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Water Wars
We all drink litres of water every day. But clean water is turning more and more into a luxury. As the article below explains why, it is also important to think of how to counter this problem which in the near future will be an even much greater issue. What can we do? Well, it's all about consumerism again, the source of a lot of problems, because it is the engine of production and therefore environmental destruction. We have to curb our consumption, so there will be less demand and consequently less production, that's the only way to save at least some of what is left of the planets resources and it's natural beauty. Another way is to look at what you buy and do some research, if the corporation you are supporting by buying their product is an environmental terrorist or not. Just to let you know, almost all major corporations like Coca Cola (river pollution), Kellogg's (waste production, GM food), McDonalds (deforestation), Nestle (Genetic Engineering), Del Monte (pollution thru pesticides), KRAFT (river pollution, deforestation, animal testing, genetic engineering), PepsiCo (river + ground water pollution) and the list goes on and on and on are vital on any boycott list. If you don't believe me then check out EthicalConsumer.org. Only thru boycotts these corps can be pressured to change their policies. We, the consumers, can stop this madness! Your body & future generations will be thankful as well =;o) Of course stop wasting water & appreciating it will help as well. =;o) Also mentioned in this article is the war for water in the middle east conflict. This is one of the main reasons, if not THE main reason for Israels occupation of Palestinian territories, WATER! ...a fact rarely mention in the mainstream media.
In this text you will also come across a woman named "Shiva", she is one of the people I really admirer. Here are some infos about her: Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of many books. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights. She directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. Her most recent book is Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge.
We can't change the past, but we can shape the future!
~peace~
U.N. Observer & International Report
An independent Journal of International Affairs
Global Water Wars To Increase: a book review by Shepherd Bliss
"If the wars of this century were fought over oil," World Bank vice president Ismail Serageldin observed in l995, "the wars of the next century will be fought over water."
The world now faces both oil and water shortages, but the exhaustion of water will be more serious. Humans lived for millennia without using much oil, but a person cannot survive for many days without clean water. Only a finite amount of water exists on the earth, on which all life depends. As the human population increases, the consumption of water rises, but the supply of fresh water is diminishing as we continue polluting the remaining water supplies.
"Water wars are not a thing of the future," the Indian physicist Vandana Shiva contends in her new book Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. She notes, "They already surround us, although they are not always easily recognizable as water wars." Shiva won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (Right Livelihood Award) in l993.
"The war between Israelis and Palestinians is to some extent a war over water," Shiva contends. The Jordan River provides 60% of Israel's water needs, though only 3% of the Jordan basin lies in Israel. Shiva reveals how many of the important conflicts of our time - concealed as ethnic or religious wars - are in fact conflicts over scarce but vital natural resources.
Water is "the basis of life" and "the matrix of culture," Shiva notes. Her own nation derives its name from the river Indus. Water is naturally 
life-sustaining, but too little or too much of it can become life-threatening.
"The water crisis is the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth," contends Shiva. "We are currently facing a global water crisis, which promises to get worse over the next few decades," Shiva adds.
Water Wars documents the erosion of community control and the colonization of rivers by giant dams. Shiva exposes the ongoing destruction of the earth's resources and how the world's poor are stripped of their rights to the precious commons of good water, "It is the poorest people in the Third World who will be most severely affected by climate change, drought, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels."
Climate change is a primary cause of water shortages. Shiva writes about a cyclone in Orissa, India, that damaged 1.83 million homes and 1.8 million acres of paddy crops. It killed 300,000 cattle, and human casualties were around 20,000.
"The l999 cyclone was not a mere natural disorder - it was mainly a man-made ecological crisis unleashed by the combined impact of climate change, industrialization, and deforestation," according to Shiva.
Similar catastrophes that appear to be natural have increased in recent years and are likely to intensify even more, because of human damage to the environment that throw ecosystems out of balance.
Geologist Jane Nielson, who worked with the U.S. Geological Service for years, explains what happens when forests are cut.
"The soils erode because the tree roots no longer hold the soil as well. The tree branches don't provide the umbrella effect that slows down bullet-like raindrop impacts. If roots are removed and the soil replanted with a monoculture, the soil erodes more because the mature roots are gone."
Alaska has been hard-hit by water crises recently. Average temperatures in Alaska have risen a startling 7 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 30 years, causing the thawing of ice caps and glaciers. The sudden temperature rise is human created. Among its consequences are dead forests, sagging roads, crumbling villages, and the disruption of marine wildlife.
Catastrophic fires also threaten Alaska as a result of the melting ice. Climate change creates not only more flooding and cyclones, but also more droughts and heat waves. "There is either too much water or too little, and both extremes pose a threat to survival," Shiva notes.
On Alaska's Kenai Peninusla, for example, 38 million trees died. Officials called citizens to create a "defensible space" around houses for fire protection. Two major fires occurred on the peninsula last year. With temperatures already in the 80s in mid-May, officials fear more major fires.
As droughts mount around the world, fires set accidentally or on purpose by humans will increase. Before the first offical day of summer wildfires had already scorched over 2 million acres this year in the Western United States. This is more than double the ten-year average for the entire year. Colorado and Arizona are experiencing their worst wildfires ever, which will probably not be extinguished until the fall. This burning trend is likely to worsen over this summer and in the future.
Multinational corporations are buying up water rights and transforming water from a human right into a commodity to be bought and sold to those with enough money. "Water has become big business for global corporations, which see limitless markets in growing water scarcity and demand," Shiva notes.
Fortune magazine, in 2000, identified the water business as the most profitable for investors, after the collapse of technology stocks. The World Bank indicates that the potential water market is over $1 trillion. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are moving into the water market in major ways. Coca Cola products, now including bottled water, sell in l95 countries.
Shiva criticizes the "cowboy economics" of multinational corporations with their water-as-private-property model. She describes the "forced apportion of resources from people" as a "form of terrorism--corporate terrorism." She accuses large corporations of unleashing "a new wave of terror" that causes people to die of starvation.
Shiva describes "the struggle between the right to clean water and the right to pollute." Industry seeks to move away from pollution as a violation, to pollution as a permissible consequence of economic growth.
The alternative that Shiva offers is traditional - water as a public resource and part of the commons. Alternatives to water wars are also presented by Shiva.
"Peace lies in nourishing ecological and economic democracy and nurturing diversity. Democracy is not merely an electoral ritual but the power of people to shape their destiny, determine how their natural resources are owned and utilized, how their thirst is quenched."
Shepherd Bliss
Review of "Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit," by Vandana Shiva, South End Press, 156 pages, 2002, $14.00: SouthEndPress.org
