Water is such a critical concern, the Schuylkill Center has established 2018 as the Year of Water in our programming. The seventh annual Richard L. James lecture, Water: Peril and Promise, will take place from 7 to 9 p.m., February 8. Scientist Bernard Sweeney, businessman Brian Linton, activist Maurice Sampson, architect José Almiñana, utility expert Debra McCarty and educator Aaliyah Green Ross will share their most important thoughts.

As the cities of Flint and Houston have so starkly highlighted, water is a major global concern. While 85 percent of humanity lives in the driest half of the planet, our use and abuse of water is causing many rivers to disappear while we choke others with pollution. Meanwhile, climate change causes rivers to disappear, sea levels to rise, droughts to bedevil huge swaths of the world, and floods to inundate others.

Location: 8480 Hagy's Mill Rd., Philadelphia. For more information, visit schuylkillcenter.org/blog/event/7th-annual-richard-l-james-lecture.