the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

BLUE has published, in each of th e last four years, an issue on an environmental theme. This year's was well in progress and was planned to cover a different subject, until Steve Reiss of the Global Water Trust called me just months ago, to call my attention-and direct this issue-to a real crisis. Sure, I was aware th ere was a global water shortage prior to his call, but like all too many of us, I was ignorant of the extent and severity of this planetary emergency. Steve asked me: Did I know that a child di es every 8 seconds of a preventable water- borne disease? That over 2 billion people on Earth lack bas ic san itation? That the use of nitrogen-based ferti li zer runoff into the Mississipp i Rive r has created, in th e Gulf of Mexico, a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey where no sea life exists? That th e average golf co urse in Thailand uses as much water as 60,000 rural vi llage famili es? Did I know that by the year 2025 two-thirds of the planet's population will not have potable drinking water, according to UN estimates? The more we spoke, the need became clear: This year BLUE would publish THE WATER ISSUE. In a few months we compiled the information and articles here-just the tip of the ice- berg, so to speak. Water is an environmental issue, a climate change issue, a poverty issue, an overpopula- t ion issue, a human rights issue, a global security issue, a existence-of-humankind-as-we-know-it issue. The c4eeper you get into water issues, the more mindbogglingly frighte ning they become. Perhaps the most compelling analogy is one in the words of Canadian envitonmentalist David Suzuki. He compares the precarious state of the planet to water lilies in a pond. The water lilies and the pond have a very harmonious relationship-so long as the flowers' numbers are controlled. If the water lili es' numbers increase to the point that they cover the surface of the pond, this deprives the pond of all its oxygen and the pond and all its life will suffocate and die. Water lilies , and environmental change Suzuki explains, increase exponentially. In other words, it's not two plus two, four plus four, or eight plus eight, but instead, two times two, four times four, sixteen times sixteen, etc. In the pond in question, on Day 1 if there is one water lily in it, on Day 60, the water lilies will suffocate the pond. What does the pond look like on Day 59? Well, it looks just fine, a beautiful pond half-filled with water lilies. As far as our planet is concerned, we may be on Day 59. AMY SCHRIER Amy@bluemagazine.com PS: As with each environmental issue , BLUE is all ocating a port ion of thi s iss ue's revenues to a nonprofit project- thi s year the Global Water Trust-to bring water inftastructure to rural villages in Tanzania and Ghana. Just a small way in which we can make all the hours on Day 59 co unt.

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