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Is the water crisis a serious issue?
Do you think the US should put effort into fixing the water crisis?
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Dorian Knus
John Gianino
edulover learner 10+
Scott Reil
Oh wait, it is and that hasn't been enough to start a real conversation yet...
Check out Alan Savory's new TED talk, he is the only person I know of on the planet with a reasoned, reasonable, inexpensive way to reverse desertification, but some sacred cows might have to get slaughtered (like "We need to get rid of cows"). Water has already started be a conflict starter (search Cochambamba and water to see what I mean) and the damages are already worldwide (Aral Sea, Colorado River, etc.). Yet this topic is recieving a lot less attention than the related Global Warming (exacerbated by albedo effect, often a direct result of less rainfall); I suspect because while we can live with warmer, we cannot live much drier than we already are. This is an even-less convenient-truth...
Taylor Blackford
Robert Winner 50+
Second .. you suggest the UN as a help ... you could not be from the US and make this suggestion. The UN budget is 13.9 billion which the US pays 25% of the total budget and 27% of the operations costs .. plus all of the facilities and the city of New York suffers from the diplomatic fools of the UN and violation of US laws. 17 of the member nations pay 86.5% of all costs ... the rest of the nations are there for the ride. The UN has been trying to correct the world problems since 1945 and have a VERY poor record but VERY high costs. Can you name a nation that has been expelled for not paying it manditory dues ... for human righs violation in their own country while being a member nation , etc ... for violating the UN charter ... nope it doesn't happen.
For centuries these undeveloped nations have had the same basic problems and have never acted to resolve them. Peace Corps have dug wells .. planted crops .. etc. when they leave the people go back to the old ways.
Shouldn't these people want to help themselves .. can you help someone who doesn't really want helped.
Just asking. Throwing money at the problem ... is that the answer ... we do that all over the globe and are still hated.
Just some thoughts. Bob.
Ana María Pérez 200+
Taylor Blackford
edulover learner 10+
Taylor Blackford
Karyl Eggert
Josh S
- not trying to be obnoxious, i mean ive heard of water pollution... but not a crisis
Taylor Blackford
Josh S
My opinion would be that there is a much smaller percentage of people now without clean water then with it. The vast majority of people have access to clean water, more than anytime in the history of our species. Yes, we have work to do, as the facts from the website shows, and yes it is a tragic, preventable problem, but every year more and more people have clean water. we are making progress toward the goal of everyone having clean water, not the other way around, so i dont think there is a crisis.
Or if you do consider it a crisis, then we have been in a water crisis since the first human was born.
Taylor Blackford
Sarah Chang
BUT there are organizations that are trying to build water infrastructure that, with time, can attenuate the water crisis.
Dorian Knus
Taylor Blackford
edulover learner 10+
Taylor Blackford
edulover learner 10+
Taylor Blackford
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
The idea that technology can convert non-usable water (dirty, polluted or saline) to usable if there is only enough money is not only silly but stinks with exploitation, power and unfairness. It is silly because it sounds like we can destroy health and can boast of medical technology that can cure us if we have enough money. It is exploitative because most goods, including modern agriculture has unappreciated high water footprint. We have parts of world where 600 litres of water is routinely used per capita where as we know there are other parts of the world, parts from where historically 'free' labor force has come to affluent parts of world till few centuries ago, where women walk 20 kms daily to collect a bucketful of water.
http://water.thinkaboutit.eu/think5/post/water_paradox_an_approach_to_understand_water_crisis
http://water.thinkaboutit.eu/think5/post/water_the_new_approach
http://water.thinkaboutit.eu/think5/post/blue_water
http://water.thinkaboutit.eu/think5/post/pirates_of_the_ground_water
http://water.thinkaboutit.eu/think5/post/green_water
I do not intend to promote my blogs just trying to save space here.
Taylor Blackford
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
Actually there is not one solution to the problem. Apart from what are being tried in terms of technology (low-flow faucets et all, I am chuckling again), agriculture (GM seeds that require much less water to produce crops) and other means, I think water footprint should be integrated into the economy. I mean, if a pair of jeans have thousands over liters of water embedded in it at a price say x$, I think I shall buy another pair with either lesser liters embedded for same x $ or may pay a little more for that.
There should be water usage governance and policies like aquifer withdrawal regulation, taxation on water intensive sports like golf and consumption of meat.
The per capita consumption of water, both direct and virtual, should be controlled through legislation as well as social appeals.
I know the answer sounds uninteresting but fact of the matter is that there is no magic lamp that we can rub and avert global water crisis.
Ken brown 30+
As far as i know for the States, it is the Oglalla aquifer that is being sucked dry and once that is gone? What other natural sources are there that will deliver the necessary amount needed to water the farms who are subsidized and are utilizing land that is usually too arid to grow in? There are those of us here who live on islands that understand that water is the primary source first and foremost of all resources that is the first concern, if someone was to tell me that i was to half the use of that water because they were going to take it and give it to someone else, i would shoot them then laugh at them for their naivete. Welcome to the horror of population pressure.
Taylor Blackford
Ken brown 30+
Conserve your water yes but it doesn't help anyone in Africa or Asia or me. The best one can do is make sure the natural aquifers don't drain out or allow it to drain out like they are doing with the Oglalla. There are ways to harvest moisture from early morning moisture from the coasts but it just needs setting up.
Barry Palmer 50+
We have already piped the world with oil and gas pipes.
As Krisztián Pintér says, the key is price.
Taylor Blackford
ZX Style 10+
Taylor Blackford
Daryl Roche
seriously???
Taylor Blackford
ZX Style 10+
They had water wells in the time of the bible!
They had nor machinery nor money....
If you dig long enough you will eventually hit water, then pile stones around the pit and there you have it.
This does not require a lot of money nor machinery.
There may be environments where this is hard because it has a rocky soil.
But those places are mostly the uninhabited or scarsely populated places.
I still believe it is a matter of putting enough effort in it or move.
Taylor Blackford
ZX Style 10+
But that doesn't mean that the US has to be responsible.
There are allready enough NGO's in Africa helping out in the most risky situations.
I think you should go to Africa or Asia and see if this is really a problem for Africans.
Taylor Blackford
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Taylor Blackford
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Taylor Blackford
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Taylor Blackford
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
ZX Style 10+
Fresh water is abundant in this world, if you are living in the desert you are living in the wrong spot.
And if you prefer to stay in the dry areas, then you need to learn how to make a water well.
Every human being can dig a waterwell and that water is allmost endless.
Taylor Blackford
ZX Style 10+
Redug of wells is a false argument.
That insinuates that the water in America drops out of our cranes without effort.
(which is clearly not the case, good quantity and quality requires research and machinery)
It doesn't matter where you are in the world, you allways have to put effort in having fresh water.
Why should the US be responsible for everybody's water, we allready have enough problems on our hands.
And if the task to maintain enough fresh water is too hard for somebody then moving is the only option.
Taylor Blackford
Gail . 50+
Did you know that the Colorado River will no longer flow into the sea by the end of THIS decade? Do you have any idea how many aquifers have been destroyed through pollution because of chemicals used as both fertilizer and pesticides - not to mention fracking that turns faucets into blow-torches? Are you aware that - regardless of primary cause - global warming is real? That means that more water will evaporate. People will need to drink more water. Crops will need more water if we are to eat. Population growth is dangerous at this stage of humanity's development.
But these things are overlooked because your government has sold your survival (thus you) to the highest bidder. The more our resources are depleted, the more of a hindrance you are to the highest bidders, so something will need to be done to reduce the numbers of people like you. (The best way would be to start a major war - with an invented but culturally believable reason - so that the sheeple who are not paying attention will die, and attention will be diverted from a serious underlying problem that - if not addressed - will mean the end of most of humanity anyhow)
The USA cannot escape global warming. It could escape population excess. It could refuse to sell our survival to the highest bidders in the name of profits. More and more Americans should ask themselves why this is happening. When they do, they will realize that money is not more important than people, and they will join together to bring the corrupted system down
Taylor Blackford
Gail . 50+
But I think that is a rarity. Still, it shows how access to water can become so severe that a corrupt government - that no longer serves the people - such as the american government - can cross the line.
I don't think that water shortage will be the first step in an overall demise. I think that it's part of a perfect storm of events - most of which would be avoided if our government served us rather than the wealthy who make their profits on the backs of those whom they do not appreciate.
The hope lies in working out the only available solution that I have been able to think of - but do it in your own mind so that you understand it. When enough do this, we will be able to reclaim a government of, by, & for the PEOPLE (rather than money). Only then will we be free, and with that freedom comes safety (for different reasons).
Random Chance 30+
Upwards of one billion people don't have access to clean water and over 2.5 billion don't have sanitary conditions.
In 2005, 4,000 children a day died from not having access to enough water to keep them alive. That figure is higher now and still growing.
Not one child left behind? Right? Wrong, millions of them left to die.
Certainly not white chillun. Certainly not Amerikan chillun.
Any resource that humans need to live should not be allowed to be owned or controlled by anyone, any country, any corporation, any bank or financial institution, king or queen. The resources of the earth were here for everyone's needs, not only a select few.
The control should be taken out of their hands and managed properly by the global population.
We don't have a population problem. We have a management problem of huge proportions because they are intentionally mismanaged for profit, scarcity that leads to profit, and that also leads to the horrible deaths of millions of people and thousands of children every single day.
Taylor Blackford
Taylor Blackford
Random Chance 30+
They will not be given back. There are more laws to limit voting.
There are methods people are trying to implement to not allow a change in law to be challenged once it has been passed. Such is what is happening in Michigan right now.
There is so much going on that what seems clear is this: all these things falsely taken away can only be "taken back" by force in some form or other. They will not be given back.
Amerikans have great examples from other countries as to what they need to do. Syria, Egypt, Libya, Italy, Greece. People have to rise up. The only empowerment Amerikans have right now is in the Dec of Indep which tells them, authorizes them and instructs them in what to do.
Such is the fact that companies, groups or individuals who control resources must relinquish control or ownership of those resources. If they don't or won't, then only force will get them back.
I don't see how one Amerikan can walk around without feeling real guilt about the poverty they have caused in the rest of the world. So too have others I know, with other countries and their governments and so on, but they have done the most damage.
Yet they cry how much one act of child sexual abuse is 100% intolerable while they tolerate and benefit and enjoy, the fruits of resources stolen from other cultures and countries, causing millions to die and that includes millions of children.Over decades, with immunity and impunity. They can tolerate extreme collateral starvation, slavery, poverty, inequality, crime, greed, war and death. They benefit from all of that. If they are good people, then they must stop their Imperialistic, Fascist leaders and entities from carrying on in this way.
They really shouldn't be doing anything else but that. How could anything else be more important?
Mismanagement means new management. How do people get management that does its job?
By voting? No, that doesn't work. Pleading? Asking nicely? Suggesting? Being civil?
george lockwood 20+