Shallow thinking about water imperils the planet

WHAT WOULD summer be without water: without frolicking on a beach, fishing in a lake or savouring a novel poolside? And yet, for anyone who cares about the health of the world’s oceans, 2024 has been a bleak year. Mass fish deaths, driven by drought and heat, have been reported on opposite sides of the world, in Vietnam and Mexico. Most of the world’s coral reefs have bleached, a process in which unusually warm water temperature makes coral brittle, bone-white and susceptible to disease and possibly death.