Water Scarcity Matters Here, Now

Why We Need to Care About Global Water Scarcity Now

Hear from Traverse City native and Circle of Blue Founder J. Carl Ganter

One of the largest infrastructure projects in United States history, the Central Arizona Project moves water from the Colorado River across the desert to Phoenix. The watersheds that feed the river and its crucial reservoirs are now facing their driest years on record.

By Craig Manning

What happens when the taps run dry?

That’s one of the key questions J. Carl Ganter will discuss at 5pm Thursday, March 18, during an event for the Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) International Affairs Forum (IAF) titled “Global to Local: Climate Change, Water, and Food.” The event will address how issues of water scarcity, pollution, and climate fluctuations could affect everything from the agricultural supply chain to global conflict.

Born and raised in Traverse City, Ganter is an esteemed photojournalist whose work has appeared in publicationd from Newsweek to Rolling Stone. He’s also the founder of Circle of Blue, a journalistic organization that seeks to shine a light on global issues involving “water, food, and energy in a changing climate.” His IAF presentation will take attendees from the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil, to the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, pairing Ganter’s firsthand accounts with photos that encapsulate growing crises of water accessibility, scarcity, and pollution.

“It’s easy to get stuck in numbers and abstracts when discussing matters like water and climate change,” Ganter said of his presentation. “My mission is to connect the dots on the ground with the issues, and then to make those stories relevant to anyone, whether it’s kids in a classroom or global leaders on a major forum stage.”

Northern Express caught up with Ganter ahead of his IAF event to discuss the global implications of water scarcity, the potential consequences of letting the issue go unaddressed, and why northern Michigan locals should start paying attention right now.

Northern Express: You’ve said before — and many environmentalists agree with you — that water is going to be the driving issue of the 21st century. National Geographic recently ran a story about the relative fragility of the Great Lakes ecosystem and about how it’s the most important resource our continent has. Tell us a bit about what the “status quo” is at the moment, for water issues.

Carl Ganter: You used the two best words: “fragility” and “system.” Water is what defines us. That’s why the first thing we do when we go to Mars is look for water. It’s this magical molecule, and life as we know it wouldn’t exist without it. But that system is incredibly fragile and finite. There’s only so much water on the planet, and we’re not making more. So we face a grand kind of crisis, a system crisis, and water is absolutely at the core, because it’s at the core of everything we care about.

When we talk about water, we’re talking about food, because most water use goes to agriculture. When we talk about water, we’re talking about energy and energy production. When we talk about climate, whether it just climate or climate change, water is the definer.

More and more, we are seeing stress points in the world [in terms of water]. We have very large urban centers on the brink of what a headline writer in South Africa termed “Day Zero,” which means the day when taps could run dry. Imagine a major city like São Paulo; Chennai, India; Cape Town, South Africa; imagine what happens if the taps actually run dry. [Those cities] came very close to running out of water. When rainfall patterns were changing, or the rain gods didn’t smile, the reservoirs neared single-digit capacity.

If you’re in a township in Cape Town or Johannesburg, or a slum in Delhi, you typically have to walk to get your water. It may not be safe to drink; you may have to boil it. And then the sanitation side is pretty dismal. Some billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe drinking water on a regular basis. And some 2 billion don’t have adequate sanitation. If you don’t have sanitation, it contaminates the water.

Another side is the potential for conflict. We’ve seen water be a force-multiplying factor: Syria, Arab Spring, and other kinds of crucibles around the world, where water could be a point of serious contention.

Express: Living where we do, surrounded by beautiful freshwater every day, it’s hard not to care about it at least a little bit, but it’s also easy to take for granted. Why should locals care about the topics you’ll be discussing, and what should they know as we face the future of this water crisis?

Carl Ganter

Carl Ganter

Ganter: Tens of millions of people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water. We’re not at a Day Zero situation, unlike other parts of the world, but we have serious threats to the Great Lakes. Toxic waste sites, chemicals coming in through the atmosphere, invasive species, management of the water supply and the infrastructure that we build around the Great Lakes. We’ve read about toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, which in 2014 shut down drinking water for Toledo for three days. Those algae blooms are entirely avoidable; primarily, that’s extra nutrient runoff from farm fields [causing the issue].

There’s a term “blue economy,” which asks: what role does water play in your economy? The economy of the entire Great Lakes Basin is built on water. A recent report from the intelligence community in Washington says something like half of the jobs around the world have a direct link to water. So water isn’t just ecology and environment; it’s not something that can be sublimated. It has to be right upfront — in our decision-making about national security, about economic security, about health, about energy, about food. It’s the thread that ties everything together.

Express: We’ve gotten an unusual glimpse over the past year into what can happen when the supply chain stops working, including in terms of food production and food processing. How does food supply link into water?

Ganter: Around the world, ag uses about 70 percent of water withdrawals for growing, for irrigation. The ramifications of that get us into perception and reality, they get us into climate change, and they get us into economics. Let’s say you’re a farmer in Punjab, India, and you believe that there’s plenty of water underground for your irrigation, for growing your rice or your wheat. Then your farm community lobbies for free electricity, because you’re the backbone of the country and you feed the nation! What do you do in a free electricity? You leave your lights on. In Punjab, they leave their pumps running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The farm that I was on, their switches are literally hardwired, so they can’t turn the water off.

The problem is what happens when that runs dry. [The farmer’s] field is barren and parched, and their well has run dry. Maybe they drill deeper. If that doesn’t work, maybe they turn to other sources of water. Even if there is raw sewage coming from that village over there, they’re going to drop a hose in the canal and pump from that. And if that’s not enough — and this is a true story — then there’s another flow of water from the paper mill upstream.

So now you’re irrigating with a mix of toxic waste and sewage. How does that affect the supply chain? How does that affect the beets or the onions or the rice that you’re growing, now that you’re literally growing it with toxic waste? That is one future, and it’s not a very bright one.

But on the positive side, you do have this moment where all these issues are coming together. Companies are realizing that a supply chain risk means risk to their bottom line; it means risks to the reputation; it means risks to their brands. Company and government leaders are, more and more, being held accountable for the demands for clean water and even sanitation.

People are waking up to it, but we’re not moving fast enough. These issues are complex, and in many ways, the water story is fragmented. It needs more connected storytelling and more cohesion. It needs more coordinated action. The agricultural sector, the energy sector, the water sector: they all need to work together. They are still on different planes. It’s very siloed. One thing [Circle of Blue] is working hard to change is to break those silos.

Express: In northern Michigan, there have been big initiatives from local government to move us toward greater use of renewable energy. How can we aim higher, both as individuals and a collective, to avert or reduce the scope of these catastrophes you’re talking about?

Ganter: The good news is that here in the Grand Traverse region, we have a whole range of organizations that are taking on different slices of the issue. At Circle of Blue, we’re telling the stories in the Great Lakes and around the world; imagine us as the journalists. Then other organizations like FLOW, are working on the policy piece. And then you have the education piece, and we have the NMC Water Studies Institute — which is really unique in the world — right here. We have these leadership organizations, right in our background, so how do we activate that at a higher level to have [more of a regional, national, and global] impact? I think that’s the really big question.

Express: Looking forward, there are a lot of worst-case scenarios here, from longterm health complications, to climate change putting coastal communities underwater, to a world war fought over fresh water resources. What are some of the things individuals can start thinking about right now to pave the way toward a brighter future?

Ganter: The first step is understanding where your water comes from, and where it goes. And then pay attention to the policies, pay attention to the investments that communities are making. Because that’s the biggest lever: it’s building and supporting the community response, the preparedness and resiliency, and putting water at the top. Because it’s that old adage: We really don’t care about water until the taps run dry.

Clockwise from top left: In the Thar Desert south of Jaisalmer, India, these girls walk for hours a day through blazing heat to fetch water for their family. According to the United Nations, some 2 billion people around the world live without access to an adequate supply of safe drinking water, which stresses economic stability, human health, environmental sustainability, and national security.

Children play in the alleys of São Paulo’s Portelinha favela, where residents have devised creative ways to channel rain water and sewage away from their makeshift homes. In 2015, Sao Paulo nearly ran out of water. Dozens of major cities worldwide face a “Day Zero” scenario — the day when their water supplies could run dry.

In the southwest corner of China, a region of towering mountains, deep gorges, and scattered villages not far from the border of Vietnam, deforestation has caused most fertile soil to wash away, hurting crops and degrading water supplies.

A young girl climbs on an undocumented well in Delhi, where millions rely on illegally pumped groundwater or collecting water from leaks in city pipes. Circle of Blue reports that the nation of 1.3 billion people, by failing to protect its water, is courting disease and economic hardship as well as social upheaval.

By Amy Martin

The following five men and women — every one under the age of 30 — are part of a new generation of brewers shaping the future of Up North’s beer scene. Here’s a look at their unfiltered love for beer making, their favorite beers to brew, and how they cut their teeth in an industry you can’t even take a taste of until age 21.

Thomas Hodges, 29

Brewer at The Filling Station Microbrewery

Thomas Hodges’ brewing journey began in 2010, making hard cider at home and working in his local homebrew supply store in Lansing, Michigan. He submerged himself in brewing information, spending all of his downtime reading books, blogs, and anything else he could learn from. Things really took off when he secured an internship at Mountain Town Brewing Company, in Mountain Pleasant, and was hired in soon after. Hodges’ favorite style of beer to brew are lagers; he says enjoys the challenge. “Any brewer will tell you they require the most finesse. Flaws in most lagers are really easy to detect, so your process has to be dialed. They challenge your skills, for as simple as they are, I find them the hardest” he says. When asked if his age has affected his progress in the brewing world, Hodges shared that even though he was only 21 when he entered the industry, he never felt that he was treated differently by his coworkers, all of whom respected his good work ethic and willingness to learn. “Where I did find difficulty was at events and beer festivals, with the customers. It’s hard to talk to an overwhelmingly older crowd when you barely look old enough to drink. Even talking to other brewers, I had to sort of prove I knew what I was talking about,” says Hodges. “I think being young in any industry can be tough, you just have to have the right attitude about it.” When he’s not brewing, Hodges can be found camping, hiking, dirt biking, snowboarding, and most recently began training to be a pilot.

Ellie Maddelein, 22

Assistant Brewer at Five Shores Brewing

Ellie Maddelein knew she wanted to be a professional brewer at the age of 16. For her, the passion began with a trip to Oregon with her dad, and a visit to Rogue Ales. The entrance took them right through the brewery and gave her an up-close view of the beer-making process, and she immediately fell in love.

“From that point on I knew I wanted to be a brewer, and I would do whatever I had to in order to get there,” says Maddelein.

She started homebrewing after that fateful trip, and following high school, earned a Sustainable Brewing Bachelor of Science at Western Michigan University, as well as a Brewing Science Certificate from Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Maddelein says she can’t really choose her favorite part of being a brewer— every day it’s a different thing. She loves hearing people’s excited feedback of a beer she’s made, the smell of the hops, the physicality of the process, and having the unique knowledge that enables her to take things apart and put them back together.

One drawback: She admits she gets treated differently in the brewing industry because of her age — and her gender.

“Helping out in the bar as a young female, customers talk down to me, and yet they’re drinking what I just made them,” she explains. She also shared that as a young brewer, “You have to carry yourself in a certain way so people don’t think you’re just a kid.”

On the flip side, she does enjoy being a younger member of the industry because she can share her passion with other young adults and show that beer isn’t just about getting drunk. As a peer, she says she believes she’s taken more seriously than if an older person were having that conversation.

James Warren, 29

Assistant Brewer at The Workshop Brewing Company

James Warren has been brewing professionally three or four years and was a homebrewer five years before that, but being a brewer was not his original career path — he earned a bachelor’s of music education from Adrian College.

“Brewing is an interesting industry in that there are professional certificates and degrees now, but it is also something you can just jump into, and with a lot of hard work you can work your way up from the bottom,” says Warren. That’s exactly what he did, starting as a packaging tech at Short’s Brewing Company.

Warren’s favorite part of being a brewer is the troubleshooting that goes along with it. He says he likes being able to work on problems and have them be tangentially related to what he’s producing. He enjoys brewing special one-off beers most, but when it comes to drinking beer, he prefers clean, light styles with a lower alcohol percentage, such as lagers.

“Something with a lot of flavor that you can drink more than one of and not be feeling it,” he adds.

When asked if he felt like he was treated differently in the industry because of his age, he shared that, if anything, he felt like reverse ageism is more prevalent than the alternative. He expanded on this, saying that older members in the industry are treated differently because they’re not able to do the physicality and the labor as much anymore. Of course, he adds, that’s not to say that perspective is true either: “There are a lot of older folk still kicking as lifers!”

Jordan Scholl, 22

Brewer at Stiggs Brewery & Kitchen

Jordan Scholl began brewing at the age of 15, then started brewing professionally at 18.

“It has always ‘rustled my jimmies’ to create new flavors and have fun with everything the earth has to offer,” says Scholl of her early entrance into the industry. It started innocently enough, she notes: “I began making my own tea originally and realized I had a knack with different flavors, and this is where my passion for brewing began.”

Having started brewing at such a young age, she was faced with challenges but says she gained a lot of respect from people once they realized how knowledgeable she was.

“At first a lot of folks thought I was just making some closet beer for me and my friends, but as I would talk about all the books I’ve read and how much passion I had, they saw it was much more than that for me,” Scholl says.

Officially, her career started at Short’s Brewing Company, but Scholl says she believes that hands-on learning and experimenting is the best experience anyone interested in brewing can get.

She admits she’s heard many comments that “brewing is a man’s job” over the years, but she never let it get to her. Instead, she joined Fermenta — a nonprofit trade group with the mission of educating women in the craft beer industry — which helped her realize she is hardly alone as a female in the brewing industry.

Scholl’s favorite styles of beer to brew are porters and stouts, because of the incredible aromas they emit during the process. When not brewing, you can find her snowboarding or wakeboarding.

Chris Schnepf, 28

Lead Brewer at Stormcloud Brewing Company

Brewing professionally wasn’t originally on Chris Schnepf’s radar, who double-majored in music business management and general marketing at Ferris State University. All of that changed when he needed an internship for his degree and landed one in sales and marketing with Revolution Brewing, in Chicago, the summer before his senior year. After concluding his internship, he knew he wanted to stay in the industry but felt called towards brewing rather than sales and marketing.

It was, however, his marketing experience that enabled him to get at least one brewery to take a chance on hiring and training him in the art of beer making.

“My senior year, I went into a local brewery multiple times for a drink, and I wrote a lot of messages on napkins to the brewer just trying to sell myself,” he says.

After finally scoring a meeting with the brewer, Schnepf was hired in and, shortly after, started brewing at the age of 21. He also began exploring another passion: experimenting with a variety of ferments, from kombucha to sauerkraut, because he believes fermentation is an important part of humankind’s preservation and well-being.

Schepf’s favorite part of being a brewer is recipe writing and experimenting with different ingredients, such as using the same malt but from different countries or maltsters. He especially enjoys brewing Saisons, because they are versatile and be made with a variety of different flavor combinations.

When he first started in the industry, Schnepf said he experienced some anxiety that people were treating him differently because of his age. But over time, his anxiety shrank some as he gained more confidence in himself and his brewing knowledge. Northern Express Weekly • march 15, 2021 • 13