June 1, 2019

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Follow the Water

Solving global water issues will greatly benefit food and energy, too

By Mark Fischetti

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are intended to create a world that is socially, economically and environmentally fair and resilient. But there are 17 goals and 169 actions (“targets”) within them. Where should a country begin, especially if it has limited resources? Sustainability experts say that the goals of water, food and energy are crucial to the wider set and that they are tightly intertwined. A new analysis by four international researchers indicates water solutions provide the greatest synergistic advantages for all three (large graphic) and have only a few minor problematic trade-offs (small graphic). “We want policy makers to see that these goals have to be achieved together,” says Marianela Fader, deputy director of the International Center for Water Resources and Global Change in Germany. “And that water pays off best.”

Credit: Lisa Mahapatra; Source: “Toward an Understanding of Synergies and Trade-Offs between Water, Energy, and Food SDG Targets,” by Marianela Fader et al., in Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 6, Article 112; November 18, 2018 

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Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

More by Mark Fischetti
Scientific American Magazine Vol 320 Issue 6This article was published with the title “Follow the Water” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 320 No. 6 (), p. 80
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0619-80
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