidemiologist for the World Health Organization in the civil war in Rwanda. He pointed out that providing water in adequate quantity to allow simple washing may have more effect on an active cholera epidemic than immunization, and that simply carrying water in covered containers rather than open buckets can have a significant impact. In discussing the magnitude of the problem, Les pointed out that, "The World Health Organization's "Water and Sanitation Decade" during the 1980's involved a multibillion dollar effort to provide safe water and adequate excreta disposal to everyone on the planet by 1990. Not only did the efforts fall short, but in 1990 the number of people without basic water and sanitation services was greater than it had been in 1980." Les argued that major development agencies often suggest high-tech or highly visible solutions where smaller or simpler ones may be more effective; discussion participants felt that church groups and other nongovernmental organizations might be effective in education and project promotion in this area.

Several talks, especially by Sol and George but also others, looked at "big picture" issues such as global water and carbon cycles and were extremely helpful in letting those of us without an area-specific technical background understand some of the large water and heat cycle issues that must become more known if civic and religious leaders are to intelligently assess current problems. I'll give an example that impressed me, which will be oversimplified due to my limited understanding. How can seemingly slight global warming possibly cause dramatic local changes or increased extremes? Well, the Gulf Stream carries warm salt water, which sits atop the colder water below, toward northwestern Europe, warming it and, through evaporation, increasing humidity in the air. As Owen explained, salt water becomes fresh when it freezes (because of water's crystalline chemical structure, which forces out impurities as water solidifies). If the atmosphere warms slightly (due, e.g., to increased carbon dioxide production by large SUVs in the USA and increased industrialization in China) and somewhat more of the polar ice cap melts, a resulting increased flow of cold fresh water south into the North Atlantic might form an insulating surface layer over the saline Gulf Stream, significantly reducing the warmth and humidity delivered to northwest Europe. Such a reduction could cause Europe to become much colder and affect rainfall there and elsewhere.

As usual, there were a great many activities beyond the formal lectures. There were far more detailed tours than in many years of the island's water systems, especially the wastewater system, which is extremely unusual due to its small volume, seasonal operation and heavy dependence on ocean (salt) water, which significantly affects the biochemistry of the system's operation.

A series of workshops discussed possible action plans. For example, Timothy Kautza, Science and Environmental Specialist of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, discussed how local groups might have an impact, using as examples the responses to industrial-quantity hog farming in rural communities and pesticide safety education programs among migrant farm workers in the Diocese of Yakima, Washington. I also cannot resist mentioning the impact of co-chair Jeanie Graustein, both on the conference as a whole and in providing other resource material - e.g., her essay on "The CenterEdge Parish Education Project (Development, Equity and Watershed Protection in Connecticut)" in Catholic Rural Life (Spring 2003). There were numerous other workshops and discussions, but space fails.

The children's programs continues to be among the best I have seen at any comparable organization or meeting. The daily Star Beacon was excellent as usual and was supplemented by many other contributions ranging from Issue 1 of Water for Life (155 pages of documents compiled by Sol) to lists of water-related hymns and songs for use back home to suggested actions to take individually to conserve water.

While a great many suggestions were made as to "how to conserve water," that is an area where group and public policy decisions are going to be needed. Many people agreed that it is important to act individually as well as collectively, both as a motivational matter and to put us in a moral position to argue for public policies we support, but household use in not the major way water is consumed. The apartment dweller can somewhat reduce use (experiment: do you use more water in a bath or a shower?), but in many single-family homes lawn watering consumes more water than all indoor uses. Going to low-water gardening or efficient (low evaporation) watering is helpful. Yes, learn to distinguish consumptive from nonconsumptive uses (does the water go back into the river or aquifer in a form that can be used downstream?) and polluting from nonpolluting uses. Even then, however, the issues can be difficult: should our watersheds allow large quantities of water to be used for snow making on the other side of the mountain, where what flows back will flow into a different watershed? We hope that the discussion of the issues will continue actively in our IRAS newsletters and email lists and in our civic, religious and scientific organizations.

As always, it was an exciting meeting - scientifically, religiously and personally. If you didn't get there this year, plan to come next time!

| HOME | ACTIVITIES | CONFERENCE | PUBLICATIONS | AFFILIATIONS | ORIGINS | MEMBERSHIP | LINKS | GALLERY |

Copyright © 2004 The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, Inc.

	*Working for a dynamic and positive relationship between religion and science since 1954.* \| HOME \| ACTIVITIES \| CONFERENCE \| PUBLICATIONS \| AFFILIATIONS \| ORIGINS \| MEMBERSHIP \| LINKS \| GALLERY \|
	2004 Conference Report by Edward "Chip" Ordman
	Star 2004: Earth's Waters in Crisis: a Scientific, Spiritual, and Moral Challenge Water is wondrous, scientifically and spiritually, and is essential to life on our blue planet. Water inspires the human imagination in religion and the arts. It is a major source of ritual and symbol in religious traditions. Yet today the world's waters are in crisis, due to population, pollution, climate change and a multitude of competing local, regional and global demands. Urgent problems of water supply, water pollution, global warming and related issues were addressed in scientific, biblical, and philosophical terms at IRAS's 2004 Star Island conference, organized by conference co-chairs Jeanie Graustein, George Fisher (an interview with whom follows this article) and Sol Katz. Sol, Director of the Krogman Center for Childhood Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading expert on the anthropology of food, introduced the scope of the problem: "By 2025, when another 2.6 billion people will be living on Earth, potable water supplies will be in a much worse condition than they are now. There will be serious shortages for about two-thirds of these new people and overall water demands will exceed available supplies by 56% using today's standards of use." Water imagery occurs early and importantly in virtually all major religions, and often in language that lets us find common symbolism and understand common needs. Frederick Denny, Professor of Islamic Studies and the History of Religions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, noted that the word Arabic word "shari'a," which has come to denote the totality of Islamic law, is derived from the ancient Arabic word for "source" in the sense of "water hole" or "drinking place." He illustrated Islamic thought concerning water by discussing water management issues in the current Islamic world. V.V. Raman conducted the morning chapel services, devoting a day each to the various major religions with a stress on water imagery in each. The chance to hear appropriate songs or hymns in different languages - he recruited performers from the conference ranks when he could and brought tapes in addition - was a special treat for those of us with eclectic musical or linguistic interests. Many of the evening chapel speakers pursued similar themes, embedding references to the role of water in their own faith or in their own life stories. I particularly enjoy these and other personal elements of the IRAS meetings at Star - the fact that personal histories, experiences and beliefs can be called into play to cast light on the serious scientific and religious discussions in a way that is missing at so many more conventional conferences. Barbara Rossing, Associate Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, was one of several speakers addressing biblical perspectives. She paid especial attention to apocalyptic visions, arguing that the vision of the Book of Revelation is not one of world destruction but of world renewal. "Revelation 21-22 with its view of the River of Life and world-healing tree is a down-to-earth ecological vision that we urgently need today." She then turned to more practical issues, discussing the process that led to the Roman Catholic Bishops' Statement on the Columbia River Watershed as an example of how we can embrace an ecological reading of the biblical water of life imagery for the world's watersheds, aquifers and communities today. David Haberman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a specialist in the religions of India, spoke about pollution of the Yamuna River in India (the major branch of the Ganges) and how this connects with the surrounding religious culture. He quoted influential local residents as speaking of the river with the words "I realized that Mother is sick" and the resulting efforts, based on the local religious culture, to clean up the river. David also discussed the process by which religious impulses can be mobilized to produce practical results in the economic and political spheres, joining the other speakers to show that this is not just a Western phenomenon. Scientific background on the role of water and current research on global warming was given by such authorities as Owen Gingerich, Research Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science at Harvard (water's chemical characteristics, described in the context of the cosmic formation of the elements); Ursula Goodenough, Professor of Biology at Washington University (the role of water in cell processes); and co-chair George Fisher, Professor of Geology and Director of the Center for Global Studies in Culture, Power and History at Johns Hopkins University (water and the Earth's climate). George provided excellent scientific background but also movingly appealed to religious motivations and images. "Our addiction to super-sized SUV's is affecting the world climate system...the trouble with addictions is that they're just so darn addictive. We need a spiritual transformation." We also need an economic transformation. In the face of a cusp in the world petroleum supply-demand balance, rapidly increasing oil prices could easily be forecast - one forecast at the meeting that was proven accurate within a month after the meeting! The United States, if it wishes to maintain either world economic leadership or its present standard of living, needs to devote considerable research effort to how we are going to save and replace petroleum and natural gas in our economy. (I can't resist adding that if we could be leaders, as George urged, in inventing and engineering ways of making fuel-efficient vehicles, that would be far more beneficial to our economy in the intermediate or long term than devising new legal arrangements that encourage increased pollution and larger gas-guzzling vehicles.) Holmes Ralston III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University and winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize for Religion, addressed philosophical issues. Economic issues were taken up by Bonnie Colby, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Arizona. These proved to be less separable than one might have expected. Holmes: "We need to use water ecosystemically, thinking in terms of the hydrology of the watershed, of the flourishing of the bioregion." A major issue here is the treatment of water as a commodity. Agricultural land is being purchased in many areas of the American west not for use in agriculture but so that the water rights can be transferred elsewhere. Even in water-rich New Hampshire, towns are considering proposals to sell large quantities of local groundwater (under long-term contracts) for use as bottled water overseas. How can or should long-term decisions about water be made? Holmes's talk intersected Bonnie's here, for me. What is the natural unit (of government or society) to make such decisions? A large or small unit? One coinciding geographically with a surface watershed or an underground aquifer? I cannot but help noting, not quite facetiously, that if we pollute our water sufficiently that tap water in the United States is no longer potable and we are all forced to purchase bottled water to drink, our gross national product will become considerably more gross. Who will profit? Public health issues were raised by Les Roberts, a winner of the Schnitker Award for Outstanding Contribution to International Health who has worked, among other places, as an epidemiologist for the World Health Organization in the civil war in Rwanda. He pointed out that providing water in adequate quantity to allow simple washing may have more effect on an active cholera epidemic than immunization, and that simply carrying water in covered containers rather than open buckets can have a significant impact. In discussing the magnitude of the problem, Les pointed out that, "The World Health Organization's "Water and Sanitation Decade" during the 1980's involved a multibillion dollar effort to provide safe water and adequate excreta disposal to everyone on the planet by 1990. Not only did the efforts fall short, but in 1990 the number of people without basic water and sanitation services was greater than it had been in 1980." Les argued that major development agencies often suggest high-tech or highly visible solutions where smaller or simpler ones may be more effective; discussion participants felt that church groups and other nongovernmental organizations might be effective in education and project promotion in this area. Several talks, especially by Sol and George but also others, looked at "big picture" issues such as global water and carbon cycles and were extremely helpful in letting those of us without an area-specific technical background understand some of the large water and heat cycle issues that must become more known if civic and religious leaders are to intelligently assess current problems. I'll give an example that impressed me, which will be oversimplified due to my limited understanding. How can seemingly slight global warming possibly cause dramatic local changes or increased extremes? Well, the Gulf Stream carries warm salt water, which sits atop the colder water below, toward northwestern Europe, warming it and, through evaporation, increasing humidity in the air. As Owen explained, salt water becomes fresh when it freezes (because of water's crystalline chemical structure, which forces out impurities as water solidifies). If the atmosphere warms slightly (due, e.g., to increased carbon dioxide production by large SUVs in the USA and increased industrialization in China) and somewhat more of the polar ice cap melts, a resulting increased flow of cold fresh water south into the North Atlantic might form an insulating surface layer over the saline Gulf Stream, significantly reducing the warmth and humidity delivered to northwest Europe. Such a reduction could cause Europe to become much colder and affect rainfall there and elsewhere. As usual, there were a great many activities beyond the formal lectures. There were far more detailed tours than in many years of the island's water systems, especially the wastewater system, which is extremely unusual due to its small volume, seasonal operation and heavy dependence on ocean (salt) water, which significantly affects the biochemistry of the system's operation. A series of workshops discussed possible action plans. For example, Timothy Kautza, Science and Environmental Specialist of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, discussed how local groups might have an impact, using as examples the responses to industrial-quantity hog farming in rural communities and pesticide safety education programs among migrant farm workers in the Diocese of Yakima, Washington. I also cannot resist mentioning the impact of co-chair Jeanie Graustein, both on the conference as a whole and in providing other resource material - e.g., her essay on "The CenterEdge Parish Education Project (Development, Equity and Watershed Protection in Connecticut)" in Catholic Rural Life (Spring 2003). There were numerous other workshops and discussions, but space fails. The children's programs continues to be among the best I have seen at any comparable organization or meeting. The daily Star Beacon was excellent as usual and was supplemented by many other contributions ranging from Issue 1 of Water for Life (155 pages of documents compiled by Sol) to lists of water-related hymns and songs for use back home to suggested actions to take individually to conserve water. While a great many suggestions were made as to "how to conserve water," that is an area where group and public policy decisions are going to be needed. Many people agreed that it is important to act individually as well as collectively, both as a motivational matter and to put us in a moral position to argue for public policies we support, but household use in not the major way water is consumed. The apartment dweller can somewhat reduce use (experiment: do you use more water in a bath or a shower?), but in many single-family homes lawn watering consumes more water than all indoor uses. Going to low-water gardening or efficient (low evaporation) watering is helpful. Yes, learn to distinguish consumptive from nonconsumptive uses (does the water go back into the river or aquifer in a form that can be used downstream?) and polluting from nonpolluting uses. Even then, however, the issues can be difficult: should our watersheds allow large quantities of water to be used for snow making on the other side of the mountain, where what flows back will flow into a different watershed? We hope that the discussion of the issues will continue actively in our IRAS newsletters and email lists and in our civic, religious and scientific organizations. As always, it was an exciting meeting - scientifically, religiously and personally. If you didn't get there this year, plan to come next time!

	\| HOME \| ACTIVITIES \| CONFERENCE \| PUBLICATIONS \| AFFILIATIONS \| ORIGINS \| MEMBERSHIP \| LINKS \| GALLERY \| Copyright © 2004 The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, Inc.