Watersheds in watersheds: The fate of the planet’s major river systems in the Great Acceleration

Abstract

Humans have, by biological necessity, always lived in watersheds. This article provides an overview of humans’ relationship to these watersheds as an introduction to a special issue of Thesis Eleven on watersheds. It describes the basic functioning of watersheds, how humans have always depended on them, and how they have slowly begun to manipulate them. Humans across the planet began by making strategic adjustments to water’s downward flow to aid the procurement of water and fish. As small states, empires, and finally the Industrial Revolution unfolded, these interventions became more numerous with greater environmental impacts. The rate of riverine exploitation increased dramatically post-Second World War in line with the Great Acceleration. This, in turn, created our current worldwide ecological crisis. This crisis particularly affects the planet’s watersheds, and in turn, humans. The article ends with the assertion that studies of such a complex event are by necessity multi-disciplinary and inter-regional. It then outlines the contents of this special issue which examines watersheds in Asia, America and Australia.