Climate Water Project

A wonderful new documentary, Our Blue World, is out, and it offers a panoramic exploration of how communities across the globe are learning to live in greater harmony with water. The film highlights a wide range of innovative and traditional practices—from China’s sponge city initiative, to New Zealand’s recognition of the Whanganui River as a legal person, to the ancient Peruvian techniques for guiding water into mountains so it reemerges as springs. It also delves into the Biosphere 2 project, where twelve people lived in a sealed dome for two years and had to rely on constructed wetlands to purify their water. The documentary further explores the shift along the Mississippi River from a levee-centered approach to one that embraces wetland restoration, as well as efforts to restore Ireland’s bogs—offering a hopeful vision of how we can reimagine our relationship with water. The film is produced by Paul O’Callaghan, directed by Ruan Magan, and narrated by Liam Neeson (the action movie actor) in his voice that oozes gravitas. For more see https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/our-blue-world-documentary-paul-ocallaghan

Laura Norman is a physical scientist with the USGS. Doing hydrological modelling of slow water. https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/putting-rocks-in-rivers-to-lessen

The five principles of Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) are:

1) Slow the Flow: Emphasizing the importance of slowing down water flow to allow infiltration into the soil.

2) Let All Plants Grow: Promoting plant diversity and allowing natural regeneration of the landscape.

3) Careful Where the Animals Go: Integrating livestock management with the natural sequence of the landscape.

4) Filtration is a Must Know: Understanding the role of natural filtration systems in purifying water.

5) Return to the Top to Recycle the Lot: Recycling nutrients and resources by returning waste products to the top of the soil.

For more info https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/natural-sequence-farming-stuart-andrews

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Charlotte Qin in an artist of water. She paints the fluid flow of water in its different forms, and she does reciprocal performances about water, where she interacts with the audience, as they connect with the water. For more info https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/the-art-of-water-charlotte-qin . You can support this work by becoming a paid subscriber of the Climate Water Project newsletter.

In this interview, we talk about a wide range of topics in hydrology, including how plants drink water from the air in a process called foliar water uptake. Article is at https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/plants-drink-water-from-the-air-hydrologist

Rehydrating Los Angeles and its surrounding areas can help lessen fires. For more see climatewaterproject.substack.com

A participatory approach to restore bioregions. Commonland is an organization that helps facilitate multistakeholders to come together to look at how to restore the land, ecosystem, and water. It works to bring farmers, businesses, NGOs, local government, and academics together in a collaborative approach. They work to restore 100000 +hectares in a bioregion. An interview of the Climate Water Project

Commonland (2024) The 4 Returns Framework in Practice: A guidebook for holistic landscape restoration https://4returns.commonland.com/lesson/introduction/ El marco de los 4 retornos en la práctica: Guía para la restauración holística del paisaje" https://4returns.commonland.com/es/lesson/about-the-4-returns-guidebook/ The 4 Returns Framework for Landscape Restoration. UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Report published by Commonland, Wetlands International Landscape Finance Lab and IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. https://www.commonland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/4-Returns-for-Landscape-Restoration-June-2021-UN-Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration.pdf Using regenerative agriculture to restore the Spanish Altiplano landscape (2022) ETH Zurich https://crowtherlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Restor_Case_Study_Case-18_Spain_Hi-Rez.pdf The Spanish Altiplano Landscape Restoration (visual) https://local-heroes-alvelal.webflow.io/

Neal Spackman discusses his project that restored desert lands in Saudi Arabia, his work with the Great Green Wall of Africa, and eco and water restoration ideas for Spain. https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/absorbing-rains-to-bring-landscapes

La Junquera is a farm on a windswept plateau in southeastern Spain. www.lajunquera.com/ . Its part of a collective of farms and businesses called Alvelal that is working to regenerate the region. https://alvelal.es/. For more info and transcript https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/regenerating-a-farm-and-a-semi-arid

Anna Pollock has played a significant role in launching the regenerative tourism movement. For more info see https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/how-eco-tourism-can-help-the-regenerative and http://www.conscious.travel/