The World Bank joins Nestlé in wanting to privatize water, deeming it “extremist” to suggest that those born on this planet have a natural right to clean, potable water. Meanwhile, RT’s Abby Martin reports that the watchdog group Corporate Accountability International recently released a new analysis showing that:
Investing in private water does not extend access and is also counterproductive for economic development. By contrast, infrastructure investment, abandoned by the corporate sector, is where real benefit can be achieved: the World Health Organization estimates more than $10 of economic benefit from every $1 invested in water infrastructure systems.
Also commenting on the World Bank’s push for water privatization, Al Jazeera reports:
Whether public or private, water supplies are dwindling. In one shocking report from 2012, the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s Community Assessment of Global Water Security states that the global need for water will exceed the supply by 40% in the next 25 yearsThis means for every 3 people on this planet, there will only be enough water for 2 people,” says Kacper (like the ghost) Postawski. Right now, the three main sources of water in the US are rapidly running dry:
The DIA Assessment warns that 36 states already are, or soon will be, facing water shortages. They estimate that California only has a 20-year supply of fresh water left, at current usage.
We’re facing extreme water problems that only a community-driven mindset can solve, not a for-profit corporate paradigm envisioned by the World Bank, Nestlé, Bechtel, etc.
In 2013, the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru used a neat techno-engineering trick to grab the attention of potential students. They posted a billboard that captures atmospheric humidity, passes it thru a reverse osmosis system, and stores it in a tank for locals to access for free. The five condensers involved provide about 100 liters of water a day, and the whole system cost $1,500.
Even better is the $500 system developed in Ethiopa. Using a completely different and more aesthetically pleasing design, Arturo Vittori and Andreas Vogler invented the Warka Water, a structure that uses local plants, and also extracts about 25 gallons a day. Because no special tools or fabricated materials are required, once the locals understand how to build the interweaving vase-like construction, they can repair as necessary, and pass on the technology to neighboring villages.
Smithsonian explains that every detail of the 30-foot-tall tower has a functional purpose. The outer housing is made of bamboo, strong enough to resist wind gusts while still allowing airflow. An inner mesh net collects dew, steering it toward the bottom collection container. Citing the Smithsonian and other sources, Kevin Samson also wrote a detailed piece on it.
No one’s profiting from the Warka Water Tower, but the $500 investment in, or, rather, donation to “public infrastructure” will water thousands of people in a drought-ridden nation. This is a winning solution that far surpasses Bill Gates’ $2,200 toilet that converts dirty water to potable, and costs even more to operate, putting it out of reach of those who need it.
Here is a photograph of a jar of water which I put outside on the night for the Blessings of the Water, January 18, 2014. As you can see, there is energy around and through the water, however it is not generated by the water nor does it appear to have any real conenction with it:
Subsequent to the night of the blessings of the water, I took another picture of the water jar. Here you can see how the water itself is the generator of the energy, an energy which then can be translated into the environment:
Truly water is a magnificent and mysterious substance. It can empower. It needs to be honored, preserved, and taken care of.
Farmed Out: Overpumping Threatens to Deplete U.S. High Plains Groundwater
Story at-a-glance
In the next 50 years, research suggests 70 percent of the High Plains Aquifer System in the Midwestern US may be depleted
Water-intensive cattle and corn crops account for the majority of water usage in the US, and the High Plains Aquifer supplies 30 percent of US irrigated groundwater
Once the aquifer is depleted, it would take an average of 500 to 1,300 years to completely refill; farmers would need to reduce their pumping of the aquifer by 80 percent for it to be replenished naturally by rainfall
The adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices, including a return to grass-fed cattle, will be necessary to protect water supplies for future generations
By Dr. Mercola
In the US Midwest, corn and cattle are kings, but both require large amounts of water to be sustained. Not only is corn a water-intensive crop, but cattle raised on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are fed mostly corn.
This double blow to water supplies in the region has led to the rapid depletion of one of the most important water sources to Midwestern farmers – the High Plains Aquifer System.
It is this extensive underground aquifer that allowed farmers to grow crops in what was previously known as ‘the Great American Desert.’ It was also in this area where the rush to clear out the area’s natural grasslands and replace them with plowed soil lead to one of the greatest man-made ecological disasters of all time.
Following a decades-long drought in the 1930s, farmers began to use groundwater pumping and sprinkler irrigation to grow corn and wheat in what is now more commonly known as the US ‘dust bowl,’ using the vast aquifer freely.
Now, however, the draw has proved to be too intense and this once seemingly inexhaustible source of groundwater is quickly being depleted.
70% of the Water Could Be Gone in the Next 50 Years
Farmers in the region who hope to pass their farms on to the next generation had better do some quick thinking, because if the water drain continues new research suggests that nearly 70 percent of the aquifer could be depleted in the next 50 years.1
According to the study, by 1960 farmers had already used up 3 percent of the aquifer’s water and by 2010 that rose to 30 percent. By 2060, it’s estimated that another 39 percent of the water will be gone… and this is even taking anticipated irrigation technology improvements into account.
While it’s thought that farmers might be able to pump less water in the coming decades due to newer irrigation technology, corn crops and cattle CAFOs are expected to increase, which will likely negate any of the potential water savings.
The researchers stated:
“Significant declines in the region’s pumping rates will occur over the next 15-20 y given current trends, yet irrigated agricultural production might increase through 2040 because of projected increases in water use efficiencies in corn production.
Water use reductions of 20% today would cut agricultural production to the levels of 15-20 y ago, the time of peak agricultural production would extend to the 2070s, and production beyond 2070 would significantly exceed that projected without reduced pumping.”
It Could Take 1,300 Years to Refill This Aquifer
Tapping this groundwater source for agricultural production is clearly not a sustainable option at today’s usage rates. Cattle and corn crops account for the majority of water usage in the US, and the High Plains Aquifer supplies 30 percent of US irrigated groundwater.
It is, in fact, because of this ‘guaranteed’ water supply that Kansas is able to claim some of the highest market value for agriculture in the US. Yet, once the aquifer is depleted, it will be gone for the foreseeable future, as it’s estimated it would take an average of 500 to 1,300 years to completely refill.
The script hasn’t been set in stone yet, however, as if farmers reduce their pumping of the aquifer by about 80 percent, it would be able to be replenished naturally via rainfall.
But in the Dust Bowl, growing two of the most water-intensive crops that exist, this is unlikely to happen unless major agricultural reform takes place. Cornell University professor of crop and soil sciences Harold Mathijs van Es told Scientific American:2
“We need to think about what’s being grown here and how we’re growing it. This is the Dust Bowl we’re talking about.”
Are We Farming Our Way to Environmental Disaster?
Many farmers in the Plains states rely on irrigation from the High Plains Aquifer to water their crops in times of drought, but what will happen if this water reserve runs out? We could once again be brewing a dust storm of epic proportions, and this is only one of the potential scenarios…
There are many other warning signs that the poor farming practices being used today could backfire in the form of major environmental disasters as well.
Soil is actually depleting 13% faster than it can be replaced, and we’ve lost 75% of the world’s crop varieties in just the last 100 years. Over a billion people in the world have no access to safe drinking water, while 80% of the world’s fresh water supply is used for agriculture. This situation is simply not sustainable for much longer. Yet, as the study’s researchers said, very poignantly and succinctly:
“Society has an opportunity now to make changes with tremendous implications for future sustainability and livability.”
A Return to Grass-Fed Cattle May Dramatically Lessen Water Demands
to read more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/17/high-plains-aquifer-groundwater.aspx?e_cid=20130917Z1_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20130917Z1
From 2003-2012, flooding claimed an average of 76 lives per year, according to National Weather Service statistics. Flooding makes up 40% of all natural disasters, the most common global natural disaster, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Let’s lay out some impressive facts about flood waters.
Six inches of flowing water can knock a person off their feet.
Water flowing at more than 8 mph has the equivalent force per unit area as air blowing at EF5 tornado wind speeds!
Water moving at 25 mph has the pressure equivalent of wind blowing at 790 mph, faster than the speed of sound!
Six inches of flowing water can drown a person.
If you slip and fall face first, you might drown before you come to.
Babies/small children are very vulnerable; just as they would be in a bathtub accident.
Water levels in flash floods can rise one foot in five minutes. In some cases, near-instantaneous rises of 10-30 feet or more may accompany walls of water rushing downstream
Abby Martin takes an in-depth look at the Nestlé corporation; its business practice of bloating the price of water, while pursuing the privatization of this common resource against the public good.
check out this link for the videos: http://topinfopost.com/2013/06/12/nestles-corporate-takeover-of-our-water
Walking an authentic path in life can often be confusing.
We might at times find ourselves torn whilst swirling in the torrent of life’s choices.
How do we navigate the path and unleash our true beingness?
The following story, originally by Chuang Tzu, offers a profound metaphor for life and the true nature of what it means to ‘go with the flow’.
Essential reading for all awakened souls…
Chuang Tzu’s story of the swimmer
Confucius and his students went on a hike out in the countryside. He was thinking of using the opportunity to engage the students in a discussion about the Tao when one of them approached and asked: “Master, have you ever been to Liu Liang? It is not far from here.”
Confucius said: “I have heard about it but never actually seen it with my own eyes. It is said to be a place of much natural beauty.”
“It is indeed,” the student said. “Liu Liang is known for its majestic waterfalls. It is only about two hours’ trek from here, and the day is still young. Master, if you would like to go there, I would be honored to serve as your guide.”
Confucius thought this was a splendid idea, so the group set off toward Liu Liang. As they were walking and chatting, another student said: “I grew up near a waterfall myself. In summertime, I would always go swimming with the other children from the village.”
The first student explained: “These waterfalls we will see aren’t quite like that. The water comes down from such a great height that it carries tremendous force when it hits the bottom. You definitely would not want to go swimming there.”
Confucius said: “When the water is sufficiently powerful, not even fish and turtles can get near it. This is interesting to ponder, because we are used to thinking of water as their native element.”
After a while, they could see the waterfall coming into view in the hazy distance. Although it was still far away, they could see that it was indeed as majestic as the first student described.
Another hour of walking brought them even closer, and now they could clearly hear the deep, vibrating sound it made.
They topped a rise and were able to see the entire waterfall. Then they gasped collectively, because at the bottom of it, they saw a man in the ferociously churning water, being spun around and whipped this way and that by the terrifying currents.
“Quickly, to the waterfall!” Confucius commanded. “He must have fallen in by accident, or perhaps he is a suicide. Either way, we must save him if we can.”
They ran as fast as they could. “It’s useless, Master,” one the students said. “By the time we get down there, he’ll be too far gone for us to do him any good.”
“You may well be right,” Confucius replied. “Nevertheless, when a man’s life is at stake, we owe it to him to make every effort possible.”
They lost sight of the man as they descended the hillside. Moments later, they broke through the forest to arrive at the river, a short distance downstream from the waterfall. They expected to see the man’s lifeless body in the river. Instead, they saw him swimming casually away from the waterfall, spreading his long hair out and singing loudly, evidently having a great time. They were dumbfounded.
When he got out of the river, Confucius went to speak with him: “Sir, I thought you must be some sort of supernatural being, but on closer inspection I see you are an ordinary person, no different from us. We sought to save you, but now I see it is not necessary.”
The man bowed to Confucius: “I am sorry if I have caused you any grave concerns on my behalf. This is merely a trivial recreational activity I enjoy once in a while.”
Confucius bowed back: “You say it is trivial, but to me it is incredible. How can it be that you were not harmed by the waterfall? Are there some special skills that you possess?”
“No, I have no special skills whatsoever,” the man replied. “I simply follow the nature of the water. That’s how I started with it, developed a habit out of it, and derived lifelong enjoyment from it.”
“This ‘follow the nature of the water’ – can you describe it in greater detail? How exactly does one follow the nature of water?”
“Well… I don’t really think about it very much. If I had to describe it, I would say that when the powerful torrents twist around me, I turn with them. If a strong current drives me down, I dive alongside it. As I do so, I am fully aware that when we get to the riverbed, the current will reverse course and provide a strong lift upward. When this occurs, I am already anticipating it, so I rise together with it.”
“So you are working with the water and not just letting it have its way with you?”
“That’s right. Although the water is extremely forceful, it is also a friend that I have gotten to know over the years, so I can sense what it wants to do, and I leverage its flow without trying to manipulate it or impose my will on it.”
“How long did it take for you to make all this an integrated part of your life?”
“I really can’t say. I was born in this area, so the waterfalls have always been a familiar sight to me. I grew up playing with these powerful currents, so I have always felt comfortable with them. Whatever success I have with water is simply a natural result of my lifelong habit. To be quite frank, I have no idea why this approach works so well. To me, it’s just the way life is.”
Confucius thanked him and turned back to his students. He smiled, because he suddenly knew exactly what they could talk about on their trip home.
The metaphors of life
In this story, the mighty waterfall and the river symbolise the divine flow of the universe echoed in our daily lives. We are powerless to stop the flow. It may often seem unforgiving and harsh, yet these times are our greatest teachers in offering the opportunity to evolve beyond our self imposed limitations.
We are inseparable from the flow. Confusion happens when we mistakenly believe that we are somehow separate from it. Chaos follows when we try to control or manipulate either the flow or our response to it. Attempting to fight the river of life or when we shout out our perceived injustices, we simply become exhausted from the struggle, getting nowhere.
The swimmer in the story offers us a profound message. Contrary to many spiritual misconceptions today, he is NOT blindly allowing the flow to take him. ‘Trusting the universe’ is not about letting the flow ‘take’ you without regard for what is going on. This would simply rip us to sheds.
The swimmer is purely present. He is aware of every instant, the nature of the water and the nature of the universe. Because of this awareness, he realises that once he approaches the bottom of the riverbed, the energy will propel him back to the surface. He is able to use the energy of the universe to simply flow through the river of life. Without such presence, he would either be in a state of fear or blind acceptance – either way would ensure that he would miss the opportunity to flow. Rather than blindly accepting ‘whatever goes’ (which in this case would tear him apart) he accepts that he is powerless to change the flow and uses it like a divine dance to carry him onwards and upwards unscathed.
It takes time to master the flow of the universe. The man in this story represents someone who has achieved an advanced state of evolution. However he reflects the opportunity within each of us to become who we truly are. The story offers an important tenet to unleashing our true beingness, achieved through absolute commitment. At times we are going to make ‘mistakes’, but we all know that there are no such things as mistakes as long as we learn by them; becoming increasingly aware and eternal students of the divine flow.
Here’s our invitation to become at one with the divine flow, just like the swimmer in Chang Tzu’s story.
Dark Side of the Moon Revealed: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s LAMP Reveals Lunar Surface Features
e These images (insets) produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the Moon’s northern and southern poles in the regions that lie in perpetual darkness. They shows many permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, are darker at far-ultraviolet wavelengths (top) and redder than nearby surface areas that receive sunlight (bottom). The darker PSR regions are consistent with having large surface porosities — indicating “fluffy” soils — while the reddening is consistent with the presence of water frost on the surface. (Credit: Image courtesy of Southwest Research Institute)
ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2012) — New maps produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the Moon’s northern and southern poles in regions that lie in perpetual darkness. LAMP, developed by Southwest Research Institute®(SwRI®), uses a novel method to peer into these so-called permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), making visible the invisible. LAMP’s principal investigator is Dr. Alan Stern, associate vice president of the SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division.
The LAMP maps show that many PSRs are darker at far-ultraviolet wavelengths and redder than nearby surface areas that receive sunlight. The darker regions are consistent with large surface porosities — indicating “fluffy” soils — while the reddening is consistent with the presence of water frost on the surface.
“Our results suggest there could be as much as 1 to 2 percent water frost in some permanently shadowed soils,” says author Dr. Randy Gladstone, an Institute scientist in the SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division. “This is unexpected because naturally occurring interplanetary Lyman-alpha was thought to destroy any water frost before it could accumulate.”
The LAMP team estimates that the loss of water frost is about 16 times slower than previously believed. In addition, the accumulation of water frost is also likely to be highly dependent on local conditions, such as temperature, thermal cycling and even geologically recent “impact gardening” in which micrometeoroid impacts redistribute the location and depth of volatile compounds.
Finding water frost at these new locations adds to a rapidly improving understanding of the Moon’s water and related species, as discovered by three other space missions through near-infrared emissions observations and found buried within the Cabeus crater by the LCROSS impactor roughly two years ago. During LRO’s nominal exploration mission, LAMP added to the LCROSS results by measuring hydrogen, mercury and other volatile gases ejected along with the water from the permanently shaded soils of the Moon’s Cabeus crater.
“An even more unexpected finding is that LAMP’s technique for measuring the lunar Lyman-alpha albedo indicates higher surface porosities within PSRs, and supports the long-postulated presence of tenuous ‘fairy-castle’ like arrangements of surface grains in the PSR soils,” says co-author Dr. Kurt Retherford, a senior research scientist also in SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division.
Comparisons with future LAMP maps created using data gathered from the Moon’s day side will prove helpful for revealing more about the presence of water frost, as well as the surface porosities of the darker surface features observed. The LAMP team is also eager to apply the Lyman-alpha technique elsewhere on the Moon and on other solar system objects such as Mercury.
LRO’s findings are expected to be valuable to the future consideration of a permanent Moon base. The permanently shadowed regions of the Moon are revealing themselves to be some of the most exotic places in the solar system, well worthy of future exploration, says Retherford. Any discovery of water frost and other resources in the area also could reduce the need to transport resources from Earth to a base at the pole.
We are inside a greenhouse, gazing at row after row of hydroponic tomatoes and green peppers, learning why people in this community in northern El Salvador are receiving death threats. We have been sent byThe Nation magazine to chronicle the struggle by people here to protect their river from the toxic chemicals of global mining firms intent on realizing massive profits from El Salvador’s rich veins of gold.
Before going to the greenhouse, we spend the morning at the home of Carlos Bonilla, a farmer in his sixties whose handsome face is creased with the wisdom, suffering, and joy of decades of struggles for justice. Over a delicious meal of local tortillas, vegetables, and chicken, Carlos and a group of eight young people tell us their stories.
“We reject the image of us just as anti-mining. We are for water and a positive future. We want alternatives to feed us, to clothe us.”
These young people run a radio station, Radio Victoria, where they broadcast to a growing audience across this mountainous terrain. They tell us about giving air time to local leaders who, beginning seven years ago, found themselves facing a new threat: Mining firms, granted permits to explore for gold in the watershed of the great Lempa River (which supplies water to over half the country’s 6.2 million people), entered these communities with promises of jobs and prosperity.
Gold is now selling for more than $1500 an ounce. Local organizer Vidalina Morales tells us: “Initially, we thought mining was good and it was going to help us out of poverty…through jobs and development.”
But, then, a strange thing happened. A stream dried up near the exploration wells that a Canadian firm, Pacific Rim, was digging. Concerned, Vidalina and other activists traveled to nearby Honduras to meet with members of communities where large mining projects were already underway. They returned with grisly stories of cyanide poisoning the soil and water (cyanide is used to separate the gold from the surrounding rock), and people in mining areas suffering skin diseases and other ailments.
This wasn’t what they wanted, especially near the Lempa River. Local people in northern El Salvador began to organize against the mining firms. First, they linked up with other groups across this province of Cabañas to coordinate opposition. Next, they found allies in other provinces and in the capital San Salvador, and they formed a National Roundtable on Mining. After discussion and debate, the Roundtable decided that the only way to save their vital water source was to organize for a national ban on gold and other metals mining.
Then, they tell us, the death threats began. Some came as anonymous phone calls, some as untraceable text messages, some as people were stopped by men in cars. In June 2009, a dynamic local cultural leader, Marcelo Rivera, disappeared; his body was found in the bottom of a well, with signs of torture reminiscent of the bloody civil war that convulsed this region in the 1980s.
ScienceDaily (July 22, 2011) — Water really is everywhere. A team of astronomers have found the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe — discovered in the central regions of a distant quasar. Quasars contain massive black holes that are steadily consuming a surrounding disk of gas and dust; as it eats, the quasar spews out huge amounts of energy. The energy from this particular quasar was released some 12 billion years ago, only 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang and long before most of the stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy began forming.
The research team includes Carnegie’s Eric Murphy, as well as scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, University of Colorado, University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science in Japan. Their research will be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The quasar’s newly discovered mass of water exists in gas, or vapor, form. It is estimated to be at least 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, equivalent to 34 billion times the mass of Earth or 140 trillion times the mass of water in all of Earth’s oceans put together.
Since astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early universe, the discovery of water is not itself a surprise. There is water vapor in the Milky Way, although the amount is 4,000 times less massive than in the quasar. There is other water in the Milky Way, but it is frozen and not vaporous.
Rady Ananda
