The coincidence may not be such a coincidence, but this interview takes place one day before one of the most virulent DANAs in the history of Spain unloaded in Valencia. After asking him about the climate situation in Europe, Jeremy Rifkin He leans back on his office seat and pauses on the other side of the screen, from his native United States: «The floodsdroughts, heat waves, forest fires… the entire infrastructure has collapsed. And the entire worldview we have has collapsed with it,” he says. For centuries, we have believed that we lived on a terrestrial planet, when, in reality, we live on a water planet. “We have to rebuild society, the way we organize ourselves economically, what our values are and what our culture should be,” he says.
«Aqua Planet» (Paidós, 2024) reaches bookstores to warn us that “we have misjudged the true nature of our existence and to what we owe our source of life.” For centuries, we have believed that we lived on a terrestrial planet, when, in reality, we live on a water planet. This has made us think that we could control all the waters of the planet for our benefit. Now, the hydrosphere warns us that we must adapt to it instead of trying to break it. In the book, he proposes a profound change: seeing water as a source of life instead of a simple resource.
Although he confesses that most of the time he “does not feel listened to” by businessmen or politicians, the truth is that Rifkin has been the architect of many of the policies that make up the European Union. Since the 1970s, the American thinker has been pointing out the need to reimagine the future to achieve a sustainable model of life. In the 2000s he landed in the European Commission and Parliament. Since then, he has advised different leaders such as Ursula von der Leyen.
With his booksThe Third Industrial Revolution» (Paidós, 2011) and the «Global Green New Deal» (Paidós, 2019), Rifkin lays the foundations for the European Green Deal and the American Green New Deal. Now, he proposes opening the way to a «Blue Agreement». Along these lines, he suggests that the next step in human history is to rename our planet as Planet Aqua and promote a Blue Economy that complements the Green Economy.
—What is the central vision of Planeta Aqua?
—We have forgotten, but in 1972, the famous photo of “Earth” taken by the Apollo 17 mission showed a blue planet, not a green one. This change of perspective is key to understanding the environmental crisis we are experiencing. In all likelihood we are going to lose around 50% of all the species that live on Earth in the next eight decades. The last time we had an extinction of that magnitude was 65 million years ago. We have about 11 years to completely transform civilization and learn to live differently on this planet.
—How did we get to this crisis?
—It all dates back to 6,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia, when civilizations began to treat water as a utilitarian resource instead of a source of life. He continued with the creation of channels; began what I call “urban hydraulic civilization” that reached its peak in the 20th century, with megaprojects such as the Hoover Dam or the Three Gorges. Today, these infrastructures are on the verge of collapse, and the water cycle, altered by climate change, has become unpredictable.
—How does climate change affect the hydrosphere?
—The Earth’s hydrosphere is leading us to a mass extinction while it seeks a new balance. Hence the winters with historic snowfalls, the hurricane-force autumns with extreme flooding or the devastating summer droughts, which wreak havoc on ecosystems, infrastructure and society. As temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, for every additional degree, the atmosphere absorbs 7% more water from rivers, seas and soils. This creates extreme events: torrential rains, deluges and heat waves that devastate ecosystems and cause enormous human and economic losses.
—How can we reconfigure our relationship with water?
—We must see water as a vital force, not as a resource. For millennia, we have altered rivers and watersheds to expand our cities and populations, but now we are paying the price. The hydrosphere is becoming “rewilded” beyond our control, requiring a completely new vision of water infrastructure and management. This means that the infrastructures created to manipulate water must be rethought. Europe, in particular, is the continent that is warming the fastest, and is at high climate risk.
—What role do Europe and Spain play in this situation?
—Europe, and Spain in particular, faces accelerated warming and extreme climate phenomena such as droughts, forest fires, floods and floods. The European Environment Agency warns of an unprecedented climate crisis in the next 20 years. Spain could become a desert climate by 2050, but it also has the opportunity to lead a “blue economy”, which complements the European Green Deal.
—What do you propose?
—We need a conceptual revolution. Instead of seeing water as a resource, we must consider it a source of life. This involves transforming our infrastructures towards decentralized systems, such as rooftop water harvesting, depaving, green infrastructure to allow water infiltration into aquifers, and distributed water networks that withstand droughts and heat waves. Furthermore, we must embrace bioregional governance as an alternative to nation states for managing ecosystems. There are already examples. Eight US states and two Canadian provinces share the Great Lakes in bioregional governance. And do you know how much water is there? 20% of all surface fresh water on the planet. China has eight bioregions. Europe has one: France and Spain have the only bioregion. It’s Occitania, the Pyrenees, the Balearic Islands… You are the only ones.
—How is this related to the third industrial revolution?
—This third industrial revolution is digital, decentralized and sustainable. Today, millions of people generate their own solar and wind energy. Likewise, we will soon see water microgrids that allow communities to collect, store and manage water without relying on massive hydroelectric systems. Decentralization is key to reducing our dependence on centralized infrastructures, owned by companies that are not assured of their place in the future 40 years from now (that is why Meta or Google are no longer in Silicon Valley, they are all over the world because the resources are global).
—What will the relationship between humanity and water be like in the future?
—We need a paradigm shift. By recognizing that we live on a water planet and treating water as a source of life, we can reduce the effects of this crisis and develop a “Blue Deal” that complements the Green Deal. Spain and Europe, already facing the effects of the water crisis, have the opportunity to lead this change. While writing the book the European Union began to contemplate a blue deal. They’re starting to say “hey, we need a blue deal because the water isn’t there when we need it.”
We must rethink how we use and share water; develop infrastructure that adapts to climate change rather than trying to dominate it. We are part of a whole. Everything is connected. That’s where we have to go if we want to keep our little experiment in the universe going. Because, no matter how much we look for water in other places, for now, we only have it here, on our planet and in our body.