Global Events:

March 22: World Water Day 2010

UN-Water is dedicating World Water Day 2010 to the theme of water quality. ICCR supports World Water Day 2010's aims:

• raising awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management, and
• raising the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality.

In their article, “Energy and Water: The Real Blue Chips" authors Nate Hagens and Kenneth Mulder offer a biophysical framework of investment analysis utilizing the concept of returns on the investment of increasingly limited energy and water resources:

"The two most important natural resources on a planet nearing 7 billion people are water and energy.  In most cases, each is required to procure the other.  First, we use water directly through hydroelectric power generation at major dams, indirectly as a coolant for thermoelectric power plants, and to help produce biofuels.  By sector, the two largest consumers of water in the United States are agriculture and electrical power plants, both prominent players in our future energy landscape.  If we count only freshwater, fully 81% of U.S. use is for crop irrigation. For American corn production, an average of 2,100 gallons of irrigation water is required per bushel which yields 2.7 gallons of corn-based ethanol (1).  This equates to 206 gallons of water needed per gallon of gasoline substitute, ethanol, before refining. 

Internationally, several assessments suggest that up to two-thirds of the global population could experience water scarcity by 2050. This will be driven by the agricultural demand for water, which is currently responsible for up to 90% of global freshwater consumption. Water shortages could become much more acute if there is widespread adoption of energy production technologies that require significant amounts of water, such as biofuels.  In a resource-limited context, water could be diverted from current uses to be invested in energy production, especially if the market dictates this as society’s priority. This would have significant impacts upon food production and human welfare. 

Our media and science historically have not often considered water limitations in assessing scalability of bioenergy nor have policy assessments of future water needs typically incorporated increased irrigation demands related to biofuels production."  

Read the full article in the next issue of The Corporate Examiner.

Annual Meetings of the ICCR Member Organizations:

Every year, ICCR holds a special event open to the public. These stellar panels bring together leaders from academia, activism and business to share their stories and offer personal and professional insights into the role of faith in their work. Last year, our 23rd annual special event, True North: Finding Value in Values was held at Bridgewaters in downtown Manhattan. ICCR's members, friends, supporters, governing board, and staff were joined by members of the public for an exciting afternoon of lively debate and discussion.

2010 Dates:

June 21 - June 25 - ICCR holds its Annual General Meeting.

October 4-October 8 - ICCR holds its Fall meeting.

October 7: ICCR's Annual Special Event