When you take a long shower or relaxing bath, consider that future generations may look back at the freedom to use as much water as one wants as unbelievable.
As a result of global warming, drought conditions have intensified all around the world. In the U.S., the west, southeast and northeast are in the midst of droughts. Even Alaska is in midst of a drought (in their Governorship as well, I hear).
Here is a graphic from an interactive drought map by UCL DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS:
You can access the full interactive map here: UCL Drought Map
While the GOP would naturally oppose addressing global drought because it is socialism, will kill grannies and intrude on the free market, while our nation fiddles with petty partisan insanity, the globe burns.
Think about it, what would your daily life be like with strict water rationing? What do you think the prospects for peace will be around the world when nations have insufficient water supplies for their populations and see water in bordering countries? How do you think the huge numbers of the world population living in poverty will fare when they do not have available water?
Corporate interests around the world have been and are buying up water rights. Such wolves in sheep’s clothing include the devious T. Boone Pickens who hides behind the guise of backing wind power as a way of buying great amounts of government-owned land at fire sale prices AND the water rights.
Why is one of the greediest, manipulating oil men stampeding to buy water rights?
Water is the “oil” of the future and whoever controls the spigot doesn’t just control whether we can afford to drive more or less, they control who lives and who doesn’t.
Los Angeles is in the 2nd year of an official drought and the city now only allows residents to water their lawns on Mondays and Thursdays for a maximum of 15 minutes each day.
Needless to say, lawns are browning and dying everywhere in the city.
The scary thing is that this is just a small preview of the measures that will likely be coming down the line as Global Warning deepens droughts across the US and the world.
Green grassy lawns, kids running through the sprinklers, long showers, all of these may one day soon only be luxuries for the rich and powerful.
To be positive, there are steps that can be taken to mitigate the global water shortages resulting from declining rainfall and snow melt such as desalination plants, water recycling plants, conservation, and restricting enormous recreational wastes of water by such things as golf courses and industrial wastes of water such as practiced by huge agricultural corporations.
Here we are in an asinine battle over reforming a dysfunctional health care system or letting the status quo destroy more lives.
One can only imagine the Republican opposition to our species making it through this deepening global drought.
Something tells me that they will be fighting for the right of golf courses to have water and railing against the “socialism” of providing water to any house that has a faucet.
UPDATE – 8-13-09:
The following headline appeared today via BBC News, click below for the full article:
India’s water use ‘unsustainable’
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa’s gravity satellites.
The Grace mission discovered that in the country’s north-west – including Delhi – the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.
Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.
The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.
That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world’s second most populous nation.
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 The situation has to stop today or tomorrow  Dr Raj Gupta
CIMMYT |
I have springs on my property and a small pond. I don’t own the water, the state does.
Any water passing through my land is state water.
My policy is that any water running through my land that does not have “State of California” stamped on it is good drinking for me.
How is it you don’t have water rights on your land?
The water industry is already a violent one. Coca Cola is a good example, boycotting for murders at bottling plants in Columbia and now for stealing water in India.
I agree. This will be our next oil industry, and it’s already starting. Bottled water becomes more and more expensive while tap water is increasingly rationed when draughts are prolonged. Any essential commodity that can be made scarce, can be made profitable. It will be interesting to see whether the water industry stands in the way of technologies such as desalinization, water transport, or even more advanced purification in order to protect its own profits.
In the documentary, The Corporation (which is fantastic!) they document how a global corporation contracted to own ALL the water in the country…EVEN RAINWATER! It was illegal for citizens to collect rainwater!
The people eventually rose up and revolted against the government and the agreement was nixed but this kind of stranglehold on the global water supply is going on viciously every day.
I often use my bath water to water my plants, messy spills but worth it. I also have a connection that sucks up bath water for the washing machine, the Japanese are way ahead in this technology, do keep up.
Just a small step but everything helps.
Wow, that is very much ahead of the curve. I think I can pretty much guarantee that 99% if not all Americans, including me, don’t conserve water as thoughtfully.
The Japanese are not only ahead technologically on this but more importantly, socially. Such technology would go unused and bankrupt in the U.S. because our society would not see it as necessary or desirable, much “easier” to just use more water.
As with health care, oil, global warming, American society is reactive not strategic (thanks to corporate ownership of our government).
We don’t look down the road and steer clear of hazards ahead of time, we blindly drive right at the hazard then panic and try to slam on the brakes and try to swerve to avoid it. Most of the time, we crash into disaster head on because of this.
If the U.S. began educating citizens that we conserve our strength as a nation by conserving our resources, a very simple and patriotic concept, we could lessen the impact of a whole host of emergencies that are scattered on the road ahead.
Unfortunately, based on the track record, I think we’re just going to hear a lot of screeching of brakes for some time to come.
Like usual the US is back asswards and wait until it’s a crisis to consider doing anything. And even if it’s a crisis Republicans will not want to take the steps needed because they claim is will be a job killer.
Meanwhile, Global Warming is a Civilization Killer.
So the logic is, at least there will be jobs even if there’s no civilization?
That’s excellent, Kalima. This kind of home conservation should become commonplace — conserve water from the bath or from the kitchen for watering lawns. Desalinization and small scale water purification technologies are probably in our not-to-distant future.