On the Bob Edwards Radio Show: Weekend Edition (09-21-08), I heard his piece regarding the documentary Flow: For Love of Water, which includes a sometimes halarious discussion with the filmmaker on the rediculous prices people will pay for bottled water, as well as more information regarding Nestlé’s work in the ‘water department’. Sincronycities abound yet again: an update to post ‘Bottle Your Own!’…cool! You can read about Edward’s interview with the filmaker here, and download the podcast here.The average American uses 150 gallons of water per day. In the developing world, people are lucky to find five gallons and that water is often contaminated. The United Nations estimates that dirty drinking water kills about 500 children each day. Water is now the third largest industry in the world, right behind electricity and oil. But can anyone really own water? That's the question Salina investigates in her piece.
The award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"
Water is now a 400-billion dollar global industry, third behind electricity and oil. The documentary also covers the issues of bottled water versus tap water and the case of the enormous water bottler Nestle versus the citizens of Michigan. Nestle pumps hundreds of gallons of water a minute out of the ground in west central Michigan, does not pay for it and is making, according to the film, an estimated 1.8 million dollars a day in profits off that free water. To read Nestlé’s press release about Flow, click here.
Also from Edward's blog:
Many experts believe that water will become the oil
of the 21st century – a valuable commodity and the object of deadly wars. Clean, fresh water is becoming more and more scarce, while it also becomes more and more polluted. We literally cannot live without it
and people will do any-thing and give everything to obtain it.
- To learn about positive steps you can take,
click here. - To see if Flow is playing near you, click here.
- To see the trailer for the film, click here.
- To read the article that inspired Irena Salina to make this documentary, click here.
What does this mean to birds? Birds all over the world are the “canaries in the mine-shaft”: small, live, detectors of something-gone-wrong. The caged birds were kept in mineshafts to let miners know when the air they were breathing had become poison…for whatever reason. When the birds exhibited distress…it was cause to leave the mineshaft! The quality of our water is so reflected by the birds who use it. The draining of wetlands or the lack of habitat is not the only problem…we are poisoning our water and the birds are suffering; again, they are harbingers of what is poisoning us. We must clean up our water!
More on this soon…
2 comments:
I've always thought the whole idea of bottled water was downright silly. As long as it isn't contaminated, what on earth is wrong with water from your own tap?? It has the floride needed for good teeth thanks to the local water company. I'm fortunate to live in a state with lots of water. I live in the "toe" of Indiana which is not far from where the Ohio River and the Wabash River come together. I never think a lot about water, although right now we have a summer drought. My monthly waterbill is about $10. I have a sister in Arizona, so I am aware of places that have less water, but I also see little effort by them to do anything about their problem...like catching rain water when they do have it or when it flows heavily in their normally dry rivers. They are over populated and waste water and then wonder why they don't have any and want to divert it from someone else. Becoming aware of the problems is half the battle for most people! Common sense is unheard of. I hope people wake up before we destroy the planet. Sorry to "rave" in my first comment on your site....I'm really a nice person :-)
One thing about catching rain-water...in some places (like CO), it is against the law! Go figure…has to do with ranchers owning the water-rights. If one doesn't own water-rights they aren't supposed to catch or divert water for any purpose.
Still, I agree with you...we need to wake up before we drill and pollute ourselves into oblivion!
And we can ALL help by just using LESS water. I conduct 'turf-wars'...where I rip up most of my lawn (a huge water & energy (mine) waster) and plant native perennials...for a lush, easy-care yard that uses very little water AND feeds wildlife! :)
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