Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben lecturing at the University of Denver last week. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

Journalists tend to be obsessed with novelty. Unfortunately, climate change has long since ceased to be a novel problem. But, novel or not, according to long-time environmental journalist and activist Bill McKibben, no story is more significant to global humanity.

This was the primary message McKibben put forward during a recent speech at the University of Denver before about 150 journalists and aspiring journalists from around the United States.

McKibben was at the University of Denver, where I teach journalism and communication courses, giving a keynote speech at a journalism conference called “Journalism is Dead; Long Live Journalism!”.

McKibben was also awarded the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media Anvil of Freedom Award by DU Media, Film & Journalism Studies Associate Professor Lynn Schofield Clark.

The conference, at which I spoke about SolarChargedDriving.Com as an example of environmental advocacy journalism, was focused on inspiring innovative and thought-provoking discussion about the state of journalism and its future, in particular, here in the United States.

SolarChargedDriving.Com series: Climate change, water & renewable energy
SolarChargedDriving.Com reporter Johanna Zeller takes a close look at links between climate change, water resources and renewable energy in this exclusive four-part series. This installment, the fourth of the series, is a photo slideshow that brings together powerfully shot photo images with sobering statistics and facts. The first part of the series = Climate change already affecting water resources. The second part = Few consider climate change's impact on water. The third story in the series = Renewables, climate change & the future of water.

Climate change is adversely affecting snowpack levels in many mountainous areas of the world. [Photo by Johanna Zeller]

SolarChargedDriving.Com series: Climate change, water & renewable energy
SolarChargedDriving.Com reporter Johanna Zeller takes a close look at links between climate change, water resources and renewable energy in this exclusive four-part series. In this installment, the third of the series, Zeller looks at dire case scenarios and the ways in which renewable energy use might mitigate climate change's impact on water resources. The first part of the series = Climate change already affecting water resources. The second part = Few consider climate change's impact on water.

Living in Colorado, water is a precious resource we are lucky to have. With a natural mountain desert environment, snow from the Rockies is a major water source that fills our rivers with water every year. However, degradation and careless use of scarce water resources have been progressively affecting our water reserves.

There have been several ways governments try to manage water resources. Creating dams has been one of the ways in which governments gather water and use it as their reserve. However, there have been questions of the effects of dams on the environment and society.

Dr. Michael Kerwin, a geology professor at the University of Denver states, “There are a lot of negative consequences of dams with regards to the environment, but the reality right now is that if you are going to live in an semi-arid or arid region like Denver, you have to store water, and right now, the reservoirs are the best that we can do so they are not going away.”

LESS WATER = MORE FIRES: Climate change has meant less rainfall in many areas around the world and increased risk of wildfires such as this one in Ecuador. [Photo by Johanna Zeller]

SolarChargedDriving.Com series: Climate change, water & renewable energy
SolarChargedDriving.Com reporter Johanna Zeller takes a close look at links between climate change, water resources and renewable energy in this exclusive four-part series. In this installment, the second of the series, Zeller looks at the question of a climate-change induced worst-case water resource scenario in a specific but also instructive case: That of Colorado’s Front Range, where several million people are living in a semi-arid region whose water supplies could be profoundly impacted by global warming to a degree, which as Zeller's story illustrates, few are aware of. The first part of the series = Climate change already affecting water resources. The third story in the series = Renewables, climate change & the future of water.

Issues surrounding depletion of water resources are becoming of national and international concern. Drought and water scarcity are being experienced more and more throughout the world.

What are the possible outcomes if water resources go dry? How will humans respond? What will happen?

I went around the city of Denver, Colo. asking people if they had ever thought about the way they use water. I wanted to know if they had thought about water scarcity and its possible outcomes, and how they felt about worse case scenarios surrounding water problems.