Water: H₂O=Life

Exhibits

All life on Earth needs water to survive, but the amount and quality available from place to place varies widely.

In this section:

Visitors are introduced to some of the incredible adaptations that plants and animals have evolved over the ages to cope with water scarcity or abundance, to extremes of temperature, or to life in fresh or salt water.
Human life, too, is emphasized, with exhibits that describe our own body-water content and daily water needs.

Water is a remarkable substance that has the power to shape the face of our planet.

This section:

Focuses on some of the extraordinary physical and chemical properties of the H₂O molecule and its importance as a climate driver, not to mention our planet’s greatest landscape architect.
Visitors can also examine all three physical states of water (ice, liquid, and vapor) at room temperature in an exhibit that takes advantage of just one of the many surprising qualities of water that make it a singular part of life on our blue planet.

Throughout history, water has helped civilizations grow and flourish.

This section:

Focuses on how people use fresh water, competitive demands on the limited supply, its role in almost everything we produce and consume, and the environmental consequences of our water use.
Exhibits follow the history of irrigation and damming — from a still-functioning 2,200-year-old dam to the massive Three Gorges Dam — as well as the widespread environmental impact caused by putting water to work for us (more than 60 percent of the world’s largest rivers have been dammed or diverted).

: Theater

To put the exhibition into perspective and give its issues a human voice, a group of experts, including exhibition curator Eleanor Sterling and American Museum of Natural History ichthyologist Melanie Stiassny, speak passionately about the need to rethink the ways we obtain and use water. The short video will run continually in a sit-down theater.

Many people, plants, and animals have had to adapt to an abundance of water and have done so in innovative ways.

This section:

Explores some of the wettest and iciest places in the world, how species (including humans) manage to survive in these unique ecosystems, and how climate change is affecting them.
An expansive diorama re-creates life on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, a freshwater lake on a tributary of the Mekong River that is home to a remarkably diverse ecosystem as well as a rich human culture where life is governed by the seasonal pulse of monsoon floods.
A contemplative space displaying examples of the role water has played in art and culture around the world allows visitors to reflect on water’s unique ability to enrich our human experience.

More than a billion people around the world live without reliable access to safe drinking water, and even more without adequate sanitation.

This section:

Presents stories from some of the most water-poor places on Earth and offers insight into the amazing ways that people and ecosystems are both shaped by and adapt to a lack of water.
An interactive that depicts the relationship between water scarcity and gender equity, visitors are able to experience the simple act of lifting and carrying full water jugs—something that millions of women and young girls in developing countries do every day and that can limit their access to educational and economic opportunities.
A scale model of a working “play pump”—a playground carousel that pumps water to a storage tank—gives visitors a look at one of the many innovative technologies being used to give people access to much-needed water supplies.
Artifacts including ancient and modern water vessels from around the world underscore the importance of water to human survival everywhere, as well as the inspiration people have drawn from water throughout the ages.

Clean water and good health go hand-in-hand.

This section:

Explores where our drinking water comes from, what is involved in making sure it is safe, and why clean water is so important to our well-being.
A video microscope permits visitors to examine a few of the many microorganisms that can inhabit a single drop of water. Visitors can also view a three-dimensional video illustrating the impact of human populations on groundwater supplies in Tucson, Arizona.
Another interactive exhibit lets visitors investigate how seemingly solid rock can store water.
A diorama of a Great Lakes wetland highlights the important role that wetlands play as nature’s water purifiers.

More than any other resource, water exemplifies the ecological principle that all living things are connected.

This section:

A 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet and a 5,000-year-old Sumerian water jug reinforce the message that some of the world’s oldest human civilizations owe their existence to the life-giving waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

: WHAT CAN I DO?

This section, the contents of which will be tailored to each stop on its international tour, reinforces the message that we are all stewards of our watery planet and individual action can make a difference. An enlightening interactive quiz suggests to visitors ways they can save water in their daily lives by doing such simple things as installing low-flow shower heads, fixing leaks, not letting faucets run unnecessarily, and making small changes to diet.