The greatest disruption to the planet in the wake of warming will be to its water cycle. Worse and longer droughts will happen as well as sudden, heavier and more destructive rainfall and flooding. At the same time, there are struggles over the ownership and control of the systems needed to make safe drinking water available to people, as well as who, and what, takes priority in gaining access to stressed water supplies. But around the world people are coming together to guarantee and improve access and rights to water.
Story of change
Turning the tide of water privatization – the rise of the new municipal movementPeople around the world are reclaiming their access to water as a basic human right, by seizing control of their water supplies from private companies. This matters because one of the biggest...
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Book
Hope Tales III: WaterHere is our third collaborative “chapbook” – a small but beautiful publication made for sharing, dipping into, perhaps reading aloud. This volume...
Story of change
Giving rivers rights: a rapid solution to pollution?In March 2023, councillors in the picturesque town of Lewes in the south east of England successfully passed a motion that recognises the legal rights of...
Story of change
London’s ‘Great Stink’ of 1858: how a rapid policy response stopped the stenchIn 2022 raw human waste was pumped into the United Kingdom’s rivers and seas 825 times per day on average. Modern Britain has a big, steaming sewage...
Commentary
Rapid transition to beat the heatCan we respond to extreme heat to protect human health and shore up infrastructure in such a way that actually accelerates a rapid, low carbon transition to...
Story of change
The first flush of transition: the rise of British indoor plumbing and what it tells us about rapid transitionA little over 100 years ago, most households in the UK did not have access to an indoor bathroom fitted with a toilet, bath, or even running water. The rise...
Story of change
Nature and local democracy – how a River Parliament shows what community control can doIt is often said that democracy is too slow to win urgent ecological progress. But when communities in Rajasthan, India, formed a special parliament to...
Story of change
S**t matters – how the Covid-19 crisis reveals both progress and the challenge of universal sanitationNever has a resource crisis been brought so swiftly to the attention of the global North than when toilet paper was suddenly in short supply and even...
Story of change
Working with stakeholders essential to Gurugram’s water supplyWater is life, but also the source of conflict and strife in many places. In the Indian state of Haryana, the Gurgaon Water Forum was initiated only in...
Story of change
Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolutionThe Transition Network began in 2006 in the small rural UK town of Totnes, Devon. It was initially a response to the twin threats of climate change and peak...