Liquid Assets

As I’ve mentioned before, water conservation and water rights have always interested me since it's an important issue when you grow up on an island.

And I've grown more concerned about the world’s water supply since 2003 when I read Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.

So it's been interesting to observe the growing public concern about water.

The current online debate on The Economist's website focuses on water; Proposition: "Water, as a scarce resource, should be priced according to its market value."

The October 23, 2008 MIT Enterprise Forum Global Broadcast is titled "From Soft Drinks to Real Estate: How a Looming Water Crisis Affects Our World and How to Optimize the Business Opportunity" and will discuss:

• How is the Water Crisis impacting businesses broadly?
• What is the impact on key industries such as real-estate development and agri-business?
• How does the cost of water impact us as residents and fellow members in a business community?
• How does the cost of water impact the cost of goods from hamburgers to t-shirts?
• How are new technologies being used to mitigate the crisis?
• Where do business opportunities lie to optimize a looming crisis as profitable prevention practices?

And on Sunday, I watched a ninety-minute documentary on my local PBS station, Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure.

Liquid Assets is a public media and outreach initiative produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting to inform the nation about the critical role our water infrastructure plays in protecting health and promoting economic prosperity and explores the history, engineering, political, and economic challenges of our water infrastructure, and engages communities in local discussions about public water and wastewater issues.

I highly recommend watching this documentary, whether you are a water expert or just an everyday person whose only recently been interested in water conservation and water rights.

Here are some discussion questions suggested by the producers:

Local Issues

• What issues in the documentary are similar to the issues in your community?
• What are the public health or safety issues that can affect your community as a result of problems with the water infrastructure?
• Has your local economy been affected by shortfalls in your water infrastructure?
• How will increases in the rate structure be received by consumers?

Infrastructure Maintenance and Repair

• Who is responsible for sustaining your community’s water resources? What questions would you like to ask them?
• What is your local watershed?
• What steps are being taken to protect it?
• What other communities share this watershed?
• Have the local water systems been inspected?
• When will the water systems in your community need to be replaced?
• Does your community have a plan to rehabilitate and repair its water infrastructure?
• How will your community pay for infrastructure improvements?
• How will your community pay for infrastructure improvements? Federal, state, local governments?
• Private water companies? Increases in rates? Local tax allocations? Other options?

Community Problem Solving

• What do you believe is the most pressing water issue in your community?
• What can be done on the local level to solve the community challenges?
• What individuals and groups need to come together to achieve results?
• What is the first step in bringing these groups together?
• How can communities in the same watershed share their ideas?

Click here to view the trailer for Quicktime or here to view it for Windows Media Player.

And on Monday, I watched the Jane Seymour narrated documentary The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry?; click here to watch a promotional Quicktime video or click here to see when it will air on your local PBS station. You can also view a "call to action" video here.

Everywhere you turn it seems more and more people are sounding the alarm about water.

I've got to make time to read Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (click here to read my posts related to this book), Ken Midkiff’s Not a Drop to Drink: America’s Water Crisis (and What You Can Do) (click here to read a post about this book), and Paul Simon’s Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It.

And any other books you might recommend?

Economist - Running dry

I'm a little behind on my subscription to the Economist.

Okay, I'm a lot behind.

Months behind.

But I'm going to catch up, starting with the August 23, 2008 issue. From this issue, I just finished the Business section including "Running dry."

As I've mentioned before, I've been seriously concerned about the world's water supply since 2003 when I read Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. And having grown up on an island, water conservation and water rights have always been important to me.

My interest has been slowly increasing over the years and it seems like the issue of water is becoming a hotter and hotter subject with each month.

This article just reminded me that I've got to make it a priority to read Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (click here to read my posts related to this book) and Ken Midkiff's Not a Drop to Drink: America’s Water Crisis (and What You Can Do).

I hope the situation does not get as desperate as some experts foresee.

Got to run to the library!

Not a Drop to Drink: America's Water Crisis (and What You Can Do) by Ken Midkiff

Just heard about another book related to the potential water crisis facing America: Not a Drop to Drink: America's Water Crisis (and What You Can Do) by Ken Midkiff.

Published in 2007 with a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. , this book details the current state of America's water supply including the current condition of major groundwater supplies, privatization and agricultural production issues, and the effect of global warming trends on future water supplies.

Looks like a good book to me -- I'll have to check it out at my local library. I still have to get my hands on a copy of Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water!

Click here to view the table of contents or visit the author's website to find out more about his views.

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte

I've just read Lisa Margonelli's "Tapped Out," a review of Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (by Elizabeth Royte) published June 15, 2008 in the New York Times.

It makes me think of Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (which I'd like to read) and Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke (which I have read); click here to read my entries on these books.

For many years now, I've preferred to simply drink filtered tap water in my own reusable bottle -- used to be a Nalgene but with all the health problems associated with the old Nalgenes made with Bisphenol A (BPA) I've given mine up.

Here's how Lisa Margonelli concludes her review:

By the time I finished “Bottlemania” I thought twice about drinking any water. Among the risks: arsenic, gasoline additives, 82 different pharmaceuticals, fertilizer runoff sufficient to raise nitrate levels so that Iowa communities issue “blue baby” alerts. And in 42 states, Royte notes, “people drink tap water that contains at least 10 different pollutants on the same day.” The privatization of pristine water is part of a larger story, a tragic failure to steward our shared destiny. And if you think buying water will protect you, Royte points out that it too is loosely regulated. And there is more — the dangers of pipes and of plastic bottles, the hazards of filters, and yes, that “toilet to tap” issue. But there is slim comfort: Royte says we don’t really need to drink eight glasses of water a day. Drink when you’re thirsty, an expert says. That’s refreshing.

Ick, now that makes me think of The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Devra Davis (click here to read my entries on that book).

I think I will pick up a copy of Bottlemania at my local library, though I may take my time before getting to it.

Reading all these books about the lies of corporate America has been generally depressing.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner

A friend just recommended that I read Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (click here to read the author's obituary as printed in the New York Times).

I'm not a water-rights activist or anything like that but I did enjoy Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke and am concerned about the future of our water supply.

First published in 1986, Cadillac Desert was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and in 1999 it was placed sixty-first on the Modern Library list of the most notable nonfiction English books of the twentieth century.

Mark Reisner is also a co-author of Overtapped Oasis: Reform or Revolution for Western Water.

Anyway, I tried to put it on hold at my local library (since I try to borrow books and read them before purchasing) but they don't carry it.

Has anyone read Cadillac Desert?

I found the Table of Contents online:

Introduction: A Semidesert with a Desert Heart
Chapter One: A Country of Illusion
Chapter Two: The Red Queen
Chapter Three: First Causes
Chapter Four: An American Nile (I)
Chapter Five: The Go-Go Years
Chapter Six: Rivals in Crime
Chapter Seven: Dominy
Chapter Eight: An American Nile (II)
Chapter Nine: The Peanut Farmer and the Pork Barrel
Chapter Ten: Chinatown
Chapter Eleven: Those Who Refuse to Learn...
Chapter Twelve: Things Fall Apart
Epilogue: A Civilization, If You Can Keep It
Afterword to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
Notes and Bibliography
Index

But I'm looking to hear a few more good things before I go out and purchase this book.