Announcing a new book series. Renewing the World, explores what may be the most important issue of our time – how we can sustain, and renew, our world. The first volume, Renewing the World: Water, published in 2023, is now joined by companion book Renewing the World: Casebook for Leadership in Water, launched in January 2024. Cases feature world leaders in water innovation. To download a sample, click here.

Climate change is upon us. The first system impacted will be water – we are the water planet. We are now seeing signs: increasingly damaging storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires. Is it too late?

Many of the world’s greatest achievements came in response to crisis. As shown in Building the World, history turned upon danger and discovery. Cyrene, a new city in ancient Libya, may have been the first instance of climate migration: Greek residents fled Thera (now Santorini) during drought to seek a new land with ample water and a better future. Rome did not build the aqueducts until the Tiber was threatened in war. Presently, world water is subject to problems ranging from drought leading to wildfires, and storms leading to flooding. Most of the world’s drinking water contains microplastics. Rising seas threaten coasts worldwide.

Renewing the World looks at climate problems through solutions and innovations. Climate change will cause the most extensive – and resilient – rebuilding that history has ever seen. Every field will be affected by water: from accounting and agriculture to engineering, law, and technology.

We have a once-in-history opportunity to rebuild civilization’s foundational systems. Climate change challenges us to find ways to renew our most important elements. By taking a systems view, we can not only protect our world’s water, but we can find the key to its power of renewal. All natural systems are designed upon the principle of renewal. It is time, now, for renewing the world.

About the Author

K. Lusk Brooke, founder of the Center for the Study of Success, taught seminars at Harvard and MIT on Failure and Success. Previous books include Mobilizing the Organization, nominated for the Financial Times Best Global Business Boo, and Building the World, exploring how engineering, scientific, and technical success shaped civilization. In addition to recognition from the Copernicus Society, Fulbright Foundation, and Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Kathleen Lusk Brooke was named one of the Beautiful Minds of the Millennium.

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