Lea Schick is the editor and moderator of this debate forum. During the RETHINK exhibition she will facilitate the RETHINK Technology discussions here on her blog. We will very much encourage you to participate in the debate!

Water awareness technologies


“The terrestrial water-cycle needs to be transformed. It is not a magic stream. It is running dry. Your role in the water-cycle is the cause and the solution. […] Over the millennia humans have continued to develop technologies to make it easier to obtain this essential resource to our lives. None of these technologies give any indication of when our water use has exceeded the renewal of our supplies. Nor was this technology designed to share water resources with other ecosystems.” (Tse-Hui Teh)

Tse-Hui Teh gives us, in her article RE: URGENT – You in the Water-Cycle, a fascinating insight into the water-cycle, which we in the industrialized world most often take for given, but which we none the less are a main ingredient of. Because we are the only species that has managed to find ways to transport more water than we can carry, we have manipulated the water-cycle in a non-sustainable way, leading way to much fresh, drinkable water out into the salty ocean. This doesn’t only makes us run low on drinking water in some places of the world, but the water further more crosses all kind of borders on its way, transporting and washing away as well natural minerals and human pollution and shutters and destroys our fragile eco-system.

“Knowing our role individually and collectively in assembling water-cycles and ecosystems will compel the design of new material configurations, boundaries, social values and administrative systems.” (Tse-Hui Teh)

How can we design new technologies that make us more aware of our use of water in our everyday life – that divides the use of water equally between the worlds inhabitants and between humans and other organisms? How can we make technology that connects us with the entire water-cycle, and make us understand that water is not a magic stream but a limited resource.

Is it possible to make technologies, that make us chose when and how we use water, the same way as we each day chose clothes depending on the weather? And how will such technologies effect our social lives so we for example do our laundry in the evening or washes the car when it rains anyway?
 

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Contributions for RETHINK TECHNOLOGY

 

ABOUT RETHINK TECHNOLOGY

Experts estimate that in order to avoid catastrophic conditions, we must reduce our CO2 emissions by 90% within the next four decades. But the people of the developed world are reluctant to embrace austerity, and the people of the developing world desire for themselves the goods and lifestyles that developed countries enjoy. New technologies and design solutions are our only hope of bridging the divide between the human desire for luxury and the ever-sharper threat our changing climate promises us. New inventions and technological implementations have an essential role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as improving living conditions for the millions if not billions of people who will be negatively affected by climate change. Some argue that we are on the edge of a new industrial revolution, marked by renewable energy and green technologies. But unlike the first industrial revolution, this second, green revolution will be ineffective unless these technologies are made accessible to both developed and developing states, many of which will be among the nations most profoundly affected by climate change.

What can be done to make this vital, green technology accessible to all the people of the world? How can the challenge of serving local and at times unique situations and needs around the globe be met? How can we design and invent our way to a more sustainable lifestyle in the limited time that we have left? How can technologies make it possible for us to change the way we consume without reducing our standards of living? And can artists and designers contribute in the development of new creative solutions?

We here encourage you to read and discuss if and how new renewable technologies, green design solutions, techno-geological fixes, awareness technologies, and so on will possibly influence our lives in the future and perhaps help us to both mitigate and reverse the course of climate change as well as adapt to the inevitable changes we are already beginning to experience.

 

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Discuss the RETHINK TECHNOLOGY contributions on the blog to the left.