ABSTRACT
Ever since the dawn of civilization, water and energy have been deeply linked in human development. On Earth, freshwater is essential to ensure the basic needs of living organisms. Similarly, freshwater ensures the basic needs of civilization. In its early stages, civilization was built on the human ability to collect and transfer the water it needed to sustain large settlements, planting and irrigating crops, and raising livestock. At fi rst, most of the energy needed to carry out those essential tasks was obtained by marshalling the labour of humans and animals, or by collecting such resources as wood. Over time, as civilization expanded, it grew to become a super-organism “feeding” on various resources to maintain its various functions. With this expansion came the need for more energy, which was often magnifi ed further by the need to pump and convey more freshwater. As society’s hunger for energy grew, it started exploiting other resources, such as hydropower and buried hydrocarbons stores.
