Reimagining International Water Law

Tim Stephens

Scientists increasingly refer to the current epoch as the “anthropocene” because of the many ways human hands have transformed the natural world. Human activities have touched virtually all landscapes on earth, driven many organisms to extinction, and changed the composition of the atmosphere and the chemistry of the oceans. They have also had a major impact on water basins, “re-plumbing” natural waterways to satisfy uses, including agriculture, industry, consumption, transportation, and the reduction of flood risks. In so doing, human activities have fundamentally altered the flow of freshwater and changed the flux of sediments between the land and the oceans. Human-induced climate change looms as the most powerful influence on the hydrosphere as a whole and on the small fraction (three percent) of the planet's water that is freshwater. Climate change is intensifying the hydrological cycle, shifting precipitation patterns worldwide, increasing rates of evaporation, the intensity of cyclones, and melting glaciers and icecaps.