Water Conflicts
Sharon August 28th, 2009
I’m having computer programs and heading offline for the Sabbath shortly, but I thought I’d leave you with this brilliant site to peruse – they do a lovely job of illustrating the scale of our world water crisis. Not cheery, but awfully important to understand, and well worth a look.
http://waterwars.pulitzergateway.org/
Shalom,
Sharon
- water
- Comments(12)
“Computer programs” = “computer problems”
Marvellous Freudian slip, there, Sharon!
Good Sabbath, and thanks for all you do.
oh thank you for bringing this topic up. It seems more critical to me than peak oil in that we can live without oil – we cannot live without water.
The site is very good. I do think though we cannot think of water as an issue for the third world – water shortages are a reality NOW here in the US.
And it is not just about shortages – it is about the loss of potable water – water that isn’t loaded with carcinogens etc.
Here in NJ – were we have lots of rain and plenty of aquifers – we still face shortages. Aquifers are not recharging, overdevelopment causes too much water to be taken from shallow aquifers – hence allowing sea water into the aquifer. We also now have desalianation plants!
A timely and important topic – thanks for bringing it up. I do wonder if availability of clean water might be something we overlook in our preparations for the future?
I know there’s a real problem with getting clean drinking water in many areas, however there’s another opinion on the probability of water wars in the near future. The talk, accessable from the link below, is given by a writer who researched the issue for a book she was contracted to write and just as she was finalising her manuscript she found out something that totally changed her mind on the issue.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2009/2654788.htm
And it’s not like no one saw this coming. We discussed it extensively in climate change conferences in 1988 and 1989. The 89 one was in Cairo, Egypt- and the Egyptians were highly aware of the potential for war with the people upstream on the Nile.
I find the attitude of people towards drinking-water in the US really wierd.
Here in the UK we safely drink tap water that comes from rivers into which sewage farms discharge 100% potable water. A common joke is that Londoners drink the water that people in Reading (40miles further up the River Thames) drank the day before – this is probably not strictly true however
It is a well known fact here that tap water is better for you than many brands of bottled water!
I think that with ‘affluence’ often comes squeamishness. Just as many people have lost the capability to gut a fish they have also decided that reprocessed water is to be avoid if at all possible. The embedded oil in bottled water, and the ‘food’ miles too, are truely astounding.
Ha — most bottled water came out of a tap somewhere, in any case.
MEA
Bottled water is one of the biggest rip-offs from the 20 Century.
Katinkate – thanks for the link – interesting article. But it does assume the ability to maintain global trade – to exchange those Israeli oranges for grain.
If the grain producing countries have droought – the whole exchange is brought to a crashing halt.
Again, such grim facts – Peak Water hitting at about the same time as Peak Oil – lead us back to the discussion in, Whose history? Which Future?, which dealt with the Monbiot-Kingsnorth debate
And as Jason said in that discussion (Jason on 27 Aug 2009 at 3:58 am)
“How obvious can you get? It’s all in what Sharon is saying:
There’s an old Jewish saying that one isn’t obligated to complete the work (of tikkun olam, the repair of the world) oneself, but neither is one free not to attempt it.
There’s nothing more to say!”
I think there is more to say. I came upon the idea expressed in that proverb in my late teens – though I came upon this idea from a different source – and I know that this idea points to something deep in the human soul, and pertains to – perhaps the ultimate – meaning and purpose of human existence.
There is a spiritual dimension to what we are going through; Carolyn Baker’s Sacred Demise is a preliminary sketch of that dimension. I honor what she is doing even though I do not always agree with her.
I mention this for the reason that, as our knowledge of our predicament deepens with each passing day, I think spiritual preparation becomes equally important as all the other preparations. Maybe more so. I know some will think such a thing superfluous, but I mention it anyway for those who might be thinking otherwise.
Thanks so much for highlighting our Water Wars interactive portal — and for introducing me to your great site. Given your interest in sustainable agriculture your readers may also find of interest our Food Insecurity portal, with reporting we’ve supported from around the world. The link is http://pulitzergateway.org/food-insecurity.
You’ll see that the Water Wars and Food Insecurity portals are both designed, like our other portals, for the easy upload of comments and video reports, all mapped to show where participants are coming from. The idea is to encourage a global conversation. I hope you and your readers will take a look, and share your views.
Thanks again, and best of luck!
Jon Sawyer
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Joseph, you might be interested in:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peakoilinterfaith/
gtqdyha- Thank you,zcekapo.Great site.