Modeling plausible futures
Last spring, MIT research scientist C. Adam Schlosser, who serves as deputy director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and colleagues published a paper in the journal PLOS One that projected a “high risk of severe water stress” in much of Asia by midcentury. Attributing the projection to rising demands driven by population and economic growth and exacerbated by climate change, they estimated that within 35 years, 1 billion more people in the area would be affected. The region in question is home to about half of the global population, so this finding matters. News outlets from the Christian Science Monitor to TIME picked up the story, disseminating it to millions of potential readers. “The response to this study illustrates the kind of scientific finding that makes people — including decision-makers and other stakeholders — listen and react,” says Schlosser. “We presented not only the science...