This April, as the astronauts of Artemis II rocketed around the moon, they boosted the spirit of American science, exploration and discovery on a planetary scale. On the mission’s final morning, the Orion capsule filled with the sound of their hand-picked wake-up song to gear up for their final descent: “Run to the Water,” by the alternative rock band Live.
It was a fitting choice, given their trip to the moon was propelled in part by a search for ice-locked lunar water to convert into breathable air and rocket fuel for future missions. Water turns out to be as critical for life in space as it is here on Earth, a limiting factor in how long we can stay and how far we can go. The Artemis crew’s record-setting voyage from our own blue planet should sharpen our perspective on the value of the water in our own backyard that we take for granted.
As a metaphor for extraordinary feats of scientific achievement, there have been many “moonshots” since President John F. Kennedy’s category-defining challenge to Americans in 1961.
One of the most vital scientific quests related to the future of all life on Earth involves water. Specifically, the goal is achieving the circular water transition: a systemic shift from a linear “take-make-waste” model to one that treats our precious planetary water resources as finite, renewable and essential to our lives. By finding ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and upcycle our wastewater, we can maximize the value of our water while minimizing waste and environmental impact. It’s an ambitious vision to keep water in a closed loop, using and reusing every drop for its highest and best purpose.
This is Chicago’s race to lead. Our city not only sits on the shore of one of the world’s most spectacular bodies of water, but is also blessed with a high concentration of scientific talent, labs and other innovation assets needed to invent new ways of cleaning, moving and managing our water resources differently. We have utility and industrial leaders spanning the public and private sectors with potential to collaborate on infrastructure solutions. We have space to build and grow, with major projects on the horizon which will require massive investment and which could set new patterns for water use and reuse for the next generation.
What stands in our way?
Technological limits, for one. As the universal solvent, water wants to mix with everything else, from toxic chemicals to useful nutrients. To achieve circularity, we need to separate these out again. The frontiers of materials science, sensing, and engineering offer hope for faster, cheaper, less energy-intensive solutions to this grand challenge. Infrastructure patterns are another hurdle. Systems built for the needs and predictions of a different century are still defining our decisions and outcomes for the future. Procurement processes tend to favor big, centralized, engineered and proven solutions when small, decentralized, natural and novel ones hold the promise of lower cost, improved performance and potential for longevity.
A bigger blocker is our stubborn belief that it is possible to maintain the status quo. Looking out at Lake Michigan, one may see a dangerous mirage: a future of infinite abundance without increased stewardship. The reality is that heavy rains flood our streets and threaten our basements.
This essay is part of a series developed in collaboration with World Business Chicago wherein accomplished authors envision what Chicago could and should look like in 2050.
Even more important than technology is this perspective shift. The horizon line in front of us is one of rising water risk and stress, of rising demand for a resource that can and will be depleted. Until we Chicagoans learn to look differently at our water, to see and value it as the vital economic resource it is, we’ll continue an accelerating race to the bottom.
It wasn’t always this way. Thirty-five years ago, historian William Cronon called Chicago “Nature’s Metropolis,” recognizing that our region’s water assets defined our economic trajectory from the earliest days of human settlement. Our strategic position between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi watershed set our course as a commerce superhighway, with the Chicago Portage connecting two vast trading routes between the Atlantic and the Gulf. For hundreds of years, water was the life and lifeblood of a city on the make.
Building on a marsh drove a century of engineered solutions to forge stability from life near swamp and shore. We innovated our way into the privilege of ignoring our water through various feats of strength: reversing the river to send our waste downstream, building water intakes far from shore, and burying water treatment and delivery systems deep in the ground, out of sight and out of mind. In that same century, we rationalized, abstracted and financialized every aspect of our physical world, turning resources into commodities and making them inaccessible to the people who depend on them.
We are at another defining point. The industrial system of Chicago’s water management — invisible and linear extraction, consumption and disposal of our water resources — is rapidly approaching its limits. Demand for our water resources is rising. We are gaining population and attracting a new generation of thirsty industry, accelerated by but not limited to data centers. We have a narrow window of opportunity to tilt the future towards reuse, circularity and resilience, but it won’t be open forever. The vision for a prosperous, resilient Chicago in 2050 depends on this shift in perspective and value of water before a crisis-driven demand spike forces the change.
In 2050, Chicago’s greatest achievement will be the fact that we’ve turned to face the water again and appreciated the material reality of the resources we depend on. If we get this right, we will have moved from an extractive, linear blue economy to a regenerative and circular one.
We can’t afford to squander this opportunity. Let’s recognize our Great Lakes, rivers and the wetlands that connect them as the precious economic assets they are, fundamental to the future vitality and prosperity of our great city.
Right here on Earth.
Right here in our sweet, freshwater home: Chicago.
Alaina Harkness is CEO of Current and principal investigator of Great Lakes ReNEW. Current is a client of M. Harris & Kern, which is working with World Business Chicago on this project.
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