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Blue Gold: World Water Wars (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWGzzSG-fVM

This is a must-watch video for all who need water (the rest of you are excused). I actually covered a lot of the material in the video in my Water Worries post, which I put together several years ago (but being one of the earliest posts on this site, when we had a far smaller audience, it barely got read, as evidenced by the fact that it didn’t attract even a single comment). This is a critical topic, and I’m pleased to say that, as did my earlier article, this video doesn’t just point out the problems, but also has an holistic view of the situation, so it also directs one to what must, and must not, be done about it.

One of the ‘must nots’ includes water privatisation — a sure way to ensure the incubation of ecological madness and humanitarian disasters, as the video will demonstrate.

One of the ‘musts’ is to restore the hydrological cycle — i.e. stop deforestation, whilst working on afforestation and restoring a healthy structure, and carbon, back into our soils (read my Water Worries post for more on this aspect). ‘Restoring the hydrological cycle’ sounds overwhelming, but in reality it needn’t be. Ecological restoration can occur very rapidly, once there’s the will to do so. That’s where altering our economic systems is key, as it can profoundly impact society’s priorities, and incentivise all kinds of sanity. At the moment, just as we have a ‘health care’ system that has no interest in prevention (as they’re making plenty of money out of our being sick), we have a privatised water industry that relies on dearth and despair.

Please take the time (1.5 hours) to watch this video, and to consider it well. The water issue is a critical part of the web of problems that need addressing — all of them being interconnected, and all of them, potentially, being solved by permaculture solutions, if we can only gain critical mass in objective perspective on them.

Further Reading:

8 Comments

  1. Thanks for posting this up Craig. I will not look at water the same way again. The movie really moved me and inspired me. Thanks

  2. All life needs water. Everyone needs to know what is going on and most do not. Lets all send links to this movie.

    It is encouraging to see people getting big corporations and governments to return the rights for water to the people and the ecosystem. It helps that the laws favour the people.

    It may sound too simplistic but the ideal perhaps is to move to wards where we measure and identify the water capacity and usage (aggregate and disagregate) of a local ecosytem and then design accordingly setting upper limits on population and water use we can then design to live within our water means. Instead of massive dams have swales and other systems to soak water into the land.

    I wonder that perhaps instead of just having water licences traded where a person with no farm can buy the lot and then rent it out, It would be better to allow a maximum usage of water per land holder based firstly on land size and a complex of other factors so that each is sustainable. As such land use for many would change.

    It appears that such ideas of collaboration of information and each being responsible and sustainable is a challenge for humanity to do what is right, sustainable and equitable. Many would call this ludicrous to do, but can anyone deny that it is not the only true sustainable and equitable model?

  3. Yes, definitely worth watching. Important messages. Also, I read Cochabamba after this movie and that was also quite interesting how a small town took back its water from the grips of a private water company and which sparked other towns and other commons to be ‘won’ back to the people.

  4. Craig, I mentioned this awhile back in a comment: How about having previous articles Recycled, where they are periodically re-posted, one at a time, to the front page, say one once per week or something like that, as a feature.

    Anyway, I try to watch and enjoy all the videos that are posted.

  5. Hi Caelan

    It’s a thought, although it’d be a bit of work to choose which to feature! But, just for you, I’ve added a new feature to our sidebar. Please see the top of the ‘Categories’ section, where you’ll find a text link that will take you to a randomly selected article. You can just keep clicking that link repeatedly to find all kinds of interesting older posts.

    How’zat?

  6. This video is so important. When I watched it, it really opened my eyes. I mean, I never thought how careless I was being with water. From now on I will be more conscious. This video is a must see.

  7. thanks 4 this video really its good 4 watching as we live in this century which is full of crisis water is one of it i live in the country in middle east that we started to face water shortage and their consequence

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