Who Owns Water?

The Nation ^ | 9/2/025 | Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke

[independentmind]

Although this article has quite a leftist spin, there are plenty of issues here which should be of concern to conservatives. I am profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of large, corporate ownership, Enron-style, of water supplies, both domesically and internationally.

[Double Tap]

Enviromental Socialist (Communist) crap. Forgive the foreign debt. Increase foreign aid. Tax corporation for their evil profit.

I wonder why I get suspicious whenever I see the World Bank and the WTO involved in anything?

[EggsAckley]

It's true that the domination of water supplies will be a huge issue very soon, however this article is full of over-blown scare tactics. My county has been trying to grab private water wells recently, and it's just not gonna happen that easily.

Furthermore, with all the monsoons, blizzards, etc. that occur in the world, when will the capture of all this "free" water become obvious to the lefties? The US has had floods this very year; how about some genius figuring out how to capitalize on a way of keeping all that water? But No,..........here in Ca. they're actually talking about getting rid of reservoirs! It's a power play, all revolving around CONTROL.

He who controls the water controls the people.

[beavus]

Since people are usually driven to maintain or increase the value of their holdings, privately owned water supplies are likely to be very clean and well-maintained provided government regulations don't prohibit profit-making.

BTW you're right about the leftist slant. There's more pollution in this article than most industrial holding tanks. Trust me that Minnesota does not have, and is not likely to have, any problem obtaining drinking water. The issue is alost entirely geographical. More people choose to live in arid areas so they will have to pay more for water.

[beckett]

This movement originates in a fight for survival. The world is running out of fresh water.

Gag me with a spoon. I stopped right there. Leftist apocalyptic jargon causes too much agida for a Sunday morning.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I read somewhere that every drop of water on earth here 50,000 years ago is still here. It evaporates continuously and falls again as rain. I capture rain water to water my garden by gravity flow (the garden is below the storage source). I just built a simple rain capture system and have about 1,500 gallons of it stored at the moment.

It seems that others could do likewise and on a larger scale if necessary.

[Smile-n-Win]

CNN International has been running UN-sponsored ads whining about the world running out of water for years now. They're sooo ridiculous! We just had extraordinarily high water levels of the Danube river here in Hungary; in Prague and Eastern Germany, they had very serious floodings. Talk about not enough water.

Water is a renewable resource! When will they get it?

(Oh yes, and I've heard some people blame the heavy rainfall on ... guess what ... global warming!)

[Smile-n-Win]

I read somewhere that every drop of water on earth here 50,000 years ago is still here. It evaporates continuously and falls again as rain.

Of course. It can't escape the Earth's gravity ... so it stays.

[raybbr]

"So, now which is it young feller? Should we stop global warming letting the polar ice caps stay frozen. Or, should we let them melt and provide water for the world?"

[Mike Darancette]

How long until the UN decides to go into the water business by declaring all water to be an International asset?

[tjg]

"No one can sell a human right."


The courts say that my employer can examine my person and possesions regardless of what I think about it.

Didn't I sell my rights to do process, illegal search and siezure, and probable cause, for a job?

[boris]

"The earth's fresh water is finite and small, representing less than one half of 1 percent of the world's total water stock."

There can be no shortage of water on a planet whose surface is 70% water--to depths of up to six miles.

There is a shortage of energy. With cheap, abundant power--i.e., NUCLEAR--you can make as much fresh water as you want.

Capitalism is the key to developing the infrastructure to make "fresh water" "shortages" an oxymoron. All you need is capitalism plus nuclear power. Next.

--Boris

[Old Professer]

I don't care if I run out of water as long as Anheuser Busch doesn't run out of water.

[Senator Pardek]

. I am profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of large, corporate ownership, Enron-style, of water supplies, both domesically and internationally.

The only realistic alternative is for the gubmint to take over.

Farm land, in the long run, is just as vital as fresh water for our survival.

Most of the crops in your local grocery store are provided by large, evil corporations with no allegiance to the U.S. Yet the food is both cheap and abundant.

Ya think your gubmint plan could accomplish this?

[independentmind]

How long until the UN decides to go into the water business by declaring all water to be an International asset?

That sounds very much like the "global water commons" to which the authors referred. I do not agree with the authors' proposals. I'm just not very fond of the idea of a large international corporation, which may not even be primarily owned by Americans, controlling my water supply.

[independentmind]

Sorry to hear you have such a sensitive disposition, beckett. Make sure to rest, and take good care of yourself.

[independentmind]

Most of the crops in your local grocery store are provided by large, evil corporations with no allegiance to the U.S. Yet the food is both cheap and abundant.

I'd like to hear more about this. Are you sure that most food in the U.S. is not produced by American corporations? Or are you saying that most American corporations have no allegiance to the U.S.? BTW, what percentage of the U.S.'s water supply is currently owned by government-sponsored organizations?

[Paulus Invictus]

I agree--the article is leftist and "one world" in tone against private properety, including water. There are some good points, however.

I would like to help out our neighbor states to the east that have ruinous floods every year. If there were ways to "harvest" the huge amounts of wasted water (Mississippi River floods, for example. and send it via large-bore pipe lines to the parched west, I am sure westerners would pay for the water and also the pipe lines over time. Or pipe it in from the Great Lakes or both sources. That way everyone wins. Is it feasible? We built huge pipelines in frozen Alaska, why not across the mid-west?

[Senator Pardek]

Are you sure that most food in the U.S. is not produced by American corporations? Or are you saying that most American corporations have no allegiance to the U.S.?

That's what everyone here at FR says. "there's no such thing as an American Corp. anymore - they're all globalist!"

BTW, what percentage of the U.S.'s water supply is currently owned by government-sponsored organizations?

Probably just about all of it - just like our Education System, prisons, and Departments of Motor Vehicles. But if we trust the gubmint to deliver water in the most efficent way, why not crops? I'd like to hear more about this.

[AK2KX]

It also appears to be a trial balloon to support the idea that water resources belong to the "people of the world", i.e. non-westerners in squalid hellholes. This paves the way for forced redistribution of water wealth. Notice the questionable statistic that every eight seconds a "cheeldrun" dies from contaminated water. I'm sure adults do too. But throw the "child" card out in order to negate any mean old caucasian American objections to us getting bent over for our water. Another ploy at exploiting "white guilt".

Twenty percent of the world's fresh water lies within the borders of Michigan. California is licking its chops at the prospect of sucking the Great Lakes dry. If they get their way, prepare for the third-world to stake their claim to Great Lakes water as well.

It may sound cruel, but if an area cannot support life due to low water supplies, then too freakin' bad. Why should us Michiganians suffer so California can continue to pack itself full of illegal immigrants. And why should tankers full of our fresh water be taken to Somalia or Bangladesh?