The Water Crisis

Here is a part of my book report (Yeh, book report) on Cynthia Barnett’s Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Waters of the Eastern U.S

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So far, I have agreed with most of Barnett’s arguments. She achieved her goal of clearly explaining water crisis to the public and that some way to fix it is by using technology to fix natural formations such as wetlands and by controlling water usage with inflation. Nonetheless, the latter itself is controversial, if the people pay more, then private corporations will only become richer which is exploitation and condemned by the public. Why should people give up more money to the bottling and utility companies already with billions in net worth? Should farmers pay more for irrigation as well? If they do not then why do “we” have to pay more? If they pay more for water then would not food prices spike throughout the world making first-world nations the only ones with food and water while the rest lack water AND food? The point is that Barnett did not introduce the possibility that the water crisis has been engineered by companies to earn even more profit. She seems to only cover the superficial government involvement with corporation to retain neutrality.

I learned a few new perspectives from the book, but nothing too dramatic. One thing developed nations must do is reduce irrigation for lawns and golf courses. Golf courses do not benefit the majority; golf is a way for rich people to waste time. As George Carlin would say, “Golf is like watching flies ****.” Lawns are to increase property value, but what if one does not want to spend the money or care too much about the environment? Then he/she will be fined; fined for petty disputes over property in a capitalist and free market society, hypocritical correct?

Another way to eliminate a large part of the water crisis internationally is by ultimately eliminating the for-profit privatization of water and those (The World Bank and Congress) responsible for its creation. Corporate control of water has been meddling with politics and water usage since technology allowed the control of water.

During my childhood in China and the recent visits, it can easily be seen that there is no “drinking” water; liquid, dirty or clean, is all I had access to. In water scarce and high population areas such as China and Haiti, there are not even enough un-bottled water to replace daily respiration. In industrializing nations, the only way to obtain “drinkable” water is expensively imported bottled beverages, whose Western based manufacturers intentionally/unintentionally caused the drought by draining all the regional water from the ground and surface to resale to the commoners without treatment and at unimaginable prices. Filtration systems are usually too expensive for average third-world citizens, a simple Brita pitcher is price gouged to cost about a quarter of their yearly salary.

In Beijing, a “foreigner” like me can actually taste and feel the texture of the chemicals and filth in the water from sinks; the last time I drank boiled water in Beijing, I was literally, physically unable to swallow the “water” because it felt like gravel at the back of my throat. However, these people have no choice, politicians are usually bribed into conceding to the corporations or are actual employees of the monopolies themselves. One question that can be asked is, do water-privatization sectors really want to fix the water problem which they could exploit without blame? We can see here that corporations are the real problem; they undetectably (to the average individual) promote water usage to further control water; and as Barnet said, water is the future oil and that whoever controls water controls the future.

During the five years of my life here in Florida, I have not seen any major coverage about water crises. To my amazement, I have not really even been concerned about water until after reading Mirage. The book is definitely a must read for all, especially the dim-witted politicians of the world whom we would expect to fully understand the water crisis but really do not.

[edit on 1/4/2009 by die_another_day]

I live in central Michigan. I remember 50 years ago we could actually drink from local springs and streams. Now the groundwater above a 60 ft depth is all polluted across the area and Nestle Corp is going into the deep aquifer i.e. 300-600ft not far from my home and bottling and marketing it for a premium price as local surface wells and ponds dry up. No one knows what this is doing to the local hydrogeology as no one did any research! (It was all politically motivated and driven through by profits) This sets a precedent for other large corporate and governmental entities to do the same. The Great Lakes are the largest source of fresh WATER in this part of the known universe.......When it is gone it is gone FOREVER!!! DIRT

They lie.
There is plenty of water in the Florida lime rock.
When one hole seemingly dries up another one is filling.
Come back to the first one and it is filled again.
There are many underground streams.
They come from the mountain area.
They bubble up in sink holes;
They bubble up in the Gulf.
They buble up in springs.

This is another manufactured crisis.
Homeowners can water lawns one day a week between 4 PM & 9 AM.
Golf courses however can water any old time and as often as they want.

A real water shortage would be so alarming that it would be necessary to pass legislation sterilizing everyone so that there would be no new people to use the water; and of course all immigration would have to stop immediately. Violaters would be executed.

reply to post by OhZone


You must realize that golf courses and lawns only exist in low population density and developed areas such as the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The rest 2/3 of the world hardly ever sees a lawn or golf course, yet they're suffering even more because of greedy assholes.

Water is "infinite" in this world, however, drinkable water is not especially when the available supply is being corrupted and diverted.

And furthermore, ocean water can be made into clean drinking water, and guess what.....we have TONS of ocean water, more than we need. It's just a matter of spending the money to refine. Thats what they won't do, it would be too easy, and wouln't pay off in the long run.

They'll only create things that give them a constant flow of profit. Re-newable resources just don't do that.

Very interesting report, you will break it into sentences and paragraphs right? Easier to read? Better grade.

Anyway here is a thread I started a while ago, it may have a few ideas for you as well.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

let us know how you do! great and highly important issue.

reply to post by antar