Water Policy and Climate Change, or Framing Water Policy in a Carbon Affected and Carbon Constrained Environment

In a new, remarkably readable article published in the special Fiftieth Anniversary edition of the Natural Resources Journal, law professors Robert H. Abrams and Noah D. Hall from Florida A&M University and Wayne State University, respectively, explore the world of water policy in a future affected by climate change.

After my cursory first read through this article I was struck by how accessible the authors’ writing on this daunting topic is, and by how many paragraphs caught my attention. The article, Framing Water Policy in a Carbon Affected and Carbon Constrained Environment (PDF) can be downloaded for free and is well worth checking out for a thorough contemplation of foreseeable changes in domestic water supply, water and water policy in the context of climate change. As the authors explain:

This article addresses the potentially immense stress recently thrust upon the nation’s water resources by massive changes affecting water supply and demand. The climate, driven by emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases (GHG), is changing in ways that substantially alter water availability in the United States. At the same time, fundamental changes in the domestic energy sector, aimed at reducing GHG emissions and increasing energy independence, will restructure water demand in relation to fuels and electric generation. The upheaval in the energy sector comes at the same time other vital water demands for population security, ecological security, and food security are also escalating. This article is meant to be informative more than prescriptive, offering broad approximations of what the changed water supply and demand patterns will look like in the next few decades. The article also examine several foreseeable water use conflicts and how they are likely to be resolved under the influence of economics, politics, and legal doctrines.

One of the paragraphs that caught my attention was the author’s articulate description of the fundamental necessity – and challenges – of providing water for ecological or environmental needs:

Water for ecological or environmental security is a category created as an acknowledgment of the fact that ecosystems cannot be sustained without water. Whether the measure is the canary in a coalmine approach of listing species under the Endangered Species Act, or prescribed minimum levels and flows, or a benefit-cost analysis that considers ecosystem services, ecosystem collapse brought on by overuse of water resources is no longer an acceptable outcome. Whether as a matter of stewardship or self-interested harvesting of the myriad water and non-water benefits that will otherwise be lost, water for the environment is as necessary as water for people. Water for ecosystem security is, almost by definition, only a problem when water has become so scarce that further drafts on the water source threaten to harm the underlying resource complex. This form of water security also has a push-pull relationship with population. Particularly in the contemporary era, the quality of the natural environment is one of the attractions that excite regional growth and, with that growth comes an increase in water demand for population security.

Download the full article: Framing Water Policy in a Carbon Affected and Carbon Constrained Environment (PDF)

Hat-tip to Aquadoc