Brain fart and epiphany about the new wealth, blue gold.

[Cleita]

Last edited Tue May 21, 2013, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm listening to the Thom Hartmann show like I do every day and the discussion is about the Keystone pipeline going through the Ogallala Aquifer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer) and oil drilling on it. It's mentioned that the Bush family have invested and bought real estate in what encompasses the Guaraní Aquifer in Paraguay essentially privatizing a huge fresh water reserve or what the caller called blue gold.

It suddenly hits me that this is why the 1%, not just the Bushes or the Koch Bros, don't give a shit about global climate change or petroleum products pollution. They know that oil is going to be gone soon so they are investing in the next money making mineral, fresh water. They want those ice shelves on the poles and the glaciers on the Andes and Himalayas to melt. It's the water. They want to pollute what FREE water we get so they can sell water to us. They have set this in motion for their future generations, not ours.

I want to believe it's coincidence and that they are too stupid to imagine such a grand scheme, yet I wonder. They do own most of the wealth of not only this nation but the world. It's a small world they live in and we only are allowed to live short brutal lives in it as consumers of their products so they can live in splendor with air conditioning, swimming pools and gardens with fountains, something most of us won't be able to do as we grub for every nickel in order to buy their fresh water like we have to buy their oil today.

Okay, talk me down.

[KittyWampus]

1. Enron was in the process of buying up water rights. But I don't think melting icecaps=more fresh H2O

available. I believe it goes into ocean and atmosphere.

They don't care about global climate change because they have helicopters to get them out of areas if necessary, mercenaries for protection and multiple homes.

[KamaAina]

2. Correct. It means LESS fresh H2O available.

Which is precisely what they'd want, since they control so much of the rest. ;scared:

[Cleita]

4. That's a possibility too. Much of this climate denial and other

talking points of what seems crazy to us suddenly starts to make some sense when you connect the dots.

[Cleita]

3. No it doesn't. Much of it goes into aquifers like the Guarani I mentioned that gets

much of its water from the Andes snow melt. What goes into the ocean does become rain which also can end up in aquifers. If they become privatized, we will have to buy fresh water from the owners because our rivers will be too polluted to provide water without purification involved again a privatization scheme to sell it to us. Just my opinion right now because I can't prove it however I can smell that I'm right.

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. Why talk you down? You're exactly right. This has been studied and reported by

virtually all of the financial think tanks, the ones that you can't afford access to, for at least the last 20 years.

This is not speculation, it is established fact that the plutocrats have been acting on. This is the next phase of their plans, what are yours?

[Cleita]

6. I guess die of thirst.

I can't fight these people and no one really wants to listen.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. I've concluded that Americans are so completely invested in their respective fantasy worlds that

they will go to any length to avoid seeing, hearing, or learning anything that might jeopardize that fantasy.

[WinkyDink]

7. 100% spot-on. The next BIG wars, civil or international, will be over water.

[Cleita]

9. We, the people, need to mobilize to make sure the fresh water

resources remain in our hands. We should own the oil and other natural resources as well. Screw the greedy 1%. It's time to take back what should belong to everyone.

[FreeJoe]

10. I struggle to get worked up about it

Where I live, people have big swimming pools in their backyards. Their yards are covered with water intensive landscaping. They wash their cars frequently. In short, they waste tons and tons of water. The amount used for things that are important - drinking, bathing, flushing - are so small relative to the total consumed that I don't see a water shortage as a real problem. Sure, it might hurt the swimming pool industry. It might mean that people, gasp, use native plants in their landscape and let their lawns go dormant during the heat of the summer. It might even mean that I see some dirty cars on the road. I don't see people struggling to get enough to drink.

[Cleita]

11. Well, you must be well off. I suppose you don't have any problem filling

the Mercedes or the 1/2 ton pickup with gas either. Those of us who have to figure out how far we can go on a tank of $4 a gallon gas in our economy car today will be the ones who will have to buy the water tomorrow.

[FreeJoe]

17. How expensive do you think water is going to get?

Where I live, there is a $15.35/month charge for water and sewer service. Beyond that, water is $1.38 per thousand gallons if you use 3,000 gallons or less. So let's say that you drink 2 gallons of water per day. You have a 1.6 gallon toilet and you flush it 10 times a day. You also take a 5 minute shower at 2.5 gallons/minute. Finally, you go through another 5 gallons a day washing your hands, brushing your teeth, or turning those on your neighbor's kid. You're at 35.5 gallons per day. In a long month, that works out to 1,100 gallons of water. To be generous, I'll round 1,100 up to 2,000. Your bill is the base of $15.35 + $3.03 or $18.38!

Imagine if they increase the water cost by 10 fold. You still pay the base of $15.35, but now you have to pay $30.30 for the extra water cost. Now your up to $45.65!

OK, I'd personally prefer not to spent the extra $45.65. Still, it's not something I'm going lose a lot of sleep over because someone has concocted a scenario in which it might happen.

I don't know where you live or what the water situation is like. In my world, water is extremely cheap. It matters as a cost only when you use lots of it. That could mean higher food prices for heavily irrigated crops. It could mean higher gas prices because fracking costs go up. It could mean that people with big pools and lots of fancy landscaping get hit hard. I just don't think it will impact me all that much. I have so many concerns ahead of this, that I don't think it would make my list of top 100 problems.

[Cleita]

19. It will get hard to buy, but necessary, just like gas is today.

And it will be something you can't do without like not buying heating oil or propane or riding a bicycle so you don't have to buy gas. Sure you will be able to get polluted water probably just like poor people in third world countries do today along with the diseases they die of because of it. Our water won't be polluted with organic diseases though. Ours will be polluted from toxic runoff from previous mining and manufacturing industries with toxic by products that seep into the water table from them.

[WinkyDink]

13. "Where I live" is such a myopic world-view, I can't even. "Where I live" there are no tornadoes. SO?

[FreeJoe]

18. I used that phrase to distinguish my situation...

from people living in the middle of a freakin' desert. Yes, if you live in Phoenix and there is a water shortage, you might have serious problems. It might get so bad that people stop living in places where there is no freakin' water.

My main point, even for Phoenix, is that personal water consumption is so enormous compared to what is actually necessary for a good and comfortable life, that we could massively increase our effectively supply of water by just not wasting 95% of it on luxuries like lawns and swimming pools.

[Cleita]

20. You may get your wish when you can't afford it any more.

The problem is that the 1% will continue to have swimming pools, lavish grounds and plenty of water to slosh around in for their personal use.

[Horse with no Name]

12. There was speculation that the guy that bought the right of ways to the

windmills here in Texas was basically buying the underground rights to the water. I think it was T. Boone Pickens...the oil man. Buying wind. In the Permian Basin and the rest of west Texas. Makes a lot of sense to me that he is after the next oil--water. The windmills are incidental.

[Cleita]

14. I remember when Pickens was praised for wanting to use natural gas

for energy until we realized what he wanted to do was more environmentally destructive than pumping and refining oil into gas. He's a sneaky one all right.

[blogslut]

15. Yes. It is T. Boone

And as far as the residents of West Texas are concerned there is no speculation. He's been after our water for decades.

[Horse with no Name]

16. and he has it.

He just did it underhandedly.

[blogslut]

21. Not so much

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2011-06-24/group-buys-mesa-water-rights

[brooklynite]

22. Im a 1%er and I care...

...and I know a lot of "limousine liberals" who feel the same way. Conversely, there are plenty of 99%ers in the Republican Party who don't believe or care about climate change.

[Cleita]

23. Thank you. It's good to know that not all the 1%ers have traded in

their souls for money. I know many Republicans like you said. They have been thoroughly propagandized by the Fox News talking points they get. Unfortunately, they aren't helping things.