Unseen Causes in Danger to Water, Untapped Resources for the Protection of Water

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This paper was created by commission to be presented at the:The Fifth Global Forum on Human Settlements

Water and Human Settlements in the 21st Century

November 8 9, 2009,

Wuxi, China

Unseen Causes in Danger to Water, Untapped Resourcesfor the

Protection of WaterNovember, 2009

I am humbled by the invitation to speak in Wuxi on ourpressing topic at hand.

Many may think, Ah Wuxi, a perfect place for such aconference, because China is a place with severe waterresource shortage, and the Chinese government attachessuch high attention to the water environmental improvement,that it has made sustainable development a basic state

policy.

But I say that Wuxi is perfect for a different reason.

I say so because China is the homeland of the Old Boy, therevered and beloved world saint Lao Tzu. Here are hisobservations:

The supreme good is like water,which nourishes all things without trying to.It is content with the low places that people disdain.Thus it is like the Tao.


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And

The ancient Masters were profound and subtle...Fluid as melting ice...Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to waittill your mud settles and the water is clear?Can you remain unmovingtill the right action arises by itself?

I call attention to the teachings of Lao Tzu, for I feel that fromamong all saints and seers, perhaps Lao Tzu above all others

most fully intuited the eternal and the divine in water.

Importantly in the wisdom of Lao Tzu is that in his few andfleeting words he captures both sides of the truth of water,the nature of the water without, and its mirror in the waterwithin. The great German, Romantic philosopher Novalissaid, Our bodies are molded rivers.

Al Gore in Earth in the Balance said the same thing (butplease do not tell Mr. Gore that Lao Tzu already knew it 2700years ago, Mr. Gore thinks he discovered it), He said:

Human beings are made up mostly of water, in roughlythe same percentage as water is to the surface of theearth. Our tissues and membranes, our brains andhearts, our sweat and tears--all reflect the same recipefor life, in which efficient use is made of thoseingredients available on the surface of the earth.

What I would like us to do in the few moments I have topresent my thoughts is open ourselves and seek for starting


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points in the magic and the divine in our quest for a healthyand happy world, and a cure for the global water crisis.

I believe the frame of mind and the way of being that can

guide our path toward good outcomes and the rescue of ourplanet lies in the secret voice in water itself. Loren Eiseley,the great natural science writer and recipient of 36 honorarydegrees said, If there is magic on this planet, it is containedin water. (Loran Eisley, The Immense Journey, 1957)

But perhaps the one voice that captures most perfectly what Iwant for us today is that of D.H. Lawrence, from his 1929poetry collection Pansies (a play on the French wordPensees). He says, Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts,oxygen one, but there is also a third thing that makes water,and nobody knows what that is. (D.H. Lawrence, Pansies,1929)

I would like us today to ponder, remember, and honor that

third thing, for if we do, and when we do, we lose ourindifference, we could no more hurt water than a loved one,and we could no more ignore the thirst, the deaths, and thesuffering of the billion, and the little ones, than we couldignore falling into the grip of thirst ourselves.

Yes the water problem is a problem for science. Yes it is aproblem for policy makers, city planners, and valiant warriorsfor the rights of the oppressed. But it's deepest face of horrorlies within myself, it lies in whatever I have become thatallows to walk peacefully through my life while 3 millionwater related deaths a year take the lives children under 14.It is this frightening indifference that is somehow possible inthe likes of you and me that must be a part of the global


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water crisis conversation.

Wherein lies my blindness, my dullness? What is missing inmy life, that allows my sense to be so dull? What am I not

seeing, not feeling? For I am only one step away from thefactory polluting CEO. I lie to myself if I think otherwise.

We who are here, aware, alert, and invested in rescuing ourplanet, our brothers and sisters, and the little ones can onlybe thankful for the unknown and unseen that brings us heretogether with shared passion and devotion to so grand andpressing a cause.

The secret to saving water is contained in water itself. It criesout to us water to water. The dew drop and the rapids trywith beauty and power to speak to its own self within us. Itknows already the path to its rescue. Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC -c. 275 BC) says, The sound of water says what I think.It is us. We are it. It lives, we live. It dies, we die. The holyQu'ran says, By means of water, we give life to everything.(Qu'ran, 21:30).


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I already have indicated the secrets in water that reveal to usthe way to its rescue. The first of these is recognized by Lao

Tzu when he points out:

The best of man is like water,Which benefits all things, and does not contend withthem,It is content with the low places that people disdain.Thus it is like the Tao.

It is humility, the contentedness with low places, and the

interior nature to live for the benefit of others that is requiredat this time to reverse the horrible trends that threaten ourfragile environment. The spread of these virtues bode therescue of water.

Environmental science is vital, it is needed, but the best of itcannot contend with a disordered race whose inner nature

wars with our very aqua vita within. It is not the lack ofenvironmental science that has defiled earth's magic, it is anavarice against which Lao Tzu quietly and gently warned, alack of contentedness with the low places, the lack of anatural impulse to live for the benefit of others and notcontend with them.

The second secret to which I've already alluded is from the

great thinker and poet D.H. Lawrence Water is H2O,hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a thirdthing that makes water, and nobody knows what that is.When I read that and pause to release the voice of water inme, I think of a couple in love, I think of my own wife and me.A marriage is H2O one part me, and one part the woman Ilove, but there is a third thing that made us a couple, and


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nobody knows what that is.

The mystery, beauty, and life giving power of water is thesecret of love. Of how two become one to give life.

Humility, contentedness with the low places animated byliving for the benefit of all, and the bond of love, care, andrespect for the other are the secrets of water that canawaken us to turn back from our careless, violent, andpolluting era.

I am 71% water, and so are you. Maybe we have a chance.

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Unseen Causes in Danger to Water, Untapped Resources for the Protection of Water