On World Water Day this year, March 22, I am thinking of the increasing global urgency of water scarcity and of Mina Guli’s epic quest to wake people up and convince them that every single person can make a difference.
Some people see a problem and ignore it. Some see a problem and decide it’s someone else’s responsibility; it’s too big to make a difference on; it’s not a priority.
Then there is Mina: the rare somebody who sees a problem and does something about it. Something really, really big and kind of nuts but all the more incredible for being so crazy.
Over the past seven weeks, Mina has been running the equivalent of 40 marathons in seven deserts across seven continents to raise awareness of water scarcity. She started in Spain’s Tabernas Desert, then moved on to Jordan, Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, Chile, and finishes with a run in the Mojave Desert in California, just in time to celebrate her achievement on World Water Day.
Mina’s quest is all the more important right now, at a time when so many people feel powerless to change some of the most obvious and increasingly urgent, yet unresolved dangers in the world.
I call these highly probable, high impact threats gray rhinos.