Here are three meaningful actions we can all take on water: Use less. Pollute less. And from our backyards to our cities, make places that leave room… - Cynthia Barnett

We know on issues such as climate change, there's a core group of deniers who are never going to change the way they think, and that's ok, because that's only 7 to 10 percent of the population. There's a core group of super-worried people who know exactly what's happening. Then there's a really large group in the middle, and those are the people science tells us we need to reach to be able to make a difference.

I try to think about ways to draw the public to the story of the planet, and seashells are something we've always wanted to listen to. It's sort of irresistible to pick a shell up to the ear and listen to what it's trying to tell us — and they are telling us a profound story about what we're doing to the ocean. The tiniest shells are beginning to disintegrate in the acidifying sea. It really is a metaphor for something much bigger.

Nationally, water consumption peaked in 1980 and has dropped steadily, even as the economy and population have grown. That shift, in waterworks and minds, affirms Americans’ willingness to live differently once we understand how painless the better path is.