2012年9月16日 星期日

The Blue Alternative - How to Win the Water Wars


Many of us are unaware that we are currently engaged in a subversive war over our water. The delicate balance of our eco-systems rest on maintaining the homeostasis of our global weather patterns, the ratio of Oxygen and CO2, and our eco-structures. The rise in carbon emissions, deforestation and misuse of our natural resources has created a breakdown in these systems.

Our most precious natural resource, second only to the air we breathe is our fresh water supply. We require water in order to exist. Without it we would not survive more than a few days. But our outdated laws do not encourage proper sustainable use of water and we are fast becoming a desert.

97% of the Earth's water is salt water...the other 3% is our fresh water supply and it is either too polluted for human consumption or even human contact or it is at risk. Chemicals used in industry, human and animal waste, hormones, pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture have been the primary causes of water pollution.

Chemical waste, sewage, dead animals, pesticides and toxic substances go into the ground water and into the crops we eat as food. The result has been that we've been exposed to various diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, cholera, polio and many other toxin-caused syndromes from our water supply.

An even more imminent threat is that we are mining the water that is usable faster than it can be replaced. A disastrous result of the disappearing water table underneath populated areas like Mexico City is that the city is slowly sinking.

Extreme weather due to climate change also has had dire consequences on how the world's water is distributed. Warmer weather has driven the clouds out to sea and dumped our rainfall into the oceans while the interior lakes and rivers are receiving less and less.

Deforestation too, contributes to soil erosion. If there are no trees to hold the soil in place water cannot pool correctly and we are facing a desertification crisis. Some sources say that within 50 years the world's water supply will collapse. Water will become more precious than oil.

If we run out of water, we will find ourselves without the single most important resource besides air that we require for survival. This has led to the ensuing war over water or Blue Gold.

Big Business knows how precarious is our fresh water and have been co-opting the right to treat, bottle and move water and turn a profit thereby. Profit is made when these Corporations take over the water supplies of entire areas and even countries. Water has been made a salable commodity instead of a natural resource and a human right.

This means life and death on the basis of profit; those that can afford it get water, those that can't, go without.

Privatization of water ownership means that corporations can charge whatever they want and force poor countries into virtual slavery to rob them of their water while denying them basic sovereign rights within their own borders.

For example:

Kenya is already being forced to use cholera contaminated water. Their water is too expensive for adequate use, so they are dying. The World Trade Organization forces them to give their crops away for too little so that they can get water.

Bolivians are rising up against the Transnational Corporations who own their water. They pay more for their water than for their food. In Mexico, a well-known soft-drink (owned by Nestle, one of the three major water monopolies) is half the price of water.

The Solution: the Blue alternative

We can save our precious water. We must take back our water rights and demand that our leaders pass legislation that protects this essential and vulnerable resource.

We need to:

1. Stop corporate theft of our most precious natural resource.

2. Keep the water where it belongs. Dig holes to capture the water and make small dams, like beavers, out of sticks and logs in the waterways so that the water will pool and the aquifer will start to replenish and reforestation will occur.

3. Localize our food systems and de-industrialize food and water. Boycott water monopolies.

4. Turn off the tap.

5. Use low-flow toilets low-use shower heads. Look into grey water recycling.

6. If your area does not support a lawn naturally, don't have one.

These are just a few of the ways that we can win the Water Wars. We can and must do more, learn more

and take action to prevent another short-sighted casualty of this War at the hands of our apathy and private corporate self-interest.

We the People must be the custodians and guardians of our water supply.




Dora Varis is an musician and writer with a passion for green eating and natural living alternatives: http://www.thegreenregime.com Join the green wave of super foods and conscious living and receive a preview of the e-book: Healing Greens by visiting: http://www.thegreenregime.com/





This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

沒有留言:

張貼留言