November 2020 Newsletter Essay
Breaking with tradition, this essay comes from all of us in the AGWA secretariat: John, Alex, Ingrid, Kari, and Kathryn.
The United States is very likely to leave the 2015 Paris Agreement — perhaps as soon as 4 November. In a year with many terrible events, this decision by the current US administration is an unnecessary tragedy, which will negatively affect both US citizens and our brothers and sisters globally. Thankfully, the decision is both preventable and reversible, and we hope that the US either decides to not withdraw or later reconsiders and recommits to the Agreement’s global mandate. Too much is at stake.
November 4 is also the fourth anniversary of the first Water Day in the UNFCCC — an enormous event, co-chaired by the OECD and AGWA and organized by the government of Morocco, AGWA, and SIWI. That single event catalyzed and accelerated much policy and technical progress within and beyond the COP linking water and climate change.
Two stories seem relevant.
At this writing — on the first of November — an ancient holiday is celebrated in Mexico called Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This is a holiday for families and friends to remember, speak to, even visit in cemeteries with those we have lost. Many create altars at home with photos of those passed on and images and symbols of death, such as the famous “sugar skulls.” The holiday is celebrated with joyful grief. But this year, in Mexico and in probably every other country on the planet, we have lost too many more people. We have too much to remember. And in many cases, too many of those deaths were preventable.
In a meeting with a close AGWA partner last Friday, we also heard a story of a father with children suffering under the stresses and anxieties — the fears — of a future taken away from them before they have even experienced it. Climate change is at the cen-ter of these fears. Such anxieties are widespread, driven by images of fires and smoke, storms, and suffering peoples and wildlife, intensified with pandemic isolation. Demographers have even noted that in many countries young people are more cautious and afraid to have children. We need to pay attention to such signs: the children and young adults of today have no responsibility for the climate crisis, but we have guaranteed them a front row seat for the rest of their lives with the challenge of solving that crisis. On future Days of the Dead when they think back on us, will they see us as hav-ing struggled on their behalf? Will they remember us with joyful grief? Will they see us with gratitude?
Our decisions today will echo for many decades. The Paris Agreement is not perfect, but it’s what we have to build on — it is what we will make of it as individuals, institutions, and nations that really counts. As water professionals, we have a responsibility to see, assess, and act upon the emerging risks. Steady, bold, fervent, loving actions. Technical knowledge and capacity are also a moral responsibility. And we can work together to prevent the preventable. We have the ability to make the world a better place.
The AGWA Secretariat