Drinkable water is fast becoming a not-easily-renewable resource. Around
the world, we dirty our water much faster than we can clean it. And in
many arid places potable water is THE big survival issue. Water isn't
completely non-renewable, but it isn't the abundant fount that people
have been undervaluing for the last couple thousand years. In fact, it's
becoming more valuable than gold. Which is why it is also quickly
becoming a privately-owned commodity.
Here in the US, much of the bottled water that people purchase comes
from a city or town municipal supply that has been sold to a private
company, then bottled and resold. In other words, bottled water is
largely from someone else's tap. The pesticides and fertilizers
agribusinesses use to grow "perfect" crops for large markets around the
country are leaching into the groundwater, resulting in unsafe drinking
water for nearby towns.
If you have not already seen the documentary BlueGold:World Water Wars,
we recommend that you do. It is available on the website below for
purchase, but can also be ordered via Netflix.
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/
Energy and water issues go hand-in-hand. We use energy to clean our
drinking water. And in many cases we use water to generate energy
(hydroelectric dams, the cooling processes of thermonuclear power, even
the corn grown for ethanol requires a great deal of water). According to
the article from Treehugger.com linked below:
"Plug your iPhone into the wall, and about half a liter of water must
flow through kilometers of pipes, pumps, and the heat exchangers of a
power plant. That's a lot of money and machinery just so you can get a
6-watt-hour charge for your flashy little phone. "
This article also contains a pretty cool interactive map of the world,
depicting the hot spots where water and energy are inextricably -and
disastrously- linked.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/interactive-map-shows-worldwide-water-and-energy-tug-o-war.php
This is a different kind of symbiosis -the parasitic kind- in which we
suck at the water of the planet through drinking, polluting, and
generating electricity, until our host is dry. And obviously it would
behoove us to change this pattern since we have no back-up host.
We can change things by not buying bottled water, by not putting
fertilizers and pesticides on our crops or not buying foods that come
from agribusinesses that do. We can put solar panels on our homes and
businesses, easing the burden on the water-generated supply until enough
of us get wise and we stop using those resources. Global Green Energy
can even install a solar hot water system for you, which heats your
water without you having to tap into the standard grid-tied electrical
supply to heat your water! Because if water is the new gold, we should
be treating it that way.
To learn more about how we can make a difference in remote regions of
the world, here are two nonprofits -- Abundant Water and Solar Cookers International-- with creative, immediate, solution-oriented approaches:
http://abundantwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AW-Info-sheet.pdf
and
http://www.solarcookers.org/basics/water.html
the world, we dirty our water much faster than we can clean it. And in
many arid places potable water is THE big survival issue. Water isn't
completely non-renewable, but it isn't the abundant fount that people
have been undervaluing for the last couple thousand years. In fact, it's
becoming more valuable than gold. Which is why it is also quickly
becoming a privately-owned commodity.
Here in the US, much of the bottled water that people purchase comes
from a city or town municipal supply that has been sold to a private
company, then bottled and resold. In other words, bottled water is
largely from someone else's tap. The pesticides and fertilizers
agribusinesses use to grow "perfect" crops for large markets around the
country are leaching into the groundwater, resulting in unsafe drinking
water for nearby towns.
If you have not already seen the documentary BlueGold:World Water Wars,
we recommend that you do. It is available on the website below for
purchase, but can also be ordered via Netflix.
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/
Energy and water issues go hand-in-hand. We use energy to clean our
drinking water. And in many cases we use water to generate energy
(hydroelectric dams, the cooling processes of thermonuclear power, even
the corn grown for ethanol requires a great deal of water). According to
the article from Treehugger.com linked below:
"Plug your iPhone into the wall, and about half a liter of water must
flow through kilometers of pipes, pumps, and the heat exchangers of a
power plant. That's a lot of money and machinery just so you can get a
6-watt-hour charge for your flashy little phone. "
This article also contains a pretty cool interactive map of the world,
depicting the hot spots where water and energy are inextricably -and
disastrously- linked.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/interactive-map-shows-worldwide-water-and-energy-tug-o-war.php
This is a different kind of symbiosis -the parasitic kind- in which we
suck at the water of the planet through drinking, polluting, and
generating electricity, until our host is dry. And obviously it would
behoove us to change this pattern since we have no back-up host.
We can change things by not buying bottled water, by not putting
fertilizers and pesticides on our crops or not buying foods that come
from agribusinesses that do. We can put solar panels on our homes and
businesses, easing the burden on the water-generated supply until enough
of us get wise and we stop using those resources. Global Green Energy
can even install a solar hot water system for you, which heats your
water without you having to tap into the standard grid-tied electrical
supply to heat your water! Because if water is the new gold, we should
be treating it that way.
To learn more about how we can make a difference in remote regions of
the world, here are two nonprofits -- Abundant Water and Solar Cookers International-- with creative, immediate, solution-oriented approaches:
http://abundantwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AW-Info-sheet.pdf
and
http://www.solarcookers.org/basics/water.html
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