{"id":13341,"date":"2019-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.alj3.clients.lemonhq.io\/perspectives\/collaborative-solutions-greatest-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T07:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T07:33:17","slug":"collaborative-solutions-greatest-challenges","status":"publish","type":"perspectives","link":"https:\/\/cms.alj3.clients.lemonhq.io\/en\/perspectives\/collaborative-solutions-greatest-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"J-WAFS in action: collaborative solutions for our greatest challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

John H. Lienhard V,<\/a>\u00a0Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Mechanical Engineering and Director of\u00a0J-WAFS<\/span>, MIT delivered an opening speech at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar)<\/a>\u00a0as chief guest and convocation speaker for the Institute\u2019s seventh annual convocation on December 3, 2018.\u00a0\u00a0 Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to watch the full address.<\/p>\n

(The article text is modified from the\u00a0speech\u00a0delivered).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"During the past decade I have travelled quite a lot as part of my work for MIT.\u00a0 I have been to more than 30 countries on six continents. People often ask me what is different between these countries. However, what\u2019s more striking to me is how much is the same among all these people.\u00a0 Everywhere I go, people love their children, and they hope for good relations with their neighbors. Everywhere I go, people work to provide for their families.\u00a0 Everywhere I go, people live in some kind of building, and they eat food, and they drink water. They mostly seem to have mobile phones and to travel in motor vehicles.\u00a0 Although their languages and faces can be very different, all these people are very much alike. All have the same desires and needs.<\/p>\n

In 1943, the psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a universal hierarchy of human needs. He framed this as pyramid, in five horizontal layers. The layers range upward, from safety, through love and belonging, then to esteem, finally to self-actualization at the top. But at the very base of his pyramid, its foundation, Maslow placed our physiological needs, without which we cannot function: water, food, and shelter. These most basic needs must be met before any higher aims can be reached. Without water and food, you wouldn\u2019t care about a mobile phone or a fancy car. In fact, if you didn\u2019t have water and food, you would spend all of your time trying to find water and food. Your world would become very focused and very limited.<\/p>\n

When there were small numbers of people, our resources seemed abundant.\u00a0 And similarly, when there were few of us, the pollutants we might produce\u2014smoke from fires or human waste\u2014were easily dispersed into the environment. As our societies have advanced, our demand for resources has climbed\u2014energy, water, and food consumption have grown even faster than our population. Rising life-styles have intensified resource consumption.\u00a0 We may drive or ride, rather than walk.\u00a0 We may eat richer, processed foods.\u00a0 We may replace a bucket and cup by a long hot shower.<\/p>\n

But behind this great progress, our growing demand for resources has created unprecedented challenges to the health of our environment.\u00a0 Our growing settlements need more fresh water than local sources can provide. We burn more fuel for energy, and the burning releases gases and particles into our atmosphere, sometimes choking the residents of our cities.\u00a0 Our industries and dwellings release wastes into our rivers and streams.\u00a0 We clear more and more land to grow the food that we need, while we convert more and more farms into cities to house all of us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The evidence of this strain is all around us, if we look at the data.\u00a0\u00a0 Climate data in particular show many very disturbing trends:<\/p>\n