Our Native Element

One of the first facts we learn in basic anatomy is that the human body is over seventy percent water. How appropriate that the substance which makes up more of us than any other is one of the most fascinating, and controversial, elements in the world. We depend on water for our survival in so many ways: we have to consume it on a daily basis, we need it for basic health and sanitation, we build settlements near it to harvest its rich resources, and we aim to control its flow through dams and locks and sluices. And yet, our continued struggles in managing it – to prevent its warming and acidification in the oceans, to adapt our coastal cities to its challenges, or even just to render it usable for drinking, washing, and bathing – suggest that our relationship to this most basic of elements is still very much in flux. With so much at stake, especially regarding potential impacts of climate change, the challenges are clear. If we want to prevent recent conflicts such as the civil war in Sudan, which was caused in part by stresses on resources from the drying of Lake Khartoum, we have so much work to do over the coming century. We have to better understand both the element and ourselves. I've grown up around water my entire life, from my childhood on the Mississippi coast in the United States, to my love of exploring the Pascagoula River system and the Gulf of Mexico with my family, to my experiences living through major storm events such as Hurricane Katrina, to my academic research which focuses on landscapes and environments such as coastlines and atmospheres, to my creative work, poetry and fiction, which has always found inspiration in bodies of water. Currently I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, a city surrounded on three sides by water – something we think about every day down here. Water is more than just a part of my body – it's a part of who I am. That's why I'm excited to take part in Creative Climate, both as a team member (I'm a researcher at the OpenSpace Centre for Geographical and Environmental Research, here at the OU) and as a diarist. I'm eager to use these diaries to think creatively about this most paradoxical of elements – structurally simple, but socially and politically complex – and to share my experiences with others who live and work with water, and learn from them. I'm looking forward to the journey over the next decade – no matter what happens, it's going to be an adventure. And that's a fact.