How Water Makes Us Happy
The key to happiness, according to a New York Times article today, is not having more THINGS, but having interesting EXPERIENCES. The couple featured in the article gave up most of their possessions to live more simply, at least by American standards. They sold their two cars, live in a small apartment, and use the money they save to have time for friends, family, travel, and volunteer work. They're happier, they say, because they have richer experiences with people and human relationships.
Maybe the same thing is true of water in our lives. When we try to own and control it, through dams, levees, or private water rights, we expend a lot of resources to acquire and keep what we have. Choosing a simpler, "go-with-the-flow" water strategy would mean experiencing natural riparian cycles of flood and drought, and adapting to them by, for example, building our cities outside the floodplain (remember New Orleans?). Not all experiences are desirable, of course, but some variety makes life interesting. Water management that is ruled by "command and control" thinking tries to iron out the wrinkles of our water experience, so we don't have to experience the droughts and floods. Maybe we're missing something with that approach. Maybe the happiest strategy is to avoid extremes (long droughts or big floods) but find ways to accommodate to normal fluctuations. We would avoid building a lot of infrastructure, and have more time to enjoy the meandering river and listening to the chirping of birds nesting in the trees.
This is not (just) romantic wishing. There is an increasing interest in the so-called "real world" about nature's own infrastructure and how we can happily take advantage of it. A recent IUCN report explores the concept of environment as infrastructure, and for an overview of "ecosystem-based water management" principles, click here.
Experiencing the happiness of water vapor, Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 7, 2010
This is not (just) romantic wishing. There is an increasing interest in the so-called "real world" about nature's own infrastructure and how we can happily take advantage of it. A recent IUCN report explores the concept of environment as infrastructure, and for an overview of "ecosystem-based water management" principles, click here.
Experiencing the happiness of water vapor, Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 7, 2010
Posted by Dave Groenfeldt at 8 Aug 2010, 1:06 PM 
Categories: Water Values, Water Ethics
Tags: Materialism environment as infrastructure Water Values ecosystem-based water management Water Ethics Happiness
Categories: Water Values, Water Ethics
Tags: Materialism environment as infrastructure Water Values ecosystem-based water management Water Ethics Happiness
Water is life.
We are mostly water.
Water is life.
Beautiful rainbow!
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