GREEN NEWS & VIEWS Water Remembers: Rewriting Environmental Justice Through Relationship
BY RUSLANA REMENNIKOVA Reorienting Our Relationship with Water
ing justice, we must also transform how we see water — not just as a utility, but as a living force that sustains life and carries memory. Re-orienting our relationship with water may be one of the most nec- essary and transformative shifts we can make in the face of climate collapse. Water as Origin and Ancestor Ancient cosmologies across the world understood water as the source of all creation. In ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece, water was not just one element among many — it was the foundational sub- stance from which all creation emerged 7KDOHVRI0LOHWXVDSKLORVR - SKHUIURP0LOHWXVLQWKHWKFHQWXU\%&( famously claimed that ev- erything arose from water. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Genesis opens with a dark, formless sea, upon which the spirit of God moves before creating light, land, and life. The 4X¶UDQHFKRHV this cosmology: ³ We made every living thing of water ´ 7KHVHHDUO\LQVLJKWVZHUHQRWVFLHQWL¿FLQWKHPRGHUQVHQVHEXWWKH\ were deeply intuitive. And today, science is beginning to catch up. 5RXJKO\RIWKHDGXOWKXPDQERG\LVZDWHUDQGRXUFHOOVUHTXLUH water for nearly every biological function — from regulating tempera- WXUHWRUHSOLFDWLQJ'1$:DWHUGRHVQ¶WMXVW support life; it enables it. Even at the molecular level, water is astonishing. The human ge- QRPHFRQWDLQVDERXWELOOLRQEDVHSDLUVRI'1$EXWRQO\±RI these sequences code for proteins. The rest — like the deep oceans of
Before we spoke of justice, water spoke to us. It carved canyons into stone, mirrored the sky, and carried our ancestors across continents. It
was part of ceremony and song long before it be- came part of infrastruc- ture. Today, however, ZH¶YH ODUJHO\ IRUJRWWHQ how to listen. Water has EHHQUHGH¿QHG²QRWDVD sacred presence, but as a resource to be extracted, owned, and managed. In GRLQJVRZH¶YHORVWPRUH WKDQ UHYHUHQFH :H¶YH lost relationship. Environmental justice movements often focus on access: clean drinking water, safe sanitation, and equitable distribu-
tion of water rights. These are urgent needs, and addressing them is non-negotiable. But they are only part of the picture. To achieve last-
)LQGXVRQVRFLDOV ] )DFHERRN# .PVOUBJO.ZTUJD$P] ,QVWDJUDP# NPVOUBJONZTUJDDPNQBOZ 0RXQWDLQ0\VWLF7UDGLQJ&RPSDQ\ Ŝ*RKX>XIY>R1>VVKr+b>XcPYbW>eSYX*e>eSYX
%JTDPWFSIBOEQJDLFEUSFBTVSFT NFBOJOHGVMHJGUT BOENZTUJDBMFTTFOUJBMT±BMMJOPOFQMBDF N I E L E VRDNXSWKHVXQ WKLVVXPPHU NFB FTT JRRGYLEHV JRRG YLEHV
&U\VWDOV 0LQHUDOV_8QLTXH 'LVWLQFWLYH-HZHOU\_&DQGOHV ,QFHQVH %RRNV *UHHWLQJ&DUGV_:LQG&KLPHV 6WDWXHV_6DQFWXDU\%ODQNHWV -PDBM"SUJTBOT 7FOEPST 1SBDUJUJPOFST
] %6RXWK6W)URQW5R\DO9$ ] ] ZZZPRXQWDLQP\VWLFRUJ ]
60—PATHWAYS—Summer 25
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs