Circle of Blue Launches MISSION.4: Front-Line Reporting, Data, and Solutions to Avert Fast-Emerging Water Crises

News provided by

Jun 20, 2018, 08:35 ET

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., June 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Circle of Blue, the leading global network of journalists and researchers tracking the planet's freshwater crises, today announced Circle of Blue "MISSION.4" to inform responses and accelerate solutions to the compounding water supply and pollution challenges that threaten nations, their citizens, and the planet.

Circle of Blue's MISSION.4 initiative combines on-the-ground reporting, big data, and leading-edge analysis to inform urgent decisions vital to averting global water crises.

Residents in Delhi often wait for hours or days for water. Fresh water scarcity and poor management are disrupting populations, economies, the environment globally. Photo: J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue circleofblue.org

Water shortages and water pollution rank among the top risks destabilizing the world — threatening mass refugee migration, famine, environmental contamination, economic disruption, and conflict.
Political and business leaders are failing to recognize the cascading risks and widespread environmental pressures because trend data, early warning signs, and emerging solutions are scattered.
Circle of Blue's MISSION.4 initiative combines on-the-ground reporting, big data, and leading-edge analysis to inform urgent decisions vital to averting crises.

Without action, as many as 700 million people could become "water refugees" by 2030, according to the latest report from the United Nations - World Bank High Level Panel on Water. More than two billion people do not have access to safe water today, and over a dozen major cities worldwide are in danger of running out of water.

MISSION.4 leverages the tools of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to redefine how powerful narratives and technology unite to tell the world's most important stories about the accelerating competition between water, food, and energy, and the environment in a changing climate.

"Fresh water scarcity and poor management are disrupting populations, economies, the environment — every aspect of life as we know it," said J. Carl Ganter, co-founder and managing director of Circle of Blue and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Environment. "We are making an end-run around the disruption — taking the lead with a strategy of deep knowledge, big data, human ingenuity, and emerging technologies."

MISSION.4 leverages the pioneering advances in artificial intelligence, big data and remote sensing – the new ways of interacting with the world – and builds on Circle of Blue's nearly two decades of award-winning, global news gathering. The goal: to bring clarity, context, and relevancy to political, corporate, and citizen leaders who are searching for sustainable options to the world's complex water problems.

"These tools offer the promise of perception, innovation and communication, which are all key to the decisions shaping our water future. The stakes have never been higher," Ganter said. "It's also a moment to be keenly aware of unintended consequences that could further stress fragile eco- and social systems, which is why we're an active participant in the World Economic Forum initiative, the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth."

Among the principal data-gathering and visualization tools, Circle of Blue: MISSION.4 will use the Perception Reality Engine™ from Vector Center to compare public sentiment with empirical data sources and on-the-ground context.

About
Circle of Blue is the internationally recognized independent journalism, science, data, design and convening network that reports on global resource issues, particularly the competition between water, food, energy, and the environment in a changing climate. Its multi-disciplinary work, convenings, and collaborations across the Great Lakes, U.S., China, Australia, Mexico, India, and the Middle East earned the Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Innovation Award. Circle of Blue is part of the Water Security Rewired Initiative of the World Economic Forum.