Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems: The Secrets of Plant Species Revealed
Abstract
Everyone agrees that water is a vital resource and a precious common good; no priority can take precedence over access to water. Water is often referred to as “blue gold.” Yet water insecurity is a crisis just as serious as that caused by climate change. Over the past hundred years, global water use has increased sixfold due to population pressure, economic development, and overconsumption of water. Increasingly scarce, this “blue gold” is also becoming increasingly polluted, and is thus at the heart of a disruption of aquatic ecosystems that have, for millennia, provided natural purification of water quality.
Developing new approaches to protect water resources, preserve aquatic ecosystems, prevent sources of pollution, and treat polluted water at the source by implementing innovative treatment processes that utilize sustainable technologies has become a priority. Are there natural, sustainable, eco-friendly, economically viable solutions designed for the long term? Recent eco-friendly solutions will be presented.
These solutions should not distract us from the fundamental point so well described by our guest today: water comes from nature, which is why “preserving the natural environment is necessarily the best way to preserve this resource” (E. Orsenna,*L’Avenir de l’eau*, Fayard, 2008).
This course will be followed by a seminar led by Erik Orsenna, a writer and member of the Académie française, on the topic of “Hydrodiplomacy.”