Whither Water in a Super-Hydraulic Civilization?
Historians have long spoken of the “hydraulic” civilizations — nations and empires with irrigation and intensive water management at their center. Egypt, much of ancient Mesopotamia, the Harappans of South Asia, the Chinese centers of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, Angkor Wat in southeast Asia. Islam brought a deep knowledge of water management and governance to the Iberian Peninsula in Europe in the early middle ages. More broadly, the “lake hydraulic” societies such as the Aztecs in Mexico or Tiwanaku on the shores of Lake Titicaca in South America showed a related kind of mastery. Many other examples exist in sub-Saharan Africa and numerous island nations. Organizing water became the template for building complex economies and cultures in the hydraulic societies. Organizing water meant organizing themselves.
What happened to these societies? Did they make a mistake by placing hydrology and hydraulics at their center?
In speaking to a group of students this week, it occurred to me that we might called the “carbon civilizations,” based on our energy systems. But I am not sure this is completely accurate. Norway and Peru receive most of their energy from hydropower. Iceland from geothermal systems. Biofuels and battery dams in Brazil. The North Sea is full of windmills, while solar is powerful in Morocco and Australia.
Indeed, we are now a global super-hydraulic civilization, the path of economic development widely characterized by the intensification of water resources for almost every sector. Even when fossil fuels remain critical, water is embedded in the steam turbines turning on our lights and driving our server farms. Take the carbon from our economies, while the watery form of our institutions and infrastructure remains.
This recognition makes the absence of water resilience from planning, policy, and governance even stranger and harder to explain. Even if we could take carbon out of the COP, we would still have a lot to discuss and decide.
John Matthews
Corvallis, Oregon, USA