Christiana Z. Peppard, a professor of Theology and Science at Fordham University offers a lesson in valuing water in the video below. I had the chance to meet Dr. Peppard in Syracuse a couple of years ago and I look forward to seeing more of her work on water and values.
I particularly like that this short video doesn’t sugarcoat the deep requirements of rethinking both our individual relations to water and the larger systemic issues.
the anthropo.scene 
Reblogged this on antilandscaper.
This is an important issue. Unfortunately, as is so common among ivory tower academics, Peppard oversimplifies this with stereotypes, meaningless jargon (such as, “water justice”) and collectivist “thinking”. Most water problems are caused by government and politicians who either fail to create and enforce a sound system of property rights or distribute water rights to rent-seeking cronies (friends of government). If Peppard would realize that too much government is the problem she would be at the starting point for finding solutions.
The problem is not too much government but government controlled by the economic ‘apex’ group, the 1%, who have no intention of giving up the reins of power to those who might endanger in any way their wealth and status. Bloated government, or anorexic, makes not difference. We, the ‘consulted’ , are all ears and no voice. In other words, whatever the governance system, we are not a part of it. However, we must be mollified. Mollification of the masses is what it’s all about. And ‘by gum’, it seems to be working!
Mike and Clark, thanks for your comments. Jeremy, thanks for posting!
Mike, you’re right: I literally work in an ivory tower. It’s a large, ivory-colored building smack in the middle of Manhattan, and my office is on the 9th floor. You’re also right that the video addresses an enormous, complex topic. TED-Ed is a great mechanism by which to give introductions to important topics, but the genre makes in-depth reporting difficult (<4 minutes, intended for high school and beyond). As those of us in ivory towers know, there are different levels of teaching and different ways to communicate complex ideas in short amounts of time.