Jeff Opperman’s fascination with water began in the creek in his childhood backyard; he loved watching the way it changed from a stream, small enough to step over, into a “burning brown flood” that was too fast-moving to get close to.
Opperman, now the global freshwater lead scientist at the World Wildlife Fund, will be speaking at 12:15 p.m. today in Smith Wilkes Hall for the Bird, Tree & Garden Club. His lecture will explore not only the fundamental importance of water to the sustenance of humanity, but also the specific significance of rivers and the ways that civilizations have relied on them throughout history.
“A lot of people think about water as a resource, like, … ‘We need this much volume to drink, this much volume for irrigation,’ ” he said. “Water, obviously, is super-important for that. But when water is in the form of a river, it does things for people — it does things that benefit people.”
At the World Wildlife Fund, Opperman’s work focuses on directing research initiatives that can strengthen freshwater conservation strategies and on integrating science into freshwater projects and programs. He does this largely by forging partnerships with academic and research institutions, constantly updating best practices, and influencing conservation strategies around the world.
Opperman is also a prolific writer, with work in scientific journals and mainstream publications such as The New York Times and Forbes. He started writing about his work because he was eager for a more effective way to communicate the work that he was doing.
“At some point, I just thought to myself, ‘Oh, I’m going to start trying to communicate this, … as if I was talking to my mom,’ ” he said. “So I needed to make … the issues that I work on to be very relatable and accessible to a broad audience.”
That sparked a realization: many people didn’t really have a clue about what conservation organizations like the World Wildlife Fund were actually doing. By writing about the work he was doing, he said, he could invite more people to join the conservation movement. It was critical, he added, to find ways to get people who weren’t already bought into the movement on board. By clearly communicating what he was doing at the World Wildlife Fund, and why it was important for people to get involved, he could do that.
The issues addressed by WWF and other conservation organizations, he said, aren’t “nice to haves” — they’re “actually fairly existential in a world that’s going to have 10 billion people, in a world that is making progress but has not yet really figured out how to change the trajectory … of climate change.”
He hopes Chautauquans will leave his lecture with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the importance of rivers for both humans and for the ecosystems they flow through, as well as a desire to get more involved in the conservation of rivers in their communities. By diving into the science of rivers and exploring how humans can coexist with them in a more harmonious way, Opperman is confident that audiences will leave with a new perspective on the bodies of water that have long been a centerpiece of communities.
“If we relearn these lessons about how to safely manage the challenges and to take advantage of the benefits of rivers acting like rivers, we can actually move into an uncertain future with more safety,” he said. “People can become advocates in their own communities.”
