[erl]

Wasn't sure where to post this: WATER COULD BECOME MAJOR CATALYST FOR CONFLICT

[ubercrap]

Yep, we've known about these problems for a long time. I've been trying to inform people about this issue for about 7 years now.

[erl]

I recognize that this is not necessarily "news" to most. I just saw the article and thought I'd relay it. I'm not trying to post a scoop.

[RG73]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ubercrap', 'Y')ep, we've known about these problems for a long time. I've been trying to inform people about this issue for about 7 years now.

[Snowrunner]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RG73', 'I')'ve mentioned it quite a few times as well. Peak water gets about the same reception that peak oil got 5 years ago. People think you are nutters for suggesting that we could run out of easily accessible fresh water. And a couple posts down someone will chime in about desalinization or towing icebergs or some nonsense that will save the day. Or about how fossil aquifers will magically refill. Same stuff they were saying about the oil....

[elizabethlea]

It's a major issue here in oz.

In fact they are planning a new desalinisation plant in W.A., which would be disastrous for local wildlife....

Why can't they (government) handle the fact that growth of the population in this country is very limited? GAH! It is so frustrating.
Luckily we have alot of hippies around here who have nothing better to do than protest every development the gov't proposes, so that's a little bit of relief.

Thanks for the article

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('elizabethlea', 'W')hy can't they (government) handle the fact that growth of the population in this country is very limited? GAH! It is so frustrating.

[backstop]

erl -well done you for posting the link - a good many of us have posted on it here and there, but it needs repeating regularly.

Seems to me a black joke that many members here pride themselves on being aware of peak oil in advance of the rest of society, but have no general recognition of the simple fact that there are four such global issues, of which three are hugely much better documented than peak oil :

Soil depletion - Climate destabilization - Oil depletion - Water depletion. In my view any official policy, commercial strategy or personal preparation that fails to provide an integrated response to the four issues has every chance of doing more harm than good.

[Petro]

One could argue that they are all directly related to overpopulation.

[backstop]

Petro -yes, this arguement is often made, but I've a difficulty with it - Supposing Ghandi's ideology of "voluntary poverty" (a simple v. low consumption way of life) and of an implacable respect for human life (pacifism) had somehow taken off and swept the world, peacefully dismantling the British Empire and revising the injustice that empowered the Nazis' rise -

With that history we'd not now be facing the four nags of catastrophe, but might well have a population at or even above 6 billion. This points to the ideology as the pivotal factor driving the present problematique, with its propagation (via TV soaps etc) as the cutting edge, and with population level as only a tertiary influence.

[erl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Snowrunner', 'S')omebody should stop watering the golf courses in the desert, and maybe reconsider where they grow their crop.

[erl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'S')oil depletion - Climate destabilization - Oil depletion - Water depletion.

[backstop]

erl -Seeing as your in one of the wealthiest cities in the world's wealthiest nation, I'm right out of sympathy but am rather long on compassion, so I'd suggest two approaches -

Get used to considering solutions to two of the nags at once, before considering three, etc. Alternatively, have a look at the current Wood-energy Thread and see how many of the nags it manages at once . . .

[deconstructionist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mos Def', 'T')here's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)
Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water
On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)
Try it with your friends

New World Water make the tide rise high
Come in and it'll make your house go "Bye" (My house!)
Fools done upset the Old Man River
Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga
Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin
So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin
til your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since
it's the New World Water; and every drop counts
You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna
But it don't rain for four weeks some summers
And it's about to get real wild in the half
You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath
Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank
Competin with the next man, but how your playa rank?
See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,
Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank
Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods
The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods
And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher
They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"
New York is drinkin it (New World Water)
Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)
Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)
Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)
Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)
Four carbons and monoxide
Push the water table lopside
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause all things fully loaded they roam cross the sea
Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)
When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let em know)
You gotta put it in the iron you steamin with (That's right)
It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out0
The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)
And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let em know)
Assumption promotes health and easiness (That's right)
Go too long without it on this earth and you leavin it (Shout it out)
Americans wastin it on some leisure shit (Say word?)
And other nations be desperately seekin it (Let em know)
Bacteria washing up on they beaches (Say word?)
Don't drink the water, son they can't wash they feet with it (Let em know)
Young babies and professional neediness (Say word?)
Epidemics hopppin up off the petri dish (Let em know)
Control centers try to play it all secretive (Say word?)
To avoid public panic and freakiness (Let em know)
There are places where TB is common as TV
Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy
The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line
Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five
Now the world is drinkin it
Your moms, wife, and baby girl is drinkin it
Up north and down south is drinkin it
You just have to go to your sink for it
The cash registers is goin ching ching for it
Four carbons and monoxide
Got the fish lookin cockeyed
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause it's all about gettin that cash (Money)

Said it's all about gettin that cash (Money) (x9)
Johny cash (Money)
Rosanne cash (Money)
Give me cash (Money)
Cold cash (Money)
(Repeat to fade)

Cash rules everything around me,
Move!

[MrBill]

Given America's blatant disregard for Canada's rights in the softwood lumber dispute, and it's willingness to disregard both NAFTA & WTO rulings that it is violating its own laws and running countrary to both the spirit and the rule of the agreement, I don't have much faith that eventually they will try to take over Canada's vast resources of fresh water.

There are already plans afoot to divert water from the Great Lakes outside the basin area that drains back into them contrary to the international treaty banning such diversions. And, N.Dakota is draining land, sending contaminated water back up into Canada using the Red River which drains into Lake Winnipeg (or is it Manitoba?).

I think that ironically, they may use the NAFTA agreement and the precident set by sending water north (against Canada's wishes) as an excuse to force Canada to export water, which is currently not covered under the existing NAFTA agreement. In other words, they will argue, water was not supposed to be covered, but seeing how Canada allowed water to flow north they cannot stop companies from selling water to America? It is pretty complicated, but the stakes are very high. The Athabasca tar sands would just be the icing on the cake.

It is not a very nice scenario to think about, but I think eventually we will get a request from our neighbors to the south that we cannot refuse.

[MrBill]

Sorry should read

I don't have much faith that eventually they won't try to take over Canada's vast resources of fresh water.

[Gil-Galad]

Tony Blair and his government are proposing to build huge numbers of houses in the area around London, already densely populated. Even in wet Britian some experts think that it will not be possible to provide all the water these developments will demand

In southern europe, Spain and Portugal have on going disputes about water. Again, both countries have developed huge golf resorts for wealthy tourists, guzzling enormous quantities of water.

It is the same everywhere

[MrBill]

Certainly here in Cyprus they have experienced water rationing in recent years and yet they continue to build very large new homes, which need water for air conditioning, household use and outside irrigation. Also, tourism is very water intensive. Think of all those showers and towels that need to be washed. It is a lovely island, but I don't know where they think they can continue to pull water from for all this development?

[evilmonkeyspanker]

Thankfully, big oil can save us from this too

[harlanater]

well soon we'll be out of air too. I hate this planet