Water scarcity in the United States and across the globe has the potential to radically change the economic and political landscape in Maine. The way we as a community set the preconditions for this coming “paradigm shift” will determine whether we lead responsibly and reap the rewards, or are manipulated by outside interests and become victims.

It's up to us, but the time to act is now.

Of all the profound challenges facing our nation in the coming 50 years, water scarcity is at the very top of that list — by far. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report demonstrates quite clearly what we have already known for some time. For much of the world, water scarcity is very real and very scary. Humans can live and even thrive without a lot of things, but water is not one of them.

Due to the realities of climate change, water scarcity has become a primary national security concern and a thorn in the side of an increasing number of American municipalities. For those of us who live in Maine, however, the shifting tides of resource availability could provide the most compelling economic and cultural boom in recent history, indeed it most likely will become our gold rush. Even the most cursory glance at recent headlines reveals just how quickly water scarcity and water management are impacting other parts of the country.

A citizens group in Detroit, for example, has petitioned the United Nations for emergency relief to provide water for some poorer neighborhoods. The largest source of irrigation in the U.S., the Ogallala Aquifer, rests below the Plains states and supplies water to 27 percent of the irrigated farmland in this country. Due to drought and overuse, it is being seriously depleted and in many areas is dangerously low. Estimates are that once it is depleted, the Ogallala Aquifer will take between 6,000 and 10,000 years to replenish. Its disappearance has the potential to have a devastating affect already stressed American household budgets. And because each community in our country is nearly inextricably tied to an unsustainable food delivery system, Maine is in jeopardy too.

What will be the consequences when a box of Corn Flakes is $8.50, a gallon of milk $7, or a pound of chopped beef is $12? The foods and feed that make those products affordable come directly from farms that irrigate using the Ogallala Aquifer. It is categorically true that great change is coming for the world's food delivery systems. The depletion of the aquifers that feed us is just one example.

The one area in the United States that has had and, if the models and projections are correct, will continue to have abundant water into the future is Maine. That's right, Maine. The economic and social implications for this state cannot be overstated. Imagine the world's addiction to oil multiplied by an unknown factor and you may begin to see the geopolitical and economic realities of water scarcity. How will Maine manage its new role as a water rich region? My friend, Dr. Habib Dagher, has long referred to our state as "The Saudi Arabia of wind." He is quite right, of course, and his wonderful turn of phrase is meant to inspire us to the potential of wind energy in our state. As it turns out, we may also end up managing what is an exponentially more precious resource.

The human energy that has been flowing into our state in recent years is almost impossible to not notice. In addition to the thought leaders that have come here in the green energy fields, we have also benefited in areas like organic farming and food preparation. In Slow Money Maine, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the farm to table movement, we see new faces and ideas contributing in very positive ways. I'd be willing to bet that Maine has more James Beard nominees per capita than any other state. A very interesting kind of migration toward Maine is currently under way. Where before Maine may have been regarded as a nice place to retire, now young people are looking to Maine as the place where they can put down roots. It is my contention that resource availability here is the driving factor.

In the middle of the last century, many of the Americans who made up skilled labor in the U.S. went off to fight in World War II. For the most part, they were white and male. This created a vacuum in the American workforce that was filled primarily by two groups; women and African Americans, who moved from the rural south into the large urban manufacturing centers in the Northeast and the Midwest. Everyone remembers the story of Rosie the Riveter. The skills these Americans learned changed the narrative of those two groups forever; it was a time of great empowerment and I believe set the preconditions for the Equal Rights Amendment, the women's liberation movement and all the civil rights legislation that passed a mere two decades after the war. Our abundance of resources here is attracting the next great sociological/demographic. Maine is a human energy magnet and our 'magnetic north' will attract jobs and intellectual capital for generations to come.

We face a monumental change in our future, and there is no better qualified population to face this challenge than Mainers. After all, the sign when you get here says, “Maine, life the way it should be.” It does not say, “Maine, life the easy way.” We work hard here and we are tough, thoughtful people. The abundant availability of our natural resources in Maine and our responsible partnerships with and stewardship of them is already attracting human energy to this state and the trend will continue into the future. The only viable course of action for us is to harness this energy and come together and create that most human of social structures, a village. And in this village, we all need to decide whether we would like to manage the world's last great resource ourselves, or fail to come together around this work and abdicate that responsibility to those who would treat our resources as commodities.

What can you do? First, learn about what foods are best for the health of your family and become food secure in your own house. Grow, preserve and store food increasingly every year. Next, support your local and statewide organic and sustainable food providers and local farmers. Let's stop sending Maine dollars to the middle part of our country for food that is slowly killing us and straining our healthcare system. Finally, become an advocate for your village by not only becoming an expert in sustainable practices yourself (how long has it been since you promised yourself you'd plant that garden or learn bee keeping?), but by also actively promoting the skills and businesses of like-minded people in your community. Go out of your way to help grow your community and before you know it, positive change becomes unstoppable.

We are already America’s most resilient population, we prove that every winter. Now is the time for Mainers to become America's most sustainable people as well.

Seth Silverton is an entrepreneur and noted futurist. He is a sought-after speaker and educator whose breakthrough work in the village leadership model is having a profoundly positive impact on the way individuals and organizations function by tapping the hidden power within his students or “modest warriors” and the villages they create.

He is a product of Brooklyn Friends School, the State University of New York at Brockport and City University of New York at Brooklyn College.