lisa843
06-11-2007, 04:08 PM
Water is more vital for human life than oil – and environmentalists, corporations, communities and governments increasingly recognize its unequal distribution around the globe could lead to severe environmental degradation and intense conflicts in the years ahead. Anyone who cares about water should observe the management of oil during the past century and not repeat the mistakes, argues Rohini Nilekani. Less than 3 percent of the world’s water is potable – and climate change is already rapidly diminishing the vast stores of freshwater stored in glaciers and polar ice. Nilekani, who founded and chairs a non-governmental organization focused on creating a safe and sustainable global water supply, suggests that individual awareness combined with some global leadership must focus on sustaining life on the planet rather than modern lifestyles – and could reduce waste, overpopulation and unsustainable practices. Otherwise, warns Nilekani, the conflicts over water will make the oil crisis “seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie.” With water already in short supply for more than 20 percent of the world’s people, no person can afford to take freshwater for granted. – YaleGlobal
Is Water the Next Oil?
An increasing population, pollution, waste and global warming all threaten the world’s water supply
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t128/vnusdmilo/-export-home-yaleglobal-reposito-1.jpg
In search of water: Indian women's daily routine in much of the rural areas. Only 2.5 percent of water of the planet is usable
BANGALORE: Is water the next oil? Motives behind the question vary, depending on who asks the question.
Those who see water as a future core commodity – therefore as profitable a prospect as oil – pose the question to create the right market conditions for water trade. Those who see the potential for conflict arising from scarcity compare diminishing freshwater to oil’s depleting reserves. Those who see an environmental threat from mismanagement of water see parallels with the abuse and waste of oil.
So there are lessons to be learned from how we have managed oil on this planet over the past century and more.
The oil crisis confronting the world today is much like the looming crisis in water, with depleting supplies, unequal distribution and access, and the inevitable specter of rising costs and increasing conflict around the sharing of this vital natural resource. As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay. The uncontrolled and rapacious exploitation of oil has led to unintended consequences, and if we continue on a similar trajectory with water, the oil crisis will seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie.
Ironically, our untrammeled use of oil fuels the crisis in water. Burning of fossil fuels has led to global warming, the melting of glaciers and ice caps, and the early snowmelts that will cause flooding in areas that can hardly bear another burden. And it may also cause the climate to fluctuate in a way that brings too much rain in some places and too little in others.
In addition, the move to replace oil with biomass-based fuels will intensify water use, not so much for sustaining our life and this planet as to sustain our lifestyles.
Freshwater Resources Per Capita
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t128/vnusdmilo/-export-home-yaleglobal-repository-.jpg
All this is worth thinking about at the individual level, because if change really happens, it must begin within the individual consciousness.
Rohini Nilekani
YaleGlobal, 31 May 2007
for lots more info: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9243
Is Water the Next Oil?
An increasing population, pollution, waste and global warming all threaten the world’s water supply
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t128/vnusdmilo/-export-home-yaleglobal-reposito-1.jpg
In search of water: Indian women's daily routine in much of the rural areas. Only 2.5 percent of water of the planet is usable
BANGALORE: Is water the next oil? Motives behind the question vary, depending on who asks the question.
Those who see water as a future core commodity – therefore as profitable a prospect as oil – pose the question to create the right market conditions for water trade. Those who see the potential for conflict arising from scarcity compare diminishing freshwater to oil’s depleting reserves. Those who see an environmental threat from mismanagement of water see parallels with the abuse and waste of oil.
So there are lessons to be learned from how we have managed oil on this planet over the past century and more.
The oil crisis confronting the world today is much like the looming crisis in water, with depleting supplies, unequal distribution and access, and the inevitable specter of rising costs and increasing conflict around the sharing of this vital natural resource. As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay. The uncontrolled and rapacious exploitation of oil has led to unintended consequences, and if we continue on a similar trajectory with water, the oil crisis will seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie.
Ironically, our untrammeled use of oil fuels the crisis in water. Burning of fossil fuels has led to global warming, the melting of glaciers and ice caps, and the early snowmelts that will cause flooding in areas that can hardly bear another burden. And it may also cause the climate to fluctuate in a way that brings too much rain in some places and too little in others.
In addition, the move to replace oil with biomass-based fuels will intensify water use, not so much for sustaining our life and this planet as to sustain our lifestyles.
Freshwater Resources Per Capita
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t128/vnusdmilo/-export-home-yaleglobal-repository-.jpg
All this is worth thinking about at the individual level, because if change really happens, it must begin within the individual consciousness.
Rohini Nilekani
YaleGlobal, 31 May 2007
for lots more info: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9243