Water Worldsworlds

Institute of Advanced Insights Study WaterWater WorldsWorlds Ian Wright Volume 3 2010 Number 21 ISSN 1756-2074 Institute of Advanced Study Insights About Insights Insights captures the ideas and work-in-progress of the Fellows of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University. Up to twenty distinguished and ‘fast-track’ Fellows reside at the IAS in any academic year. They are world-class scholars who come to Durham to participate in a variety of events around a core inter-disciplinary theme, which changes from year to year. Each theme inspires a new series of Insights, and these are listed in the inside back cover of each issue. These short papers take the form of thought experiments, summaries of research findings, theoretical statements, original reviews, and occasionally more fully worked treatises. Every fellow who visits the IAS is asked to write for this series. The Directors of the IAS – Ash Amin, Colin Bain, Michael O’Neill and Tony Wilkinson – also invite submissions from others involved in the themes, events and activities of the IAS. Insights is edited for the IAS by Michael O’Neill. About the Institute of Advanced Study The Institute of Advanced Study, launched in October 2006 to commemorate Durham University’s 175th Anniversary, is a flagship project reaffirming the value of ideas and the public role of universities. The Institute aims to cultivate new thinking on ideas that might change the world, through unconstrained dialogue between the disciplines as well as interaction between scholars, intellectuals and public figures of world standing from a variety of backgrounds and countries. The Durham IAS is one of only a handful of comparable institutions in the world that incorporates the Sciences, Social Sciences, the Arts and the Humanities. The focal point of the IAS is a programme of work associated with, but not exclusive to, an annual research theme. At the core of this work lies a prestigious Fellowship programme. This programme gathers together scholars, intellectuals and public figures of world standing or world-promise to address topics of major academic or public interest. Their mission is to anticipate the new and re-interpret the old, communicating across and working between disciplinary boundaries. Every year, the Institute invites as many as twenty highly creative individuals to spend up to three months in Durham. They are located in Cosin’s Hall, a magnificent and spacious 18th century mansion which, together with Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, forms part of Palace Green, dominating the World Heritage Site of Durham Peninsula. During their stay, Fellows engage with departments and colleges, deliver public lectures and seminars, and, above all, join an international community of researchers to address the theme selected for that year. Further details of the IAS and its Fellowship programme can be found at www.durham.ac.uk/ias/fellows Copyright The design and contents of Insights are subject to copyright. Copyright and Reproduction Rights in all submitted contributions remain with the authors, as described in the Author’s Copyright Agreement. Copyright and Reproduction Rights of all other material remain with Insights. Except under the terms of Fair Dealing (UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), the user may not modify, copy, reproduce, retransmit or otherwise distribute the site and its contents (whether text, graphics or original research concepts), without express permission in writing from the Institute. Where the above content is directly or indirectly reproduced in an academic context under the terms of Fair Dealing, this must be acknowledged with the appropriate bibliographical citation. The opinions stated in the Insights papers are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, or the staff and students thereof. Institute of Advanced Study Insights WATER WORLDS The surface that keeps your feet on the ground is a universally understood phenomenon, albeit one that has many different characteristics depending upon circumstances (it may be concrete, marble, shag-pile, sand, rock, soil, wood, etc.). Water is also what might be thought of as ‘universal,’ but in this case the name describes a substance; in essence it is a relatively simple chemical compound. This substance, unlike practically any other, is entirely familiar to everyone on the planet. Some have too much whilst others have an unfamiliarity that results in expiration. In this sense water is a universal currency. In fact it is universal in the true sense of the word, being spread throughout the Solar System and (way) beyond. In this essay1 I propose that the relationship we have with water provides an obvious starting point for a process of education whereby inhabitants of the world confront issues of planetary-scale ecological and environmental balance. For most, the plasticity of brain and mind is probably now too sluggish to allow this to happen. I believe instead that the process necessarily has to start with those members of society that are blessed with the blankest of slates, namely youngsters. The hope is that, when they reach adulthood and assume the reins of power, they have an innate understanding of how Mother Nature operates and fully comprehend that this is decoupled from those other humanocentric notions of religion, politics, culture, economics, etc. The power and reach of the Internet is surely key. But I argue that the use of asynchronous, social media tools is not enough. And neither is a worldwide web piled high with relevant (or irrelevant) facts. I suggest that the educational experience itself needs to be globally connected in such a way that involves real-time effort and event-driven activities. But most importantly, it needs to involve a shared understanding of other peoples’ environments and aspirations. Water, Water Everywhere (and Nowhere) 49b2fec-0f7e-bd5f-5bcc-7090d27ae0fb – this is the so-called UUID2 of water. You can 3have as much of this water as you want. And if in some way you feel you are about to run out, it is relatively easy to get more. But this is only virtual water,3 of which more later. So, what is non-virtual (= real) water? To a chemist using the systematic naming convention of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) it is oxidane, a compound covered by Materials Safety Data Sheets (it is a chemical, after all) and assigned so-called CAS numbers like 7732-18-5 and 7789-20-0.4 To a technologist investigating how to power the next generation of motorised vehicles, water is a fuel capable of performing the same function as petrol does in the internal combustion engine.5 To a gardener, water is what you must add to recently potted seeds in order to effect germination. And members of the public services routinely use water in the war against fire. Notwithstanding an individual’s profession, anyone is likely to reach for a bottle of Evian6 after a long hard game of squash. That primeval relationship with water as a substance that quenches thirst and sustains life is a phenomenon that is understood by members of the human race (of almost all ages) wherever they are to be found on the planet. So, water provides us with an example of a chemical compound that is universally recognised and understood. As such it 2 Institute of Advanced Study Insights seems like an ideal material to use in the quest to educate on a global scale; and, in particular, as a vehicle for teaching about science, nature and environment. We know that we have water on Earth.7 Conventional wisdom states that ‘about 1,460 teratonnes of water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds and precipitation.’8 To put 1,460 teratonnes into perspective it is worth noting that the global mass of the ‘water of humanity’ amounts to 0.0003 teratonnes.9 And when we come to thinking about water beyond Earth, it looks like it is everywhere. We know that there were times in the past when water flowed on Mars (Carr, 1995). Indeed, there is definitely water there now, in the form of ice, and probably even as the liquid.10 A number of the satellites of the outer planets are rich in (water) ice11 and bodies like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are composed mainly of ice.12 Add to that the influence of the 100 billion comets that are present in the Solar System (all of which are examples of dirty snowballs)13 and water really does appear to be everywhere you look. Surely the Moon is a dry barren place?14 ‘A significant amount of frozen water has been found on the moon, the United States Space Agency said on Friday [13 November, 2009] heralding a giant leap forward in space exploration and boosting hopes of a permanent lunar base. “Preliminary data from a dramatic experiment on the Moon indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater,” NASA said in a statement. “Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and Principal Investigator for the 79-million-dollar LCROSS mission. The data was [sic] found after NASA sent two spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface last month to probe Earth’s nearest neighbor for water. “In the 20-30-meter (66- to 100-foot) crater we found maybe about a dozen, at least, two-gallon buckets of water. This is an initial result,” Colaprete told reporters.’15 Of course there are places nearby that probably do not contain much water.

Load more