What´s up with water: Pouring water into your corporate strategy (XV) When Water kills.
Have a lovely weekend. Let´s begin by sharing our sustenance slides, that will help us to understand when we proceed with our strategic analysis and inferences. Be aware, as usual, that our narrative is always concentrated on offering thoughtful strategic reflections about the subject. So let´s begin.
The problem with data about the water cycle. Sometimes Eleonora Escalante Strategy doesn´t trust all the data that support the charts from other sources, particularly when is about the water cycle, not because we don’t rely on the organizations that have been working on them (including United Nations organizations), but because many of our data has been calculated under premises that might need to be updated nowadays, or simply because it was not reviewed accurately, and it could be biased. When it comes to natural disasters (which is a public ode), sometimes governments in the past have inflated or squashed data or mistakenly gathered the information. And the majority of the data that flows from developing economies is coming from government authorities. Nevertheless, we delicately try to proceed by filtering with our tweezers. And, we are very cautious when it comes to water. So, even with the review of water data collectors by the United Nations or other serious entities (such as EM-DATm CRED or OFDA), we always assume a bit or some doubt factor. Particularly with water, I am convinced and 100% sure that many of our data or current projections could be worst or maybe better because the data available is not totally veracious or it is miscalculated at the source of its gathering. However, we believe that the margin error could be between +/-10% to +/- 40%, and that is why big machine data doesn´t work. If your information is wrong, it is impossible to predict with technologies accordingly.
Water kills too. Water-related disasters can be categorized into two main origins. Those related to the inherent qualities of the water which we have already shared before (microbial, chemical, radioactive, and acceptability). And the second root of water disasters is related to the dynamic flows of water that affect the land, oceans, the sky, and our survival living and economic activities. The first group of water disasters is poisoning us, so water is also killing us from inside our bodies when we ingest it. That is why we need to treat water previously or before consumption. Be sure, that even the microplastics from your water bottle could spoil your adorable H2O. But, for the purpose of this chapter, we will stick to the second origin of water disasters. Please look at slide number 3.
According to the Asian Development Bank (1), water-related disasters can be primary or secondary. In the first group, the primary water disasters are floods, droughts, and extreme storms (here we include hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones). The secondary level of water disasters are landslides, subsidence, wildfires, and saltwater intrusion.
Inflows – outflows – losses. Strategically, anything that is naturally caused, in terms of water-cycle events, is something that human beings can´t control. In our quest to understand the causes of these water-related disasters, our ancestors explained it through God and the ultra supernatural divine. Nowadays, in our quest to find solutions to the water-cycle manifestations, some scientists have gone too far. Sometimes using technologies and processes that we shouldn´t even dare to touch because we are affecting the cycle of God´s water processes for our planet. When we alter the water cycle on purpose, we are also modifying the water cycle and other planetary cycles, expanding the consequences, which are translated into future water disaster hazards for humanity.
Basically, the circularity of the water cycle shows us the progression of inflows, outflows, and losses in the process between ins and outs. When water evaporates into the clouds, then later it precipitates into the land and oceans, flowing through the freshwater inland resources like rivers, basins, riverines, wetlands, lakes, streams, deltas, etc. The filtering down into the groundwater reservoirs occurs. Some of this water is lost through rocks and deep percolation and it never returns to the oceans immediately. When the water reaches the oceans, these deep flow paths may take a travel time with a range from decades to millennia. The rest of the surface run-off water or superficial inland water systems flow to the oceans, with all our pollution. Of course, pure water is lost in this cycle, because in one year the inflows of water from precipitation are not equal to the outflows that discharge to the ocean. The travel time of water is different, depending on the groundwater movement. Also, recognize that humans use water, keep it and transform it into wastewater. When humans affect this natural cycle, we are changing the natural paradigm of inflows-outflows-losses. And the impact is still not known, but we see the effects constantly nowadays, particularly in places such as California or different locations in Asia. All we can say is that our human civilization is experiencing water disasters constantly, repeatedly, and the cause could be more and more our responsibility. See slide number 4.
Water can destroy our societies so unexpectedly. Water inflow to earth is astonishingly unforeseen. Some years we have tranquil precipitation (in the form of rain or snow), and others we don´t. For example, our tropical zones are covered by the Pacific Ocean. “El Niño and La Niña reflect the two end points of an oscillation in the Pacific Ocean. The cycle is not fully understood, but the times series illustrates that the cycle swings back and forth every certain year. Often, the development of El Niño events is linked to the trade winds. El Niño occurs when the trade winds are weaker than normal, and La Niña occurs when they are stronger than normal.”(2). In addition, we have seen now that humans are affecting additionally than ever the water cycle. Remember that we already covered, in our past episodes, how the concentration of urban and industrial development is affecting the water cycle with pollution and depletion.
Fixing the terms of analysis. We have tried to offer you a broad overview of water-related disasters in less than two pages. We simply want to acknowledge that the majority of natural disasters which have been segmented into three groups: climatological, hydrological, and meteorological are linked in between because of the water cycle. So, this is the first fix that we need to do in how to approach water disasters. Water connects all the vulnerabilities that humans are living (natural disasters and beyond). The second revision and restoration in relation to our strategy toward natural disasters are that climate change, depletion, and pollution are all interconnected. And humans are causing the three of them, which means that human activities on land and oceans are affecting and influencing natural disasters in terms of the frequency, degree of impact, and economic losses. The third review/restoration in relation to our analysis for further consideration is: Any type of water-related disaster is linked not only to the water cycle but also to other major planetary cycles such as the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, climate cycle, and maybe other geological/biological, solar system energy related cycles. My adorable readers, we need to be aware that everything is interconnected, and that is why we have a lot of work to do. Otherwise, we are only watching one piece of the whole puzzle.
The causes of water disasters are shifting from natural to human provoked. Can we believe that our pollution and depletion of water sources are causing the natural water-related disasters on earth? Our answer is: that it could be. Since data is so inaccurate, because we have seen each disaster separately from another, we are a bit lost in understanding the real causes of water disasters. Probably the impact of losing human lives is less in our present (slide 8). But the issue is that climate change is singing us that these water natural disasters are now much more powerful than before and are affecting our economic systems, leaving us alive, but in total poverty.
Our next subject: Climate Change and Water.
Strategic Music Section:
Why did we choose Sarah Chang? We selected Sarah Chang because she is an interesting history of a little kid born in the USA to immigrants from South Korea. Currently, Sarah plays with the 1717 Guarneri del Gesu violin which she inherited from Isaac Stern. She is the daughter of Myoung-Jun (her mother), a composer; and Min-Soo Chang (her father), who was a violinist and music teacher. Chang’s parents moved to the United States from South Korea in 1979 because of her father’s advanced music degree at Temple University. Her mother took composition classes at the University of Pennsylvania. Read about her life at http://sarahchang.com/biography . Chang harvested the honor of her parents’ move and the possibilities that only exist in the United States. The location in which an artist lives and is educated is crucial for the expansion of prospects and future potential success. We ask ourselves the following question: if Chang´s parents wouldn´t have come to the United States, would Sarah become what she is now?. I genuinely doubt it. Poor mindset societies do not help kids, teens, or mature professionals to continue rising to the highest of the best. On the contrary, our deficient undeveloped economies sometimes are the stumbling block that restrains the natural talent to become the better or the best. Sarah was so blessed by her parents. She is one of the luckiest children with parents who had the chance to come to the United States.
Songs of today belong to Mozart´s violin in the hands of Christopher Koncz, Daniel Stepner, and Anne Black (playing Mozart´s Viola). Today we have chosen Mozart´s violin made by the Klotz family of luthiers in southern Germany. As you already know, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of my beloved favorite composers who played a gorgeous instrument that has been well kept in Austria, like a cherished jewel, for more than 300 years. We want you to listen to Mozart´s instruments. The first video is with Christopher Koncz explaining the rationale behind Mozart´s 5 concertos. The second one is a segment of Mozart Concerto No. 4, K. 218. And the third one is about the first time that Mozart´s violin and viola were played in the United States of America (the year 2013). Daniel Stepner and Anne Black interpreting the Mozart´s Finale of the Duo in G, K. 423. Viva Mozart!
See you next Tuesday, with the 16th episode of “What´s up with water: Pouring water in your corporate strategy: Climate Change and Water”. Thank you for reading to me.
Sources of Reference utilized to prepare the slides and the material above:
(1) https://www.adb.org/publications/water-related-disasters-and-disaster-risk-management-prc
(2) https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html
(3)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313847052_Time’s_Bitter_Flood_Trends_in_the_number_of_reported_natural_disasters
(4) https://www.undp.org/publications/human-development-report-2014
(7) https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters
Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, most of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
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