Our Most Precious Natural Resource ..Will it become a trading commodity?

[Mercy Now]

June 02, 2008

Will Water Scarcity Trump Peak Oil as a Global Challenge?


Until recently, the industrialized nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as a potentially scarce resource that may drive up prices and fines around the world. In Barcelona, Spain, for example you can be fined €9,000 ($13,000) for watering your flower garden.


In highly populated developing nations, water shortages and poor access to clean water has been an increasingly common concern. Currently 1.1 billion people living without access to safe drinking water. Even so, the problem seems far away in the minds of many who are living in more privileged circumstances. However, that may be about to change.

Milton Clark, a senior health and science adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says he worries that these water issues that are currently emerging will eventually develop into bitter conflicts in the not too distant future when these dry states in the U.S. become increasingly desperate.

"We will, in fact, get into major water wars," Clark said. "You will see water wars coming in every way, shape or form. In the U.S., there are some leading politicians who have said the Great Lakes do, in fact, belong (to everyone) and all water should be nationalized and this certainly is a concern."

Ohio Lt.-Gov. Lee Fisher recently stirred up controversy when he told an economic development summit that the Great Lakes region may be only a few years away from selling water to other U.S. states in need.

"I think it's fair to say that we're going to see in the next decade states and other countries looking for ways to get access to our fresh water supply, and we're going to have to make some tough decisions about whether we want that to happen and, if so, how," Fisher said.

Last year the US government issued a report stating that the heavy growth in the American Southwest region "will inevitably result in increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-off choices."

Of course, we’re not actually running out of H20 from a macro perspective. It’s still around like it was millions of years ago. What we’re running out of it the right kind of water in the right places. Humans haven’t always wisely built civilizations close to vast fresh water supplies, but vast fresh water supplies are exactly what large populations require. Nearly all of Earth’s water is in the ocean (97%) where it does us little good as drinking water unless it is desalinated—an expensive and energy intensive process. But people, plants and animals all need fresh water to thrive, and as we’ve seen with oil, when resources dwindle—or are even just perceived to be dwindling whether or not they actually are—things can get nasty.

Wired magazine’s Mathew Powers points out that “like oil, water is not equitably distributed or respectful of political boundaries; about 50 percent of the world's freshwater lies in a half-dozen lucky countries.”

He notes that “freshwater is the ultimate renewable resource, but humanity is extracting and polluting it faster than it can be replenished. Rampant economic growth — more homes, more businesses, more water-intensive products and processes, a rising standard of living — has simply outstripped the ready supply, especially in historically dry regions. Compounding the problem, the hydrologic cycle is growing less predictable as climate change alters established temperature patterns around the globe.”

But with all of this pessimism is there any good news? Well, the good news is that as people become more aware of the need for water conservation, the more wasteful habits are curbed. Americans are using 20 percent less water per capita than they did just a generation ago, so conservation education appear to be working to some extent.

With advanced technologies and more prudent water usage, the majority of Earth’s inhabitants will be able to continue to enjoy the luxury of clean water for a long time to come. Yes, we need to fundamentally rethink water usage and plenty of bigger changes are needed, but at least we’re heading in the right direction. With better stewardship and improved city planning, humans will likely be able to avert a good portion of the more disastrous scenarios. 

Posted by Rebecca Sato.

[robin]

corporatization of global water supplies...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Water/Blue_Gold.html

under contract, once a country begins to export its water, it HAS to export the same amount each year or face fines...even if their aquifers run dry.

water is no longer considered the commons meaning it belongs to everyone.
water has been reclassified:
Water according to the World Bank and the U.N. is a human NEED, not a human RIGHT.
These arent semantics, the difference in interpretation is critical.
A human NEED can be supplied in many ways, especially for those with money.
But no one can sell a human RIGHT.

[Astrojewels]

Interesting MN, and this could happen in many countries, I feel that all the elements must change as we are changing, I have seen many articles of the people becoming victims to water and energy crisis, but living the past few years in a drought I think in a totally different way, it is really another process of fear, and it works and will continue to work over the next 10-15 yrs.

The article says that humanity is extracting it faster than it can be replenished and I agree with that statement, because water has always flowed continuously each time we turn the tap on! We could never imagine ‘the tap dry’.

There are corporations lining up to take advantage of people, and if the people allow this then they are victims, any person who genuinely cares about the environment needs to educate others in ‘less is more’ philosophy.

The world is unbalanced with the water crisis, we have countries without a drop, others with more than enough, but the entire world needs to become water wise but the sad thing is we don’t apply it until forced, and then this is seen as control.

I wonder if we will ever have a bill for the amount of air we breathe?