Boccaletti spent his early career as a scientist, working on climate dynamics and physical oceanography at Bologna University, Princeton University, as a NASA Earth Systems Science Fellow and MIT.
Giulio Boccaletti, author, water expert and climate scientist.
In search of impact, he left academia and went into business, working for the global consultancy McKinsey & Company, where he became a partner, one of the leaders of its Sustainability and Resource Productivity practice, and co-founder of its Water practice.
He has produced several reports on key sustainability issues, including carbon and water security strategies for countries, the role of the ICT sector in climate transition, the economics of climate adaptation, and the economics of water security. In 2013 he joined the Nature Conservancy, one of the largest conservation organisations in the world, as Global Managing Director for Water, then as its Chief Strategy Officer.
Beginning with the earliest civilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Yangtze, he describes how these societies developed institutions that responded to changes in climate and sea level, following the last glacial melt.
He illustrates how irrigation and flood control interacted with society to influence political systems: how, in Ancient Greece, the distribution of power mapped onto the distribution of water; how Roman water security was inextricably linked to the tax system of the empire. And he makes clear how the modern world as we know it began from that legacy: from a legal system that made possible the systematic development of water infrastructure, and political systems that succeeded in harnessing its power.
The book offers important lessons on how the rise of the modern republic is linked to the central role water had in society, and shows how, behind the illusions of technological modernity, humanity’s long, difficult relationship with moving water still shapes today’s politics and economics.
Boccaletti will be speaking in Waterloo on March 22, for the World Water Day fireside chat: WATER: Life, History, Art where he will explore our intricate relationship with water; how it has shaped civilizations, reconfigured landscapes, formed political institutions and inspired culture and art. He says: “Interdisciplinarity inspired my book and is at the heart of exploring our relationship with water. I very much look forward to this conversation!”
The fireside chat will feature Boccaletti, Ulrike Al-Khamis, Director and CEO, Aga Khan Museum and Dustin Garrick, Professor and University Research Chair in Water and Development Policy, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo.