t < https://melgurtov.com/2022/07/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista
This is a succinct, relatively short treatment of a massive complex issue, one of the most critical facing humankind and that emerged from the heedless exploitation of resources, that was only encouraged and abetted by the growth and operation of the major economies of the world. Gurtov, a retired Professor of Political Science from Portland State University, does a good job of summarizing the main problems in clear non-technical prose. He points out that: “Nearly 80% of the world’s wastewater is discharged into the sea without treatment.” Here we see a clear correlation between reactionary political organizing to protect the interests of the rich, and the corporations they own, and an important issue for human survival. In the early 1970s the various Environmental Movements, both in the U.S. and in other developed nations, pushed through laws and established agencies to enforce much higher levels of environmental regulation and operation for the industries located in the developed countries. The response by the rich to that, as mobilized by their far-right political allies, was to begin to move as much as possible of the industrial capacity of the West from the developed countries to low-wage and, for this discussion, more importantly LOW-REGULATION places. This negated much of the advancement pushed through by popular reformers. The usual Death-Squad campaigns and Counter-Insurgency Wars were waged to defeat the people where the new sites for polluting water intensive industries were to be located, along with the more standard resource extraction projects.
Gurtov also points out that everywhere: “ ... good water, access to which should be a human right, is becoming expensive and privately owned.” A wide variety of popular movements have resisted these Capitalist / Corporate moves to take control of water and Public Water Systems. Notable among them was the mobilization of the Bolivian population in the city of Cochabamba and its environs. This battle, which took place in Bolivia before the election of Evo Morales to the Presidency of Bolivia, occurred in a socio-economic and political milieu in Bolivia characterized by these sorts of Bolivian and Western Capitalist ruling class attitudes: “The World Bank warmly calls Bolivia an ‘early adjuster.’ Other poor, indebted countries have had to be forced to accept structural adjustment, but in Bolivia the World Bank and the I.M.F. have enjoyed a deep understanding with successive governments since 1985. Public enterprises -- the railways, the telephone system, the national airlines, the great tin mines of Oruro and Potosi -- have been sold, mainly to foreign investors. (This fire sale goes on: a Bolivian government Web site lists dozens of factories, refineries, cement plants, paper mills, and municipal utilities that are still available.)”. {See, “Leasing the rain; the world is running out of fresh water, and the fight to control it has begun”, Apr 8, 2002, William Finnegan, The New Yorker, Vol. 78, Issue 7}.
Another contemporary article noted that: “In 1997, the World Bank forced the Bolivian government to privatize its water system in the city of Cochabamba as a condition for a loan package. Cochabamba is Bolivia’s third most important city, with a population of 600,000 people. After two years, in 1999, in a secret ballot in the Fall, the Bolivian government approved Law 2029 that gave the monopoly of water resources to the international consortium Aguas del Tunari, led by the American company Bechtel, the Spanish Abengoa, and four Bolivian companies as shareholders. The law was so abusive that in its Article 76, it did not allow the people of Cochabamba to collect water of cisterns or water from rain without a license.” (Emphasis added). Another related law even allowed the incoming water consortium to charge people for using water from already existing local wells. (See, “Cochabamba: The First Water War of the 21st Century”, Mar 30, 2021, Anselmo Cassiano, History Design Studio, at < https://historydesignstudio.
The U.S. is, of course, hardly immune to these problems. Gurtov notes that: “Lake Powell and Lake Mead are below one-third of normal levels. Water for seven states will probably have to be restricted. Meantime, California’s two largest reservoirs—Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville—are at critically low levels, and the Great Salt Lake in Utah set a new record low level on July 4.” Anybody who understands the ecology and water budgets of the Mountain West in the U.S. knows that it is in the throes of a drought the likes of which have not been seen for at least a thousand years, and perhaps in tens of thousands of years. In the meantime the 1954 – 1956 Drought is the Drought of Record, which is used for water resource and planning decisions. For an immediate practical aspect, remember that California produces around half of all fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. But that agricultural bounty was made possible by an extensive system of reservoirs and aqueducts that largely delivered snowmelt water from the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains. But the snowpack has been greatly reduced and as a result many reservoirs in California, and in other western locations, are very low. Agricultural producers have switched to groundwater for the last couple of years but that cannot continue indefinitely. The amount of produce grown in California will inevitably be greatly reduced and grocery prices will shoot up for those items.
Even places with abundant water resources are threatened by profit maximizing operations of the Capitalists. The Great Lakes, a unique resource one of only three such on the face of the Earth, are threatened by a variety of damaging industrial and resource extraction operations. The most notable being the two places where Enron Pipeline Corporation (of Canada) has pipelines that carry huge amounts of crude oil and other petroleum products under the waters of the Great Lakes. Both are in areas of high water quality and a major leak would be catastrophic in either case. The 70 year old, poorly maintained, and out of compliance with the easement agreement from 1953 segment of the pipeline, that crosses under the Straits of Mackinac is perhaps the more outrageous of these two very dangerous pipelines. 22 million gallons a day of, mostly, Diluted Bitumen from the Athabascan Tar Sands mining operation in Alberta, Canada move through Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac. The material is the consistency of peanut butter, is full of sand, is much more corrosive than are standard crude oils, and must be diluted by about 35% primarily with Benzene and put under high temperature and pressure to move it through the pipeline. A pipeline that is approaching its 70th birthday, that is now operating under conditions it was not designed for in terms of its location on the Lake floor and that is carrying material it was not designed to carry (what could go wrong!!). All this in a pipeline that is nearly 20 years past its designed service life. The Governor of Michigan ordered Enbridge to cease operations as a consequence of violating the easement agreement. The Foreign company refused and sought shelter from our notoriously corrupt and overwhelmingly business friendly courts. That battle rages on in more than one court venue.
A person can live for just minutes without air, for a few days without water, and for a few weeks without food. The control of the planet's water cannot be left to the rich and the corporations they own to control.
Water, Water, No Longer Everywhere
Image by Md. Hasanuzzaman Himel.
Drought and Scarcity
“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is only halfway descriptive of the planet’s current water situation. Water is drying up everywhere; oceans and rivers are becoming more polluted and poisoned; watersheds are being drained at a phenomenal rate to meet the needs of industry, sports, and agriculture. Quality drinking water, especially in developing countries, is becoming a major challenge. And everywhere, good water, access to which should be a human right, is becoming expensive and privately owned.
First, the basic facts on the global water crisis, as provided by UNICEF:
* Four billion people — almost two thirds of the world’s population — experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year.
* Over two billion people live in countries where water supply is inadequate.
* Half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025.
* Some 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.
* By 2040, roughly 1 in 4 children worldwide will be living in areas of extremely high water stress.
Reports from around the world bring home these trends.
Italy is experiencing an intense, protracted heatwave. A water emergency is about to be declared in the Lombardy region. The drought has hit northern regions particularly hard, where a parched Po River, Italy’s longest waterway, is 80 percent lower than usual, wreaking havoc on everything from farming and hydroelectric power to supplies of drinking water.
In Australia, a report by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group describes Australia and the Asia-Pacific as a “disaster alley” for climate change, but says governments in Canberra have not properly planned for the impact of “cascading and compound events.” The report cites predictions that 2℃ of warming may see southeast Asia’s crop production decline by one-third per capita by 2040. It says small island developing states in the Pacific are especially vulnerable to the effects of drought and flooding on food production.”
China faces a water crisis in which as many as half the population does not have access to clean water. Nearly all groundwater is contaminated. Agricultural runoff and industrial toxic waste dumping are among the major causes of the crisis. Weak enforcement of environmental regulations, and sheer disregard of sound environmental practices by domestic and multinational corporations alike, contribute to the crisis.
The South African city of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), home to nearly a million people, is on the verge of “Day Zero,” when water runs out. Climate change—long-term drought—is certainly a factor, though a corrupt city government has failed to fix thousands of leaks in water pipes. Black working-class people suffer most from intermittent water supplies.
Here at home, a Utah newspaper reports:
“The Colorado River Basin is experiencing a 22-year drought and low runoff conditions, and reservoirs within the basin are at historic low levels. There are extensive impacts throughout the Colorado River Basin, including water for homes and crops to the generation of electricity in the seven basin states, 30 tribes and Mexico.”
Lake Powell and Lake Mead are below one-third of normal levels. Water for seven states will probably have to be restricted. Meantime, California’s two largest reservoirs—Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville—are at critically low levels, and the Great Salt Lake in Utah set a new record low level on July 4.
Threats from Ocean Dumping
The world’s oceans have been especially hard hit, leading the UN secretary-general to declare an “ocean emergency.” As reported by the Guardian: “Sea level rise, ocean heating, ocean acidification and greenhouse gas concentrations all reached record levels last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s state of the global climate report in 2021. . . . pollution is creating vast coastal dead zones.” Fish stocks are being rapidly depleted by overfishing. “Nearly 80% of the world’s wastewater is discharged into the sea without treatment.”
Among the many toxic substances that are regularly dumped into national and international waterways, plastics and oil rank among the most constant and dangerous. China, India, and the US are the top producers of disposable plastics which, according to a UN estimate, by 2050 will account for about 12 billion tons of plastic waste worldwide. As we’re all aware, plastic bottle and other items choke waterways, clog drainpipes, and, if burned, pollute the air. Banning plastics is catching on, but very slowly and with plenty of pushback from manufacturers. Policing plastics use is difficult, though in India—which now bans certain plastic packaging but not plastic bags—some states have found that fining people is effective. China is supposed to phase out plastic bags nationwide by the end of this year, while Canada will ban all single-use plastics in December. Only a few US states, including Oregon, have limited the use of plastic items.
I cannot leave that last topic without noting the companies and investors that stand behind the major plastics producing countries. The top plastics manufacturers are ExxonMobil, Dow, Sinopec (China’s state oil company), Indorama Ventures (a global petrochemical company based in Singapore and Bangkok), and Saudi Aramco. The leading investors, aside from governments themselves, are Vanguard and BlackRock, outfits that crow about their commitment to sustainability.
Oil rig accidents are always large-scale threats to the ocean environment, the fishing industry, and public health. Recall the Deepwater Horizon spill: 134 million gallons dumped into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Now, a liberal president is caught between oil industry and Republican pressure to open more leases to drilling, supposedly to help reduce gas prices, and pressure from environmental organizations and some state governments to dramatically reduce if not reject any more drilling. Fact is, the industry has millions of acres already approved for drilling. Biden will be forced to act soon, and if the past is any guide, he’ll take the middle road, approving some new leases—Alaska’s Tongas looks most likely to be chosen—but not all, making for unhappy lobbyists all around.
Politicians Hold (Nearly) All the Cards
As numerous scientific reports have made plain, we’re headed toward environmental catastrophe, and in the US it’s equally plain why: the political power of right-wing politicians, the fossil fuel companies that fund them, and a malicious Supreme Court majority that takes its cue from them. Paul Krugman puts the issue succinctly:
“What’s important right now is that the United States is the only major nation in which an authoritarian right-wing party—which lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections yet controls the Supreme Court—has the ability to block actions that might prevent climate catastrophe.”
The ballot box therefore might not be the most effective path to changing national environmental policy. But at the local level, people are fighting in a novel way: demanding that water be accorded legal standing, in the same way corporations, estates, and universities are represented in court. In Florida, for example, a constitutional ballot initiative is before voters that would grant a “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters.” Legislators can be held accountable in court for failing to protect water supplies. Elizabeth Kolbert reports in The New Yorker on the history of efforts to give nature “rights.” In Oregon, my home state, protecting wetlands, which are a major carbon sink, is now undergoing review to strengthen regulations. In the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, protection of rivers, forests, and fisheries is expanding.
We’ll need a lot more action like that, right now, to save waterways.
No comments:
Post a Comment