Peter Gleick facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Gleick
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Boston Museum of Science, April 2014
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| Born | 1956 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley; Yale University |
| Occupation | President-emeritus and co-founder of the Pacific Institute |
| Organization | Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security |
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Notable work
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The World's Water, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy |
| Relatives | James Gleick, brother |
Peter H. Gleick (born 1956) is an American scientist who studies the environment. He is a co-founder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he helped start in 1987.
In 2003, he received a special award called a MacArthur Fellowship for his important work on water. He studies many topics, including how water can cause conflicts, how climate change affects water, and how water relates to human health. In 2006, he was chosen to be part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has also won other awards, like the U.S. Water Prize in 2011. In 2018, he received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization for making science easy to understand. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Contents
Peter Gleick's Career
Peter Gleick studied at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. by studying how climate affects water. His early research looked at how climate change could impact water supplies. He was one of the first to connect environmental issues, especially water and climate change, with international security. He showed how water has been a cause of conflicts throughout history. He also came up with ideas like the "soft water path," which means using water wisely, and "peak water," which is about when water sources start to decline.
From 1980 to 1982, Gleick worked for the Governor of California, helping with energy and environmental issues. In 2010, his book Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water won an award. In 2011, he and the Pacific Institute received the first U.S. Water Prize. In 2012, he helped write a book called "A 21st Century U.S. Water Policy." He has also been featured in many films about water, like River's End: California's Latest Water War and Flow: For Love of Water.
About the Pacific Institute
Peter Gleick's research explores how different global environmental issues are connected, focusing on fresh water and climate change. In 1987, he and two friends started the Pacific Institute. This is a non-profit research center in Oakland, California. The Institute's goal is to find and share solutions for the world's biggest water problems. Peter Gleick is now the President Emeritus of the Institute.
Climate Change and Water
Peter Gleick's early research looked at how human-caused climate change affects fresh water. He was the first to use climate models to see how changes in temperature and rain would affect rivers, snow, and soil moisture. He focused on the Sacramento River basin in California.
His work showed that rising temperatures could cause snow to melt faster. This would lead to more floods in winter and less water in spring and summer. Many of these changes he predicted have now been observed. Gleick also helped write the Water Sector Report for the first National Climate Assessment in 2000. This assessment is a big project by the U.S. government to study climate change science.
Environment and Security
In the late 1980s, Peter Gleick also studied how environmental issues could affect peace between countries. Before this, most studies on international security focused on relationships between big countries like the United States and the Soviet Union.
But in the 1980s, people started to realize that environmental problems, like using too many resources or large-scale pollution, could also threaten peace. This field of study became known as "environmental security." It is now widely accepted that environmental factors can play a role in political disagreements and even violent conflicts.
Gleick's work showed how climate change could affect global food production and access to water. He also focused on the risk of violence over water resources. He created and keeps up the Water Conflict Chronology, which is an online list of violence related to water. This list goes back almost 6,000 years and has over 1600 entries. It shows where water has been the cause, victim, or weapon of violence.
The Human Right to Water
Peter Gleick also did some of the earliest work to define a human right to water. In the 20th century, human rights laws mainly focused on political freedoms. But by the 1990s, people became concerned that hundreds of millions of people did not have safe water. Scholars began to call for a clear human right to water.
In 1998, Gleick said that everyone should have access to a basic amount of water. He argued that this right is supported by international laws. In 1996, he suggested that everyone needs 50 liters of water per day for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and hygiene. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights used his work in 2002 to define the human right to water.
In 2010, the UN General Assembly officially recognized the human right to water and sanitation. This means every person has the right to enough safe and affordable water for personal and home use. Gleick's work was also used in a court case in South Africa about the human right to water.
Peter Gleick's Current Work
Peter Gleick is the editor of a series of reports called The World's Water, which comes out every two years. The ninth volume was released in early 2018. He often shares information with the United States Congress and has published many scientific articles. He is also a main source of information on water and climate issues for news media.
Gleick gives many talks each year about global water challenges, climate science, and the importance of honest science. In 2014, he published an article about how drought, climate change, and water management affected the civil war in Syria. This article was very popular.
In 2023, Gleick released a new book called “The Three Ages of Water.” This book received good reviews from well-known people like Elizabeth Kolbert and Greta Thunberg.
Heartland Institute Incident
In February 2012, Peter Gleick said he was responsible for sharing some documents from The Heartland Institute. He explained that he had received an anonymous document about the Institute's climate plans. To check if it was real, he asked for more materials from the Institute using a different name.
Gleick said his actions were "a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics." He apologized, saying his judgment was affected by his frustration with efforts to attack climate science. He took a short break from the Pacific Institute. After an investigation, the Institute found no evidence to support claims that he had changed any documents. They supported what Dr. Gleick had said publicly about his actions.
Honors and Awards
- 2001: Named a "Visionary on the Environment" by the BBC.
- 2003: Received a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a "Genius Award".
- 2006: Elected a Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
- 2008: Named by Wired Magazine as one of "15 people the next President should listen to."
- 2011: Won the first U.S. Water Prize with the Pacific Institute.
- 2011: Won the IWRA Ven Te Chow Memorial Award.
- 2013: Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards.
- 2014: Named one of the world's "Top 10 Water Tweeters" by the Guardian.
- 2018: Received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.
- 2019: Awarded the Boris Mints Institute Prize.
- 2023: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Books by Peter Gleick
- Peter H. Gleick (editor), Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources. Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
- Peter H. Gleick, The World's Water (Volumes 1-9): A series of reports on freshwater resources, published from 1998 to 2018.
- Peter H. Gleick, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2010.
- Juliet Christian-Smith and Peter H. Gleick (editors), A 21st Century U.S. Water Policy. Oxford University Press, New York, 2012.
- Peter H. Gleick. The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future. PublicAffairs/Hachette, 2023.
See also
In Spanish: Peter Gleick para niños
