An Embarrassment of Riches
Cleveland is home this week to two major conferences: The kick-off session for the latest Brookings Institution report on Leveraging Great Lakes Assets for Global Freshwater Leadership [first under “upcoming”] which is both being co-sponsored by and held at the Great Lakes Science Center. The other is the Economic Development Administration’s regional conference, Beyond Innovation: Comprehensive Strategies for Transforming Our Regional Economies.
That both these conferences are taking place here in our citiy at the same time is no accident, and many of us will be running back and forth between sessions of each. Postings over the next few days may be light, but I promise a full update on the highlights from each conference–along with thoughts on what each can mean for our region–in the weeks that follow.
Robert Sawyer, Regional head of the EDA’s Midwest office, requently refers to a drought map of the US as an indicator that the population of cities like Cleveland will grow again in the coming decades as water shortages elsewhere grow more critical.
Both as an economic development issue and as a technology and policy issue, our lakes (which make up more than 20% of the world’s surface freshwater and nearly 90% of the freshwater in the US) and their surrounding watersheds are playing an increasingly important role in the direction our economy will take in the future. Will we squander this precious resource as has happened elsewhere? Will we continue to abuse and pollute it, making it unusable? Or will we find ways to use and maintain our freshwater supply in a sustainble fashion that also allows and even fosters the growth of new businesses and industries?
Only time–an our actions–will tell. For the moment we have an embarrassment of riches–it’s up to us to ensure it does not become a fute embarrassment and example of our failure to understand and respect the critical role water plays in developing and maintaining healthy lives and healthy economies.