Looks like there are some other curmudgeons out there in the ether besides The Dickster and me! Or maybe just some who are fond/tolerant of us old folks.
I've never had so many comments so quickly - 14 as of now - on my post, Well-Worn Water Words, Part 1. If you haven't looked at it since the morning of 13 January you might take another look as I have added some (like underground aquifer).
Here are the ones that have arrived since the updates.
1) Water connects us all. Eric Perramond
2) Lifeblood of the region. On the Public Record
3) Toilet to Tap. Ryan
4) 'True value' of water. Jason Mumm
I also received some contributions that were not posted as comments and whose authors wish to remain anonymous:
5) Adaptive management. Destined to become the 'sustainability' of the 21st century. Shouldn't all management be adaptive?
6) Adaptation. See #5 above
7) Water flows uphill to money (or to money and power).
8) Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Shouldn't all water resources management be integrated?
9) Stationarity is dead. It never really was alive, we just wanted to believe it was.
10) Restoration. Often used in the context of restoring a fishery, ecosystem, watershed, etc. The real question is restore it to what condition? Pristine? Pre-European? One of my colleagues eschews restoration but uses the term renaturalization. Do you think that is better?
11) WaterWonks. Contributed by Fritz. I plead guilty.
But Dan noted this:
These phrases are inconsequential for water professionals and academics, but they (possibly) still hold ground with water newcomers and uneducated portions of the general public.
And check out this beauty from the pen of Emily Green:
Water is the new oil because whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting, unless you are already in a water war, in which case you are probably already in water-power nexus from which only integrating science and policy will begin to address the fish versus farmer conflict defeating all efforts toward sustainability.
Emily continues:
You know what gets me, besides the famous remark that Twain might have made? Misspelling whisky as whiskey. From a country that gives it the alternate name "scotch." Now that's a travesty.
Maybe it was Irish whiskey, which uses the 'e'. But then again, what do I know, I'm a rum person. Ah, Flor de Caña!
Time to go now.
But first, this just in:
To: speechwriters
From: The governor of California
Great work. The Governor esp. likes this part: Water, which connects us all as it flows uphill to money, is the lifeblood of the region where the Delta is the hub, but the true value of water from toilet to tap can only be understood by integrated adaptive management.
Query: The governor can't pronounce stationarity. Is it a problem that it's dead or may we cut it?
(Thanks to Emily Green)
"Human beings were invented by water to transport it uphill." -- Unknown
"More than 2/3 of the Earth's surface is covered in water..." Yes, I think I saw a world map once.
"...but less than 1% of it is freshwater." Bummer. Sounds like we're in trouble... Wait, how much of that 1% is Lake Baikal? Time to invade Russia!
"The human body is __% water." Yes, and?
More than 2 billion people "lack access to adequate sanitation," as a euphemism for the fact that they do not or can not dispose of their feces in a way that it won't re-contaminate their food or water.
In writing about overseas development, stating "local government lacks capacity." It's kinder than saying that government is weak and ineffective or that bureaucrats are lazy and uneducated. Never fear, this can generally be solved through "capacity building."
The "Global South" for developing world or, to use a phrase which has fallen out of favor, third world. The northern hemisphere has its share of poor countries too.
"Greedy corporations are plotting to steal our water!" As if this is news. Companies have been trying to control and sell water and electricity from the beginning.
Long exposition on global water problems, including the fact that millions of people in poor countries die every year from preventable water-related diseases, followed by, "so you should take shorter showers and avoid buying bottled water!"
The "global water crisis." If it started decades, no, centuries ago, and won't end anytime soon, is it really a crisis?
Posted by: Matt | Tuesday, 09 February 2010 at 06:12 AM
Thank you thank you thank you. I'm SO tired of these...
Posted by: David Zetland | Tuesday, 02 February 2010 at 12:10 AM
Dear Fritz and Lynn,
Thank you both for your comments. I appreciate that your taking the time to respond.
Lynn, I am not 'disrespecting' the English language. 'Sustainability' means different things to different people. Like many English words, it can have a variety of meanings. An economist looks at a water resources system different from an aquatic ecologist and each may have a different concept of the system's sustainability. The problem is that people talk about 'sustainability' without defining what they mean.
Fritz, you're right about 'Water Wonks.' I plead guilty as charged. But I'm not yet ready to retire it.
Posted by: Michael | Thursday, 28 January 2010 at 07:50 AM
How about "Water Wonks"?
I agree with Lynn to a degree. While certain phrases and quotes are over used, how words (adaptation, sustainability, restoration, etc.) are used, and the context in which they appear, matters as much as the word itself in determining the annoyance factor.
Posted by: Fritz Fiedler | Wednesday, 27 January 2010 at 08:04 AM
I think this is all reverse semantics. Words like sustainability are real words, folks, and attempts to just take them away because you find them annoying or whatever is disrespecting the English language. Many of these terms and colloquialisms are very useful to expression of true thought Let's move on and stop playing games.
Posted by: Lynn Montgomery | Friday, 15 January 2010 at 07:32 PM
I don't know about "stationarity" being dead, it's always been a straw person argument for people to use when an audience doesn't understand what a mean (average) is.
It came up again in the NM Water Dialogue yesterday (latest posts on the dialogue)
http://donchuyspad.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Eric Perramond | Friday, 15 January 2010 at 02:03 PM
To: speechwriters
From: The governor of California
Great work. The governor esp. likes this part: Water, which connects us all as it flows uphill to money, is the lifeblood of the region where the Delta is the hub, but the true value of water from toilet to tap can only be understood by integrated adaptive management.
Query: The governor can't pronounce stationarity. Is it a problem that it's dead or may we cut it?
Posted by: Emily Green | Friday, 15 January 2010 at 01:05 PM