A Sustainable World: Imperative, Improbable, or Both?

Introduction

A common dream we all have is flying. Mankind has always envied and dreamed of the flight of birds, the ability to move freely within the atmosphere and consider multiple points of view at will. However, we realise early on that we are rather confined at the very bottom of it, the feet firmly placed on the lithosphere, forgetting our intimate relationship with the air that envelops us constantly, which we breathe 12 to 20 times per minute. We do not appreciate an atmosphere essentially formed of invisible gases whose thickness we can only assess with great difficulty. We focus instead on the reassuring blue colour diffused by high-altitude gases and the clouds that pass overhead. Precisely, the rain, the wind and the sun provide a rhythm to our activities and mark our deep connection with an atmosphere which can sometimes be gentle or brutal.

The atmosphere has an amazing capacity for renewal, as the air remains rarely in place, offering an effective and economical mechanism to eliminate gases and fine particles that we no longer need or burden us. However, from the rate of rejection by the atmosphere, humans live with modified local climatic norms, which even affect our health and social functioning. This chapter focuses on the challenges facing humanity. It asks whether there is a need to rethink our approaches towards the environment beginning with water usage, as well as questioning our established and accustomed ideological approaches (Yigit, 2024a).

The vertical dimension of the atmosphere reflects the balance between two opposing phenomena: gravitational attraction of the earth attracting the molecules of the gases towards its centre and the natural expansion of gases. This means atmospheric density decreases with altitude to become infinitesimal beyond 100 km. The mountaineers who tackle the summits of the lithosphere, including the excess of eight thousand metres for Everest and K2, are well aware of this. In fact, with an elevation of only 3 km, a person with little training gasps for breath.

Therefore, there is no need to wait for the full effects of climate change to see the emergence of a water crisis. This is already occurring in several locations. One can assert that it has affected humans for quite some time already. For example, if one takes the case of two culturally very different countries that are considering the path of rivers on their territory to diminish regional disparities, India and Spain; the river-link plan project targets the unification of dozens of Himalayan rivers of India in an artificial system entirely controlled by and for humans, which could transport water from the Himalayas to an endpoint in the south of the country (Misra et al., 2007). Spain is considering a similar project concerning the water of the Ebro to bring water further to the south, where tourists and farmers compete for its resources (Albiac et al.,2006). Ideas of this kind abound, and several diversions have existed for decades, perhaps centuries.

The question becomes, how did we arrive there? Several factors contribute to this crisis. First, the human population has experienced meteoric progress over the last two or three centuries. There are now eight billion if there were a billion people at the time of Jeremy Bentham and the independence of the Thirteen American colonies. This exerts massive pressure without an increase in water resources as all these people are not just drinking but are consuming provisions of food, energy, and all kinds of goods, the production of which requires vast quantities of water.

During this period, which corresponds to the rise of industrial development and the urbanisation of populations, the representations of water in practices and institutions have gradually moved away from its natural dimension. We now act according to a paradigm that assumes that new water sources are still available, albeit further away, which we call the era of exploitation. Modern technologies lie at the heart of this new paradigm, creating the illusion of an inexhaustible resource (Yigit, 2024b). With the construction of dams, which are ever more imposing, and the manufacturing of machinery and ever more powerful pumps, no water resource today seems too far or too deep. Some cities draw their water more than 250 kilometres from their centre. Certain industries exploit a territory more than 300 meters below where farmers plough. These achievements are unthinkable with a bucket, spade or manual pump.