Thirsty Yet
By: Anthony J. Gerst:
With glacial retreat doubling over 2006’s two hundred and fifty percent increase, it was reported on 10/11 that Greenland’s ice melt has increased to over 104 cubic miles during 2007. As scientists are perplexed in trying to figure out why this is happening, twenty-five percent of the world’s fresh water supply is rapidly draining into the ocean every year. Reports indicate that at a certain point of saturation the THC, which controls the weather patterns of the planet, will become affected. This happens when enough fresh water disrupts the ocean conveyor belt, it is speculated that this will reconfigure into a pattern running closer to the equatorial regions, resulting in an ice age. Many scientists now believe that because of greenhouse gasses the resulting ice age would not occur, this would put the planetary system of checks and balances up for grabs, as Mother Earth will be in uncharted territories. Remember as well that unseen tipping points are present in our current day and age. With the scientists so confused as to the increased melt in Greenland, their prediction that it is safe for at least another 100 years is brought into question. Should Greenland, like the Larson B Shelf break up unexpectedly, the result would be a large rise in the levels of the oceans in a relatively short period of time.
Every twenty years the demand for fresh water is doubling. Currently 1.3 billion people don’t have access to clean water. It is speculated that in less than 20 years demand will exceed supply by more than 50 percent. Water shortages, the harbinger of societal change is looming on the not so distant horizon.
1) The Great Lakes have dropped 2 feet since the 1980’s.
2) Lake Mead has dropped 60 feet from 2003-2006, and is expected to drop another 20 feet this season.
3) Lake Victoria supplying the water resources to 30 million people in Africa has dropped 6 feet in the past six years.
From the disappearing snows of Kilimanjaro to over industrial usage of Lake Victoria, there is an impending biological disaster looming.
4) A small town in the American Southeast recently ran out of water.
5) Towns across the border in Mexico find citizens walking 20 kilometers a day to retrieve two buckets of water for their daily usage. This, despite the fact that recently Condoleezza Rice was in Mexico reminding them of their obligations to supply the U.S. with water.
According to Tony Clarke, a water expert for the Polaris Institute, California is facing a grave issue within the next 13 years. From a book written with Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians called ‘Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water,’ we find: “California’s Department of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today.”
The corporate theft of the world’s water resources
Actually the term for this is called neoliberalism, this is the belief that government control of resources is bad for the economy, hence commodities should be open for corporations to privatize them. I would call this a neo-con philosophy myself, but hey, a rose by any other name still has a thorn to stick you with.”Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century; the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations,” from Fortune Magazine 2000. According to an upper level executive from Vivendi, the world’s largest water controller, “Water is a critical and necessary ingredient to the daily life of every human being, and it is an equally powerful ingredient for profitable manufacturing companies.” Did you notice how cold and callous the calculations are in the formatting of these statements?
As an environmentalist you may it find it shocking to learn that I drink bottled water. I reuse the bottles and fill them up five gallons at a time. I have what is called sandpoint water, this means my water has a nice texture that helps to get the skin clean, like a blasting hose, also it has extensive chemical exposures to nitrogen and other chemicals used down here on the farm. Add to that, I am very close to the river; there are the elements of drainage bringing in pollutants from a distance. So I will not apologize for using bottled water. I would like to leave you with two other quotes. Statements I find more profound, more humane, one could look upon these two quotes as being enlightened or environmental.
“In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water has become the victim of his indifference” the legendary Rachael Carson.
“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water,” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, former Nobel Prize winner for medicine and biochemist from Hungary.
