ABSTRACT
Calls for a new water ethic are not new. Sandra Postel raised the alarm in the concluding chapter of her 1992 book, Last Oasis:
We have been quick to assume rights to use water, but slow to recognize obligations to preserve and protect it. … [We] need a set of guidelines and responsibilities that stops us from chipping away at natural systems until nothing is left of their life-sustaining functions. … In short, we need a water ethic – a guide to right conduct in the face of complex decisions about natural systems we do not and cannot fully understand (Postel 1997:184-5).
