Frontiers in the Environment: Big Questions

with Kate Brauman, Lead Scientist, Institute on the Environment Global Water Initiative; Steve Polasky, IonE Resident Fellow, Natural Capital Project Lead, and Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences; Sherry Enzler, General Counsel, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; and Perry M. Jones, Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey

Groundwater is a crucial resource in Minnesota and around the world. You might drink groundwater every day — close to 70 percent of Minnesotans do. And you’re probably eating groundwater as well — groundwater supplies about 40 percent of irrigated agriculture worldwide. But what’s the right way to manage this resource? Dropping water tables in India have been front page news. So has the discovery of giant groundwater reserves in Africa. Kate Brauman, lead scientist for IonE’s Global Water Initiative; Steve Polasky, project lead for the IonE’s Natural Capital Project and IonE resident fellow; Sherry Enzler, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources general counsel; and Perry M. Jones, U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist, will discuss the implications — good and bad — of using, and sometimes using up, the water beneath our feet.