Peter H. Gleick (born 1956) is an American scientist who studies environmental issues. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he helped start in 1987. In 2003, he received a MacArthur Fellowship for his research on water resources. He has studied problems such as conflicts over water, the connection between water and climate change, development, and human health.

In 2006, he was chosen to join the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he received the International Water Resources Association’s Ven Te Chow Memorial Award. That same year, he and the Pacific Institute won the first U.S. Water Prize. In 2014, The Guardian newspaper named him one of the world’s top 10 "water tweeters." In 2018, he received the Carl Sagan Prize for popularizing science. In 2019, the Boris Mints Institute at Tel Aviv University gave him its annual BMI Prize for dedicating his life to solving a major global challenge. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Career

Peter Gleick earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University and Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley. His studies focused on how climate changes affect water supplies. His doctoral research was the first to examine how climate change influences water resources in specific regions. Gleick’s work helped show how water and climate issues relate to international security, highlighting past conflicts over water and how water has been used in wars. He also introduced ideas such as the "soft water path" and "peak water," which describe approaches to managing water resources sustainably.

From 1980 to 1982, Gleick worked as the deputy assistant for energy and the environment for the governor of California.

In 2003, he received a MacArthur Fellowship for his research on water resources. In 2006, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Gleick’s 2010 book, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, published by Island Press, won the Nautilus Book Award in the Conscious Media/Journalism/Investigative Reporting category.

In 2011, Gleick was honored with the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Ven Te Chow Memorial Award. That same year, he and the Pacific Institute received the first U.S. Water Prize.

In 2012, Oxford University Press published a book written by Gleick and colleagues titled A 21st Century U.S. Water Policy. He was also named one of 25 "Water Heroes" by Xylem. In 2013, Gleick received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards.

In early 2013, Gleick started a blog called "Significant Figures" on National Geographic ScienceBlogs. He also regularly wrote for Huffington Post Green, and many of his articles are now available on his personal website.

Gleick has appeared in many documentaries about water, including River's End: California's Latest Water War, Running Dry, Der durstige Planet, Flow: For Love of Water, Earth2100, Last Call at the Oasis, and Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater. He has also advised on the scientific content of films such as Thirst and Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk.

Pacific Institute

Peter Gleick's research explores how different areas of study relate to global environmental problems, with a special interest in freshwater and climate change. In 1987, Gleick and two colleagues founded the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a non-profit research center that works on policy issues. The center is now located in Oakland, California, and its mission is "The Pacific Institute creates and advances solutions to the world's most pressing water challenges." Gleick is now the President Emeritus of the Institute, and Jason Morrison has taken over as president.

Climate change and water

Gleick's Ph.D. dissertation from the University of California, Berkeley, and his early research studied how human-caused climate change affects freshwater resources. He was the first to connect the results of large climate models with detailed water cycle models to study how changes in temperature and rainfall would affect streamflow, snowpack, and soil moisture, especially in the Sacramento River basin in California. This research highlighted the risks that rising temperatures could cause faster snowmelt and earlier runoff in mountain areas, increasing winter flood risks and decreasing spring and summer water flow. Many of these predicted impacts have now been seen. Gleick was a co-lead author of the Water Sector Report in the first National Climate Assessment, published in 2000. The NCA is a continuous U.S. government project on climate change science, started by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The NCA is a key part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which brings together experts and gets advice from a Federal Advisory Committee.

Environment and security

In 1987 and 1988, while working as a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, Gleick wrote some of the first studies about how environmental problems, such as climate change and water shortages, could affect the safety and stability of countries around the world. Before this time, most research about international security focused on political relationships between the United States and the Soviet Union. By the 1980s, tensions between these two countries had changed after the Soviet Union ended. At the same time, people began to worry about new threats to peace, including problems caused by the way resources were used or by large amounts of pollution. By the mid-1980s, this area of study was called "environmental security," and it is now widely understood that environmental issues can directly or indirectly influence political disagreements and wars. Important early researchers in this field include Norman Myers, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Michael Renner, Richard Ullman, Arthur Westing, Michael Klare, Thomas Homer Dixon, and Geoffrey Dabelko. In 1989, Gleick published a paper in the journal Climatic Change that explained how changes in climate could affect food production, access to minerals in the Arctic, and the availability of fresh water. In 1993, he published another paper in International Security that examined the risk of violence over water resources. Gleick has continued to study these issues and created the Water Conflict Chronology, a detailed online database that records conflicts related to water resources. This database includes events dating back nearly 6,000 years and has more than 1,600 entries that describe how water resources or systems have caused, been harmed by, or used as tools in acts of violence. His work has been acknowledged by military and intelligence experts, and Gleick has given presentations to military leaders and taught at the U.S. Army War College and National War College in Washington, D.C.

The human right to water

Peter Gleick helped define the human right to water in the late 20th century. In the 20th century, human rights laws focused mainly on political and civil rights, as outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By the 1960s, experts began emphasizing economic, social, and cultural rights, including the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Neither the 1948 declaration nor the 1966 covenant addressed water directly. However, by the 1990s, concerns grew about the lack of safe water and sanitation for millions of people. Scholars then called for a clear recognition of the human right to water. Two early efforts to define this right came from law professor Stephen McCaffrey in 1992 and Gleick in 1998. McCaffrey said that the right to water could be seen as part of the right to food, health, or life. Gleick stated that access to basic water needs is supported by international law and state practices. In 1996, Gleick proposed that 50 liters of water per person per day is necessary for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and sanitation. The United Nations used this idea in General Comment 15, created in 2002, which provided the clearest definition of the human right to water at that time. General Comment 15 stated that access to water is essential for a decent standard of living and health, and therefore a human right. It said, "The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic uses." In 2010, the UN General Assembly officially recognized the human right to water and sanitation in Resolution 64/292. That resolution stated that everyone has the right to enough, safe, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. In September 2010, the UN Human Rights Council also recognized that the right to water and sanitation is part of the right to a decent standard of living. Gleick’s work on water requirements and human rights was used in the Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg court case in South Africa, which addressed the human right to water in the Phiri area of Soweto. The Pacific Institute provided legal testimony for this case based on Gleick’s research and the work of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, was honored with a 2008 Business Ethics Network (BENNY) Award for its contributions.

Current work

Peter Gleick is the editor of a book series called The World's Water, which is published every two years by Island Press in Washington, D.C. He regularly gives testimony to the United States Congress and state legislatures and has written many scientific articles. The ninth edition of The World's Water was released in early February 2018. He is a major source of information about water and climate issues for the media and has been interviewed on television shows such as CNBC, CNN, and Fox Business, as well as on radio programs like Fresh Air with Terry Gross and NPR. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker and other publications.

Gleick gives lectures more than 50 times each year on topics such as global water challenges, climate science and policy, and the importance of honest science. In 2008, he delivered the Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture at the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2009, he was a keynote speaker at the Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College. In 2014, he published a peer-reviewed article in the American Meteorological Society journal Weather, Climate, and Society that discussed how drought, climate change, and water management decisions influenced the civil war in Syria. This article was the most read article in the journal for 2014.

In September 2014, Gleick gave a keynote speech at the Global Climate Negotiations: Lessons from California Symposium, which was hosted by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, the California Air Resources Board, and R20 Regions of Climate Action in Sacramento. The event focused on how California’s policies address the effects of climate change. In February 2015, Gleick presented his work on the Water-Energy Nexus at an invited keynote lecture at the Georgetown University 2015 Annual Symposium of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Other recent lectures include a keynote speech at the 2017 Symposium on the Human Right to Water at McGeorge School of Law, a keynote titled “The Beacon of Science in a Fact-Free Fog” at the 2019 SkeptiCal Conference, and a presentation in 2019 at the World Bank’s Water Week on “Water, Climate, and Security: Building Resilience in a Fragile World.”

In 2023, Gleick released a new book titled The Three Ages of Water, published by PublicAffairs/Hachette. The book received positive reviews from David Wallace-Wells, Elizabeth Kolbert, Jerry Brown, and Greta Thunberg.

Heartland Institute incident

On February 20, 2012, Gleick said he was responsible for sharing documents from The Heartland Institute without permission in mid-February. He explained that he received an anonymous letter describing what seemed to be details of The Heartland Institute's climate program strategy. To check if the document was real, he asked for more materials from The Heartland Institute using another person's name. In response to the leak, The Heartland Institute claimed one of the released documents, a two-page "Strategy Memo," was fake. Gleick denied creating the document. He called his actions a "serious mistake in my personal and professional judgment and ethics" and said he "deeply regretted his actions" and "apologized to all affected." He added that his judgment was affected by frustration with secret, well-funded, and organized efforts to challenge climate science and scientists, as well as the lack of openness by the involved organizations. On February 24, he wrote to the Pacific Institute's board asking for a "temporary short-term leave of absence" from the Institute. The board said it was "deeply concerned" about recent events involving Gleick and the Heartland documents and appointed a new Acting Executive Director on February 27. Gleick was later reinstated after an investigation found no proof of forgery and "supported what Dr. Gleick has publicly stated about his interactions with The Heartland Institute."

Honors

• 1999 Chosen as an Academician of the International Water Academy in Oslo, Norway
• 2001 Named by the BBC as a "Visionary on the Environment" in its Essential Guide to the 21st Century
• 2001 Appointed to the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
• 2003 Received the MacArthur Fellowship, often called the "Genius Award"
• 2005 Elected Fellow of the International Water Resources Association
• 2006 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 2006 Elected Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• 2008 Selected to Present the Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture at the United States National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2008
• 2008 Named by Wired Magazine’s Smart List as one of "15 people the next President should listen to"
• 2009 Keynote Lecturer at the Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota
• 2010 Named "Visionary: A Catalyst for an Enlightened Future" in the Los Angeles Times Magazine on January 3, 2010
• 2011 Winner, along with the Pacific Institute, of the first U.S. Water Prize
• 2011 Winner of the IWRA Ven Te Chow Memorial Award
• 2012 Nominee for the Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Award
• 2012 Named one of 25 "Water Heroes" by Xylem
• 2013 Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards on March 21, 2013
• 2014 Named one of the world's "Top 10 Water Tweeters" by the Guardian
• 2015 Received the Leadership and Achievement Award from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents
• 2015 Received the Carla Bard Environmental Education Award from the Bay Institute
• 2018 Received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization
• 2019 Awarded the Boris Mints Institute Prize
• 2023 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Books

• Peter H. Gleick (editor), Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources. Oxford University Press, New York, 1993. ISBN 978-0-19-507628-8
• Peter H. Gleick, The World's Water 1998–1999 (Volume 1): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 1998.
• Peter H. Gleick, The World's Water 2000–2001 (Volume 2): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2000.
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water 2002–2003 (Volume 3): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2002.
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water 2004–2005 (Volume 4): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2004.
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water 2006–2007 (Volume 5): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2006.
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water 2008–2009 (Volume 6); The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2008.
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water (Volume 7): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2011.
• Peter H. Gleick, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2010. Website: Bottled and Sold
• Juliet Christian-Smith and Peter H. Gleick (editors), A 21st Century U.S. Water Policy. Oxford University Press, New York, 2012. ISBN 9780199859443 . Oxford University Press catalog webpage
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water (Volume 8): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Island Press, Washington D.C., 2014. ISBN 9781610914819 . ISBN 9781610914826 Island Press catalog webpage
• Peter H. Gleick and associates, The World's Water (Volume 9): The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Pacific Institute, Oakland, California, 2018. ISBN 1983865885 . ISBN 978-1983865886 Pacific Institute World Water webpage
• Peter H. Gleick. The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future. PublicAffairs/Hachette, 2023 ISBN 9781541702271 .