The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens How Water Shapes Our Planet: The Undervalued Resource that Supports Everything We Do | Reality Roundtable 18
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Sep 3, 2025 Heather Cooley, Director of the Pacific Institute’s Water Program, Zach Weiss, founder of Elemental Ecosystems, and Mike Joy, Senior researcher at Victoria University, dive deep into the intricate relationship between water and our planet. They discuss the growing water crisis influenced by climate change and pollution, exploring innovative water management strategies. From the environmental costs of livestock farming to the importance of localized governance, the conversation sheds light on how understanding the water cycle could foster healthier ecosystems and communities.
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Water Cycle Restoration Restores Viability
- Water cycle restoration focuses on getting landscapes to absorb, store, and slowly release water for ecological health.
- Restored cycling supports more crops, recharges wells, and reverses forced migration from degraded lands.
Climate Change Amplifies Water Extremes
- Climate change intensifies the water cycle, producing wetter and drier regions and more extreme events.
- Rising temperatures shift snow to rain, melt snow earlier, and alter water timing for ecosystems and agriculture.
Land Use Disturbs The Water Cycle
- Human land-use changes have disturbed the water cycle, causing rapid runoff and higher flood peaks.
- These high peaks are followed by deep troughs, creating paired flood-and-drought problems.