2015 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Water, Water

Join host and moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson and his panel of experts for a lively discussion about the past, present, and future of water on Earth.

Earth is the only place in our solar system with liquid water on its surface. Even though water makes up only 0.03 percent of the Earth’s total mass, it covers 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Where did this water come from? Why is it mostly in liquid form? How much of it is drinkable and how vulnerable is this valuable resource? Will we ever run out? Will wars of the future be fought over access to it? Will future generations harness water from space? Is water essential to all life in the universe—or just to life on Earth?

#IsaacAsimov #debates #Earth #water #panelists #naturalresources

2015 Asimov Panelists include:

-Heidi Hammel, Planetary Astronomer,Executive Vice President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
-Tess Russo,Hydrologist,Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University 
-Ellen Stofan, Planetary Geologist, Chief Scientist of NASA
-Kathryn Sullivan, Geologist, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator
-Charles Wald, General, U.S. Air Force, Retired; Director and Senior Advisor to the aerospace and defense industry for Deloitte LP

The late Dr. Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific and influential authors of our time, was a dear friend and supporter of the American Museum of Natural History.  In his memory, the Hayden Planetarium is honored to host the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate — generously endowed by relatives, friends, and admirers of Isaac Asimov and his work — bringing the finest minds in the world to the Museum each year to debate pressing questions on the frontier of scientific discovery.  Proceeds from ticket sales of the Isaac Asimov Memorial Debates benefit the scientific and educational programs of the Hayden Planetarium.

2017 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: De-Extinction

2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Is the Universe a Simulation?

2015 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Water, Water

2014 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Selling Space

2013 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: The Existence of Nothing

2012 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Faster Than the Speed of Light

2011 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: The Theory of Everything

Rose Center Anniversary Isaac Asimov Debate: Is Earth Unique?

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© American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

[LeonardGarden]

I really appreciate Neil's strict attention to language in order to keep pre-suppositions out of the descriptive language of science.

[lowket]

Mr. Asimov would be proud. Keep up these fine additions to the world wide web.

[douglasraddi]

This was great listening to. Fantastic to see well informed women who are in charge in their field discuss this subject

[ThinkLiveLaugh]

WOW. Great panel. Neil is covering all of the major issues of our time with these wonderful Isaac Asimov Debates! It was a profound awakening as well, to the overall situation on the humanity, and really put it into the light, like what Neil said in Cosmos. On the last second of the last day of the cosmic year, humanity started using the scientific method, and went from Galileo gazing through a telescope, to putting humans on the moon.

But how did we get this far without a basic water system figured out? Humanity didn't even get their water situation sorted out after all this time. All humans living on less than half a percent of all the drinkable water there is. It really is such a young species.

[mims]

Wishing the great #AsimovDebates could be held
***TWICE A YEAR EVERY YEAR!***
TY to Janet Asimov and the others including NdGT, who make this great event possible! There are SO MANY more subjects that deserve this sort of discussion!

[rokriteproductions]

i love how there is a hole panel of greats up there but can't work out mic's . Gold. it goes to show everyone has their place and use and the way they handle it shows that there is no problems only solution's. They didn't miss a beat. I love this attitude.

[Evitable]

@1:32:27

"The problem you have to worry about with climate change is that there is a zipper effect, you get down the road to far and you can't recover. So, for anybody in the world who thinks that climate change is a hoax—like a couple of our people in Washington [DC] do—that is almost immoral."

—Gen. Charles Wald - U.S. Air Force, Retired

[Grand-Massive]

29:48 the way Neil looked at the camera made me laugh

[Cylume.]

They can put a man on the moon, but can't even get reliable microphones in any of these panel discussions.

[thatguywhochecksyoursource]

"For anybody in the world that thinks climate change is a hoax or something like a couple of our people in Washington do, it's almost immoral" -Charles Wald 1:32:33

[KingKingShlong]

was great to experience in person for the first time!
wish this could be 2x a yr too!

[VenusDescending]

My biggest take away from this panel discussion is that Neil Degrasse Tyson speaking off the cuff IS HILARIOUS.

[VibratorDefibrilator]

Since this is Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate about the water particularly, maybe it's useful to mention Asimov's SF novella "The martian way" (1952), where the plot was about an approach to extraterrestrial water supply by mining of ice asteroids orbiting Saturn. The very similar idea was talked about during the debate (arround 0:14:00).

[qdqopb]

Please, make an Isaac Asimov memorial debate about conscious artificial intelligence. He wrote much about robots, so this topic is really relevant.
I personally would like to suggest inviting the following panelists: Roger Penrose, Stewart Hameroff, Marwin Minsky, Raymond Kurzweil, Amit Goswami.
Please, this topic is really worth a debate!

[jimmyshrimbe]

This is awesome! I'm watching all of them.

[rodrigotorres]

Can I just mention how awesome and fantastic it is that more than half the panel is made of women! Sciences should not be exclusive to men and it fills me with joy to see a change.

[AndrewPlanet]

Having been influenced by growing up in an old town with no access to naturally available portable water, I'd recommend that buildings, especially large ones, be built with their own underground water run off storage facilities.  Whether they'd use stored water, collected from either roof tops or leveled areas, for the immediate surroundings or surrendered to the larger community they might be part off could be determined by demand.  Building gravity fed water storage areas into buildings is quite cheap if done as part of the construction process, at the very beginning and preferably in basements so as to occupy the least space possible

[S]

I find it amazing that nobody talks about the real driver of this water crisis that goes beyond even climate change. There are too many people. If we had a significantly smaller world population, our activities would be causing much less harm to the environment and our quality of life would be better.

[machopbad]

I'll be honest; I wasn't sure how well the Navy General would hold up in this panel but he was definitely a good choice.

[lukephan]

I can’t stop laughing 😂😂😂 while watching this. So awesome thak you very much 👍