Water and the End of the World

What if the future of our planet hinged on a single, often overlooked element? Join us as Dr. Mills, honorary professor at the University of Essex and author of "End of the World," reveals the pivotal role water will play in navigating apocalyptic scenarios such as climate emergencies, overpopulation, and geopolitical tensions. Drawing on real-world examples like the Ukraine-Russia conflict, where water has been weaponized, Dr. Mills paints a stark picture of the urgency with which we must address water scarcity and insecurity. This episode emphasizes that water is not just a basic necessity but also a linchpin in agriculture and industry, making its conservation matter of global survival.

Beyond the chilling prospects of societal collapse, Dr. Mills urges a deeper reflection on the global bystander effect and the pressing need for leadership and individual responsibility. With an eye toward fostering hope and unity, we discuss the importance of environmental stewardship, proactive activism, and communal action in safeguarding our future. This is a call to action, underscoring the critical role of character and community in combatting water shortages and ensuring a sustainable world. Don’t miss this thought-provoking conversation that challenges us all to be part of the solution.

#water #WaterForesight #strategicforesight #foresight #futures @Aqualaurus

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

Aqualaris. Dr Mills is honorary professor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. Also, dr Mills is on faculty in the postgraduate programs in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at the Gordon F Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University. Finally, dr Mills is the author of the recent book End of the World. Dr Mills, welcome to the Water Foresight Podcast.

Speaker 2 0:45

Well, thank you, Dr Klein. I'm grateful to be here.

Speaker 1 0:49

Well, you can call me Matt. I appreciate that. I want to talk today about some of your work which really fascinated me when I found it. And we haven't really discussed the future of water from the standpoint of maybe the end of the world or what's going to happen. Is water? A driver of that? Is water? How does water respond to that? When we talk as scenario planners in the world of strategic foresight, we often talk about different scenarios, and one of the scenarios is called a collapse scenario. Right, it's not always rainbows and unicorns that we're going to predict or talk about or anticipate in the future, and sometimes things can maybe go south. And what does that look like? And you seem to have a very keen interest in that particular aspect, and you've written a book called End of the World and I want you to tell us a little bit about that. What is your position on that? What are your thoughts? And then let's get into how does that connect to the future of water? Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 2:22

Yeah, it sure does. Well, thank you for that challenging question. Let's see. I think you know it used to be that the four horsemen of the apocalypse was famine, flood, fire and death, including war and plague, but I believe that's been now replaced by our climate emergency and the global dispoliation of our planet. In many ways, it's also due to the forecast of the rapid, of the rapid proliferation of our world population that is slated to be 10 billion by 2050, which, of course, is going to tax all of our natural resources, including water, food, land scarcity and an overall dearth or, if not, shrinkage of what we already have.

Speaker 2 3:11

And then you have the added irritant of the imminent feeling that there might be another global war, including some, you know, nuclear engagement. You know, like what we're seeing right now in the geopolitical tensions, whether it be the Russia-Ukraine, whether it be the Middle East, whether it be the looming Taiwan question, as well as North Korea and Iran. And you have the specter of terrorism that's driven by fundamental religious extremism. But then you have the techno-nihilism that's looming, with the threat of biogenetics, nanotechnology, generative AI and all the hubris and risk that goes with that. If any of these scenarios begin to tax our global system. Then let's add economic corruption and squandering and exploitation by corporate and industrial capitalism. Then you have the psychopathology in politics and in our national leaders. So all you need to add on to that scenario is the problem of human aggression, evil and our propensity for self-destruction propensity for self-destruction. So that's, in a nutshell, kind of an outline of the topics I cover in my new book and particularly how it affects our future foresight narratives.

Speaker 1 5:24

Yeah well, it's clearly an uplifting series of things to consider. But you're right, I think you bring a lot of those otherwise disparate topics together and how they may not just be individual challenges but when you consider them synergistically, what happens, what could happen, what does the future look like? I think you mentioned war, for example, and I've had a guest talk about the future of war and conflict in water. I think, if I'm correct, in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia there was an incident where I think it was the Russians blew up a dam and created a lot of flooding in Ukraine. We can talk about that later. But water can be deployed in many ways, in certain collapse scenarios, I think, and we can talk about that. But tell us a little bit more about your book and you rattle off quite a number of different particular issues that people are concerned about. But when you focus on the environment, when you focus on natural resources in the book, when you focus on natural resources in the book.

Speaker 2 6:53

how does water come to be relevant to the discussion of the end of the world? Well, you know, water is the to a basic necessity of life. It's going to affect everything. I mean, given that I guess my according to some statistics at least at least 1 billion people suffer from, you know, water shortage right now. And you know water shortage right now. And out of that, I think, most of the fresh water is used for irrigation, to grow food. I mean, we already see this happening all over the globe.

Speaker 2 7:38

Where there's you know, water insecurity, whether it be, I mean, like most of the Middle East and Western US, just burrows down to find, you know well, springs and aquifers and have to rely on technology and to grow basic food and have access.

Speaker 2 8:06

So what's going to happen if the world becomes hotter, like, for instance, yesterday I saw on the evening news that it was 53 degrees Celsius in India like in Delhi. Wow, I mean people were dropping like flies. If this is a future world scenario, we won't be able to go outside, we won't be able to work, or at least we'll have to change our habits to work in the evening and get out of the sun during the day. But you know like this has a runaway effect. If the future supplies, let's say, are so scarce or heavily exhausted due to the increased demand exhausted due to the increased demand whether it be for overpopulation or just the amount of animal and fish farms and agribusiness that would be used, which requires tons of water to make food then that's almost a doomsday scenario. We have to plan for now and water is needed for all of our consumer products.

Speaker 2 9:41

I mean textiles, plastics, you know, computer chips, I mean it's all integrated into you know how we are able to sustain our existence, and not simply humans, but our ecological, you know, and biodiversity systems. So it's a very troubling scenario that we should plan for if our climate emergency is not attended to.

Speaker 1 10:17

Yeah, so yeah, that's kind of my takeaway from your writings, yeah, so yeah, I think that water is woven throughout each one of these issues. You can talk about war independent of water, but you can see how water can be used as a vehicle or a strategy or a tactic within a war scenario. You can even see how certain conflicts can be fought over access to water or during a war. Let's not damage each other's water or wastewater systems, things like that. It also has implications, as you mentioned, for climate related issues. Are we over pumping our aquifers, like the Ogallala aquifer here in America, aquifers like the Ogallala aquifer here in America? How does that impact our ability to control flooding when there's a hurricane and stormwater, things like that?

Speaker 1 11:35

It seems to me that that you know through your work, you can make a pretty good argument that, uh, as we think about these scenarios, water is really, you know, whether it's it's active or even surreptitiously involved in many of these future scenarios, whether it's, you know, a climate issue or a war issue, or you name it. Um, I think, I think that's what I gather from from your writings. Am, am I fair? Am I right?

Global Bystander Effect and Water Crisis

Speaker 2 12:08

No, I think you've nailed it Well. First of all, it's kind of we just take it for granted that we drink water, I mean, and that is free. And then when you start to think about, oh my, if I didn't have access to water, I mean that would be even more of a priority than food. And if you get into worse, worse scenarios or or any type of civil disorder or civil unrest, or let alone, you know, social paralysis or collapse scenarios, I mean mean the first thing people need is that and you can literally see people, um, you know, dying of thirst and starvation if you just cut off the, the basic necessities of life yeah, well, you, well, you know one other thing that you mentioned, because I think it's a good, perhaps, transition to my next series of questions.

Speaker 1 13:15

You raise humanity, you raise individuals, you raise the issue of leadership, of people in leadership positions, and how I use the word character, how character matters when it comes to not just these scenarios that could be very unfortunate, but also, in particular, how individuals, leaders, interact with this idea of water, whether they're a legislator, whether they are running a utility, whether they are a homeowner and you know, irrigating their lawn to death during a massive drought. Right, and you walk outside and you see your neighbor just with pools of water all over their lawn when they're saying don't water your lawns during the drought. But character matters across the different levels of humanity, and I say that because you've really honed in on this idea of I think you call it global bystander effect and, if I'm correct, maybe you can sort of define that for us and how that's relevant to some of these scenarios that you have discussed.

Speaker 2 14:34

Well, yeah, in terms of my research, when I was looking at our climate crisis, the overpopulation question and the issue of basic commodities food, water, et cetera to you know, just to be able to live, I was kind of struck by the thought that, you know, this stuff's just staring us in the face and we don't talk about it. And when we do, like when I do, to people, either casually or even more formally, I would get this dismissal like everything from a rather crass denial to you know, like climate denialism or skepticism, at the very least, to people feeling that this was just, you know, bullshit that's made up by elites and academics and such to you know, conspiracy types of arguments that people are trying to control us, etc. And control the types of information that we get. And yet, as we have been watching for the last I would say, well, at least the last five years, it feels like maybe it's been more. It's been the hottest that it's ever been on record. Every year, we start to bake and roast all over the planet and roast all over the planet.

Speaker 2 16:22

And whether it be you know where I'm, here in Canada, we're getting incredible, you know wildfires, as well as the Pacific Northwest and the United States as well. So it's like these are things that are cut, are closer to home. Uh, like last summer, um, I I'm about I was about an hour away in my my, from my country, uh, home to where it was burning and we're we're driving through Montreal and it's it's like the the worst uh um air quality uh that's ever happened, like like Beijing or Philly. So the global bystander effect kind of hit me is that we're watching our planet slowly deteriorate, suffocate and may be headed for expiry, and it almost seems like, you know, we're just watching a crime happen and no one wants to lift a finger to intervene to help. So I borrowed the term bystander effect or bystander syndrome or bystander apathy from social psychology. That applies to when people see a crime happening and they don't want to get involved. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 18:03

Yeah, a crime happening and they don't want to get involved. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it seems like it's a fair analogy to um to ask why we have an abnegation of responsibility for um, you know, for you know, for, for our alma mater here are, you know, this is the thing that if we ruin or destroy our Earth, we're destroying ourselves. It's like we're committing suicide in addition to watching some entity, meaning our planet, being slowly strangled to death right in front of our eyes. So, you know, there's a lot of reasons for this. You know, obviously, people don't feel they can do very much as an individual, can do very much as an individual, if that's, even if they acknowledge that we are at a tipping point in terms of our carbon emissions. You have to get people on board to even have a this, you know, a serious discussion about it. Um, but if you, if you do get people to generally agree that, yeah, we're, you know we're, you know we're in trouble here, uh, but what can we do? Um, you know, just like in the bystander effect, people are hoping, other people are going to jump in and and they're going to take care of it, whether it be a parent, an authority figure, the police, the government, and we're hoping that that will occur.

Speaker 2 19:56

But there's all these other forces that are militating against having some unified effort, and so we're left with having to ask well, we're seeing this happen with our very eyes. Even though it might not happen to us in every aspect of our life, we do. Anyone who's educated enough to watch the news or be aware of what's happening in the world will see that it is a serious problem throughout the entire globe, in different concentrated pockets and in different manners. So, you know, are we in denial? Um, is this some kind of? Are people under some trance? That there's a an unconscious illusion of constancy? Um, you know, um, yeah, it's like, uh, we're not. Well, there's so many different reasons for what motivates people's. You know people's actions and thoughts and and attitudes, but this seems to be on a collective scale.

Speaker 1 21:14

Yeah, it's sort of I think you're saying and let me direct it to water that people may understand or hear about water that you know, gosh, somewhere there's a lack of water, we're going to run out of water, you know, like in South Africa or the other stories you see, and it's maybe over there, it's somebody else's problem and they hear about different issues related to water, but it doesn't seem to be in their backyard, even though it may be Right and it appears that maybe, in your words, people succumb to, consciously or unconsciously, this bystander effect where they just sort of well, we got people in the government that'll help us figure that out, or we've got these smart professors that'll do some research and help us figure it out. We got these companies over there. They're going to invent a new toilet or a new irrigation system that'll save us and provide the water we need. Is that kind of how you think people are thinking about water and the future of water in these scenarios?

Speaker 2 22:28

Well, I think generally people who are more optimistically inclined are going to have some blind faith, so to speak, in the future. So to speak in the future, maybe the fantasies are. You know, a good steward would come along, or a good mother or father will take care of things. But there's also all these other competing types of defenses that protect us from anxiety and from feelings of helplessness and despair, and we employ them in a variety of different ways, you know. One is that things just simply do not exist, meaning that there's no problem. You know the denial or the negation of a problem.

Speaker 2 23:24

Then you have folks who are aware of it. They'll, you know, they'll disavow it. They'll say yeah, yeah, yeah, but, and they'll find some reason or excuse and intellectualize it or rationalize it away. But you know, others are just like if you start to contemplate on how big this issue is, it's so hard to understand, let alone fix it, that people become cognitively overloaded and then they don't know how to process something that's so convoluted and they may dissociate these realities that they can't really amalgamate them cognitively. Or there's just too much information overload, or there's a Pollyannish kind of way oh yeah, well, others will take care of it, and then they don't want to think anything further about.

Speaker 2 24:31

You know how we ignore the need for you know future. You know preparations, because they're overly in how things are going to be, and it's not easy for social collectives to sit with these uncertainties and anxieties that others in authority, meaning leading scientific authorities, tell them you know, such as research and academic institutions, or you know people in private industry or policy analysts. You know economists, world government agencies and such. You know they're telling us these things. It's too much. And then you know we underestimate the unknown of the future.

Speaker 1 25:29

Yeah, unintended consequences.

Speaker 2 25:34

Yeah, so, and then the other thing is that people, you know people live for their own lives and to think about some major, you know, environmental justice issue when they, you know they're barely able to, you know like, make things meet in terms of, you know, work, finance and family obligations, cost of living and all these things that we're, you know their health care, all this stuff that we're feeling like we're in a pressure cooker. The last thing folks want to meditate on is the fate of the globe, on is the fate of the globe. So these psychological elements do compound certain anxious helplessness, but also this feeling that we're just in an impasse and we're paralyzed to really tackle this massive issue.

Awakening Action for Water Crisis

Speaker 1 26:51

So is there any hope? And if so, what? So where does this hope come from? If we think that and you do a pretty good job in your work, of sort of trying to wake people up a little bit and say, look, it's got to be you, it's got to be us there's nobody else out there, don't assume that somebody else is going to be addressing the future of water as it relates to these unfortunate future scenarios that you paint. You sort of try to wake people up and encourage them in your own way to take action. Do you think there's hope that people will respond in their own way to begin to address some of these future water challenges that are connected to some of these end you know, end of the world issues? And where do you think there's hope for that?

Speaker 2 27:49

Well, yes, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, conservation groups that make this. You know their, their life mission, and you know the social awareness and activism around that is, you know, crucial. So, you know, becoming good stewards of our environment and, you know, focused on conservation and environmental preservation and justice, and, you know, mitigation and rehabilitation. It's essential that we become conscious of this and I suppose it really is going to take groups of people, whether they, you know, consider themselves activists, that go, you know, out in the streets or just making sure that their politicians, where they live, are aware of their concerns, which often does motivate changes in policies and laws and regulations.

Speaker 2 29:09

But overall, I think it's going to be harder and harder for the world to stick its head in the sand when it can't walk outside without choking on, you know, fumes and flames or the heat, or, all of a sudden, you don't have access to a commodity that you took for granted.

Speaker 2 29:38

And if you do, the cost to have the basic necessities will just be so exorbitant that the masses will probably start to revolt, and the worst case scenario, of course, would be in having some type of as you put it at the very beginning some kind of collapse scenario, but it may take people to have civil disobedience, protests, uprisings, but usually with that comes violence, criminality, murder and all the you know the other destructive elements of human nature that you know militate against. You know having more peaceful and pragmatic solutions, but it doesn't mean that we should not be talking about this and pressing these issues into service, you know, entertained by those in charge of our societies as well as those funding them we may, you know, have a new ethic of responsibility to you know, to our people and our planet at each other when it comes to these future scenarios that aren't very favorable and the relationship with those scenarios to water.

Speaker 1 31:50

You have that cautious optimism and I think it comes down to, I hear you say, is the individuals, the character, and when you have people of character, people that share a common optimism, a sense of hope for the future, a sense of justice, that they come together, whether they're acting individually, as a group or even as an organization, to address these water scenarios, so that we don't see a future where we have a doomsday scenario where water is a driver of that, or water is certainly a result or an impact from certain scenarios, like a war scenario or things like that. Am I fair in my assessment?

Speaker 2 32:42

Yeah well, absolutely. Am I fair in my assessment? Yeah well, absolutely. In fact, I would maybe hope to have another level of realism to that is that people are going if we start to deteriorate. It's going to lead to a wake-up call, if it hasn't already happened, and when that happens, people will be forced to be cooperative with one another, just in order to have long-term sustainability. So it might unite people more in terms of a collective value system that's based upon a moral you know, preventative action and this is one. It's motivated you know it could be motivated by, you know, simply, self-preservation, but it's also an enlightened form of self-interest that can be working in tandem to achieve the same goals, because, you know, if we just let the planet deteriorate, we're not going to make it either.

Speaker 1 34:17

So we're all in the same boat together. Here, things are all rainbows and unicorns and we've got unlimited resource. Everything's wonderful, we're all getting along, and maybe they bring water into that. And I think you have uniquely looked at this from a collapse scenario, saying, wait a minute, everybody, I'm looking around and things aren't quite rosy as other people may make it out to believe. And we got to look at this collapse scenario and say, look at what is at risk, look at what could go wrong, and especially as it relates to water and how critical water is to humanity, and we can't simply, as you say, be global bystanders in this. We need to perhaps act to make sure that this scenario is avoided.

Speaker 1 35:09

Right, many scenarios that you and I might look at are hey, let's go get that scenario, that's a great scenario. How do we get there? How do we make that happen? What are the strategies? And I think you've kind of turned it upside down and said, oh my gosh, what strategies do we need to avoid that scenario, because things aren't looking too good. How do we avoid, what are the strategies? We need to avoid that scenario, especially as it relates to water, and I think you've helped us identify that we, you know A we can't be global bystanders, we have to act. I think you talk about people of character, people that have hope and that can move and take action to ensure that these scenarios that you've written about don't materialize and impact our collective future with water, one that I think is important to everyone on the planet. So that's maybe my gratuitous assessment of how you've kind of laid things out in your work, and you can feel free to disagree with me, but I think it's a unique way to look at the future of water.

Speaker 2 36:15

Well, thank you, I appreciate that compliment. I don't know if I really have any resolution here, though. To be honest, yeah.

Speaker 2 36:31

I think I'm just unable to resolve it, but I think drawing attention to the reality principle here is important. And one thing that I find rather comical is the utopian fantasies of the future. Whereas people are going to technologically find a loophole and engineer a way out of this, we're going to, um you know, colonize the gallery, the galaxies, and we're going to rebuild and start afresh and and all that escape fantasies don't really address. I mean, we can prevent this now. This is where the resources should be going into, not some, you know, illusory, fantasized sci-fi. Yeah.

Speaker 1 37:32

Well, you're right, you read articles by futurists and a lot of attention is to the utopian opportunity.

Speaker 1 37:43

You know a transformational scenario where everything is just wonderful and that's kind of like candy, right, I mean, it's fun to read and fun to dream.

Speaker 1 37:53

Sometimes that may not be the possible or probable futures that are out there in front of us, and I think, again, you really kind of grab us by the collar and give us a shake and say, hey, you're missing it. You know you're acting like a global bystander, you're not paying attention to some of these things and how it relates to the future of water, and I think, to me that's a very unique contribution to this world of water, contribution, um, to this world of of water. So, um, and I want to, I want to thank you, dr Mills, for joining us today on the Water Foresight Podcast. You've really, uh, through your scholarship, you've made me think about the future of water a little bit differently, and I would encourage other people to, um, take a look at your work and review it themselves. So, dr Mills, thank you again and tell us where folks can get a hold of you and maybe read some of your scholarship.

Speaker 2 38:54

Well, first of all, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. I'm grateful that you invited me on your show. Yes, well, my book is coming out here in a week. It's being published with Roman and Lentilfield and you can, you know, order it online. Amazon, all the major bookstores should have it, and if you want to get a 30% discount on it, you can get it for $25. You can go to my website and get a code. My website is philosophypsychoanalysiscom and that might save you a few pennies. I have all my books there and things. But anyway, I hope to stimulate some conversation among people.

Speaker 1 39:53

Well, thank you, Dr Mills, and I encourage people to take a look at your work, hopefully before the end of the world, right? You know, we need to make sure they get your book before that happens. So I'm teasing, but you've been a great guest. You've made me think. Hopefully this episode makes other people think about the future of water in a in a in a much different way. Thank you for listening to the Water Foresight Podcast powered by the Aqualaris Group. For more information, please visit us at Aqualariscom or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.