Dr. John Todd and his wife Nancy Jack Todd are founders of the New Alchemy Institute and Ocean Arks International, devoted to developing and implementing environmentally sustainable technologies. They have received numerous awards during their more than two decades of work, are authors of a number of books, and currently publish Annals of Earth, in which the following first appeared. Our liquid planet glows like a soft blue sapphire in the hard-edged darkness of space. There is nothing else like it in the solar system. It is because of water.
Water is the ultimate mystery.
I was born on the north shore of Lake Ontario and was always a water child. My bedroom was only a hundred feet from the water. I lived on it, in it, under it. My favorite pastime was canoeing on it through the miles of beautiful marshes. The life in the lakes and streams was so rich and varied.