Voices from the Flats – Sitka to India: Exporting Fresh Water Around the Globe
Welcome back to one of our favorite Voices from the Flats contributors, Ship Bright! His amazing blog on water issues is linked below.
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By Ship Bright of fresh [water] ideas
Sitka, Alaska… Far, far away from anywhere. Situated in southeastern Alaska on Baranof Island you can only get to Sitka by plane or boat. The town is nestled at the foot of the mountains that dramatically rise out of the sea around the Harbor. It’s a fishing village that by Alaskan standards is a town—fourth largest in Alaska…I’ve been there. Since I wasn’t fishing it must have been a lady that brought me there which it was-a courtship that ranged from Maine to Sitka…go figure. It’s a beautiful place and like any Alaskan community it has more than it’s fair share of “characters”. I’m told the sun comes out in Sitka…could have fooled me. Every time I was in Sitka it rained…that was OK I was there for the beauty of an ex-pat Cajun woman anyway.
Sitka may have found a way to turn that rain into money from the sky. A Texas firm has entered into an agreement to ship 2.9 BILLION gallons of water at $.01 a gallon from Blue Lake Reservoir in Sitka to a hub in India where it will be distributed in Asia and the Middle East. That’s a lot of money for Sitka and that’s a lot of water.
For readers of Fresh[water] Ideas for a Thirsty Planet you know the pressures, both ecologically and politically, of freshwater resources in Asia. For those who are new to this blog read the series on the Tibetan Plateau. You also know that Canada and that whole northern tier of land that extends into Alaska holds few people but over 10% of the world’s freshwater.
So is this a good thing or bad thing? On one hand there are people in the world in increasingly desperate need of freshwater and places like Alaska have a surplus of freshwater over perceived needs …on the other the commoditization of freshwater opens up questions of sustainability of harvest for profit over human and environmental [think stream flows for salmon fisheries as an example] needs.
Sitka Mayor said Scott McAdams told Circle of Blue in May. “There’s not a lot of opposition to it. In this borough we have 8,600 people, but we have a renewable resource of water that could meet the needs of a metropolitan area. We do have excess water.”
Just recently the Alaska Department of Natural Resources received three new applications for bulk water removal from Adak Island in the Aleutian chain. The Aleut Corporation plans to export 1.5 million gallons per day from three reservoirs on the island.
For Sitka this may well work…however, others have long looked into this issue with the result being that the bulk exportation of water in Canada is outlawed. Why?
Quoting from a Canadian CBC article in 2004 [http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/water/]:
Maude Barlow is chair of the Council of Canadians, a citizens’ group with 100,000 members. She is the Joan of Arc of those opposed to the sale of Canadian water.
“There is a common assumption that the world’s water supply is huge and infinite,” Barlow has said. “This assumption is false. At some time in the near future, water bankruptcy will result.”
She cites a United Nations study that says by the year 2025 – less than 25 years – two-thirds of the world will be “water-poor.”
“The wars of the future are going to be fought over water,” Barlow has declared.
She endorses a 1999 paper from the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) that says: “Water is an essential need, a public trust, not a commodity. It belongs to everyone and to no one.” The CELA paper continues:
“Even large-scale water exports cannot possibly satisfy the social and economic needs of distant societies. Water shipped halfway around the world will only be affordable to the privileged and will deepen inequities between rich and poor. International trade in bulk water will allow elites to assure the quality of their own drinking water supplies, while permitting them to ignore the pollution of their local waters and the waste of their water management systems.”
Her point is well taken. Who will be able to afford the cost of the shipped and eventually expensive Sitka water? Will this be the answer to foreign freshwater issues or is this an mirage of a freshwater oasis for those desperate for what is in such abundance in Sitka and elsewhere in Alaska.
Neither Sitka nor Adak water nor water from any other Alaskan community will solve the Earth’s freshwater issues. The answer lies in conservation of present resources, protection of water purity through better sanitation, and protection both from point and nonpoint source pollution. These are issues Asia and countries like India need to address and not look at schemes to bring more water in–clean up your mess first…you’ll only foul the water that is being brought in. If countries keep on with the same sanitation and land use practices they’ll keep getting the same results.
What happens when the people at the Asian hub of the Alaskan freshwater “pipeline” wake up one morning and the ship does not appear upon the horizon to quench their needs?
For Sitka, I’d recommend bottling your own water in bulk and shipping it as boutique water. While bottled water sales have fallen, and there is great concern about plastic bottle refuse, the Alaskans I know could probably come up with a unique bottling solution that addresses those issues. Sitka, and Alaska, will keep the greater part of the value added profit from their own water and create jobs. I hope for that and for my “Sitka Girl”.
This story is going to start playing out more and more in Alaskan communities or anywhere else in the world where supply exceeds demand for freshwater and the global freshwater crisis continues to build. Right now there are financiers and water entrepreneurs scouring the world for water rights. Some have good intent to address these issues responsibly having learned the lessons of places like Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Others are just looking to make a big profit without due regard for the consequences.
This is our collective challenge in our approach to this issue. The balance between water as a human right and water treated as a commodity is one that has and will create conflicts. As I have said in this blog many times we can avoid the suffering of conflict if we think ahead and approach the issue that water, like air, is fundamental for life and is not a resource that should be treated at the expense of another.
I wish Sitka all the best…pay attention to the debate in Canada.
For the rest of us we need to keep our eye on these issues. It is something that will eventually affect everyone…
Being a California girl I have always thought of water as a commodity. It is not “free” but something that must be paid for. As a kid, I was taught to turn off the tap while brushing my teeth. Running in the sprinkler was great fun on a hot day but we would get in trouble if we played endlessly with the hose. Water should not be wasted is a group thought here in the semi arid part of the world.
Our state politics are shaped by water. The biggest fight right now is between the salmon fisheries and San Francisco Bay parties, and the Central Valley farmers over who should get the most allocations from the Sacramento delta. It even attracted Hannity who has taken the side of the farmers. Of course, he lied and tried to make it about a smelt so he could “blame” environmentalists when it really economics of different parties. But that just faux.
This all goes way back. If you have ever seen the movie “Chinatown”, it is about how Mullholland made a deal to take most of the water on the eastern side of the Sierra and pump it to Los Angeles. CA and AZ have been fighting for decades over the Colorado River water. It has also had a major impact in Mexico at the mouth of the river which used to empty into the Gulf of CA in Baja. Very little water gets to the ocean now.
Being a California girl I have always thought of water as a commodity. It is not “free” but something that must be paid for. As a kid, I was taught to turn off the tap while brushing my teeth. Running in the sprinkler was great fun on a hot day but we would get in trouble if we played endlessly with the hose. Water should not be wasted is a group thought here in the semi arid part of the world.
Our state politics are shaped by water. The biggest fight right now is between the salmon fisheries and San Francisco Bay parties, and the Central Valley farmers over who should get the most allocations from the Sacramento delta. It even attracted Hannity who has taken the side of the farmers. Of course, he lied and tried to make it about a smelt so he could “blame” environmentalists when it really economics of different parties. But that just faux.
This all goes way back. If you have ever seen the movie “Chinatown”, it is about how Mullholland made a deal to take most of the water on the eastern side of the Sierra and pump it to Los Angeles. CA and AZ have been fighting for decades over the Colorado River water. It has also had a major impact in Mexico at the mouth of the river which used to empty into the Gulf of CA in Baja. Very little water gets to the ocean now.
Excellent post- I just finished watching “BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS” on the sundance channel. Really made me feel that our multinationals and “United States of Corporations” have already had their dirty little oily imprints on almost all the fresh water sources around our planet. The film even mentioned that Jenna Bush daughter of our last POTUS was looking to buy what sounded like a pretty good hunk of property in S.Amer. after her daddy did, sounds like the next big commodity for Bush family legacy well be in shades of aqua instead of Texas tea … anyway you can go to http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen/green-films/ for dates and times if you have access to the sundance channel. I would definitely recommend to everyone I know.
Excellent post- I just finished watching “BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS” on the sundance channel. Really made me feel that our multinationals and “United States of Corporations” have already had their dirty little oily imprints on almost all the fresh water sources around our planet. The film even mentioned that Jenna Bush daughter of our last POTUS was looking to buy what sounded like a pretty good hunk of property in S.Amer. after her daddy did, sounds like the next big commodity for Bush family legacy well be in shades of aqua instead of Texas tea … anyway you can go to http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen/green-films/ for dates and times if you have access to the sundance channel. I would definitely recommend to everyone I know.
What a great post. Bulk water sales was not something I was aware of, although I have been aware of the predicted future water crisis.
Thanks very much.
What a great post. Bulk water sales was not something I was aware of, although I have been aware of the predicted future water crisis.
Thanks very much.
So much information, so little time. We got a long way to go and a short time to get here.
Thanks for the info. Isn’t T. Boone Pickens now trading (as commodity) in water and buying up water rights?
We’re using up the world’s supply of gas and moving on toward water (water wars?). It seems that the air we breathe will be next. Let’s hope that greed does not triumph this world’s very existence.
Lord help us all.
Ooops…’We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.’
[[Y’know, sometimes I truly H8 when a poster posts a correction to their comment…99-times out of 100, I don’t even realize I’ve misread what has *actually* been posted until I see how it was supposed to be! I read “We’ve” even though “We” was posted. I think it’s a sign of mind frazzle… beth.]]
Or it’s a sigh of mind frazzle. Yeah, probably more of a sigh. Either way… 😉 beth.
Ha! You just replied to your own reply!
Just teasin’ – I agree with you on how the brain fills in the missing stuff. It’s actually quite amazing. If the whole paragraph or post is mish mash or disconnected, then my brain catches every single grammatical error or typo (who knows which is which sometimes). But if the poster is expressing themselves clearly, I miss the goofs.
Thank goodness for our brains. This is why I could never become a zombie religious whackjob – I actually love having a brain and even using it occasionally!
So much information, so little time. We got a long way to go and a short time to get here.
Thanks for the info. Isn’t T. Boone Pickens now trading (as commodity) in water and buying up water rights?
We’re using up the world’s supply of gas and moving on toward water (water wars?). It seems that the air we breathe will be next. Let’s hope that greed does not triumph this world’s very existence.
Lord help us all.
Ooops…’We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.’
[[Y’know, sometimes I truly H8 when a poster posts a correction to their comment…99-times out of 100, I don’t even realize I’ve misread what has *actually* been posted until I see how it was supposed to be! I read “We’ve” even though “We” was posted. I think it’s a sign of mind frazzle… beth.]]
Or it’s a sigh of mind frazzle. Yeah, probably more of a sigh. Either way… 😉 beth.
Ha! You just replied to your own reply!
Just teasin’ – I agree with you on how the brain fills in the missing stuff. It’s actually quite amazing. If the whole paragraph or post is mish mash or disconnected, then my brain catches every single grammatical error or typo (who knows which is which sometimes). But if the poster is expressing themselves clearly, I miss the goofs.
Thank goodness for our brains. This is why I could never become a zombie religious whackjob – I actually love having a brain and even using it occasionally!
Its a shame that this state that was pioneered by “yes we can” is now close to being a majority of “No thats scary.”
Where would we be without the daring souls who pioneered the Halibut fishery 120 yrs ago,or the salmon fisheries back when net fishing was “real “mans work.
The building of the Copper River &NW railway,countless gold rushes,the ALCAN,large airfields and defense outposts when things were REALY scary.
The A.R.R, TAPS and the Dalton highway and a handfull of other highways pioneered because somebody had vision.
Selfish small minds sit stationary,dont want anything to change,dont want to dream,dont want to reach for solutions,want everything handed to them at the expense of somebody else.
Water already is a commodity except for a small percentage of people,in this state and most of the continent.
ak
I could write a book in response to your comment – I’ve typed and deleted, typed and deleted til I decided to give up for now. What you said has a lot of merit!
Other than a rousing cheer for Alaska’s version of Manifest Destiny, I have no clue what you are trying to say with respect to the water shortage problem in the world.
The driving force in Alaska’s “countless gold rushes” was unvarnished human greed and selfishness. Resource exploitation has almost always been undertaken for personal gain, whether corporate or individual, and regardless of boldness of vision or largeness of mind.
Small minds may indeed “sit stationary and don’t dream,” but small minds don’t have a lock on selfishness. Selfishness is a human trait more correlated to the quality of character than the size of the mind.
“Large-minded” dreamers and visionaries (particularly well-financed ones) are just as capable of selfishness in their grand plans for resource exploitation. In fact, they are more likely to be wildly successful in their selfishness compared to the “small minds.”
Solutions which benefit humanity and our environment, and not just some corporate, state, or individual bank account, are the hallmarks of true visionary minds. Gold-rushers need not apply.
amen
“Selfish small minds sit stationary,dont want anything to change,dont want to dream,dont want to reach for solutions,want everything handed to them at the expense of somebody else.”
??????????????????
What does this have to do with this post?
Or is this a backhanded way of saying no one should question anything which brings economic gain?
If you look up Cochabamba, Bolivia and the story here
“Leasing the Rain”
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bolivia/links.html
amongst others
you will see the “visionary” minds at play – Bechtel Corporation and partners, a corrupt government and IMF which apparently agrees with you that water is already a commodity to the nth degree.
The “visionaries ” which brought us some the things you note here packed up and left when their bottom line no longer looked plump…
The Copper River and Northwestern Railway ran it’s last train whisking the mining supervisors out when the mine closed… leaving ghost towns and an abandoned rail behind…
Come walk with me to a spot , not 2 miles from my home, where nothing grows a hundred years after the mine which left this tailings pile is gone…
Talk to all of us here in Southeast about it…
http://www.lawyercentral.com/Former-Mercury-Mine-on-Alaskas-Prince-of-Legal-News–7-103437.html
Its a shame that this state that was pioneered by “yes we can” is now close to being a majority of “No thats scary.”
Where would we be without the daring souls who pioneered the Halibut fishery 120 yrs ago,or the salmon fisheries back when net fishing was “real “mans work.
The building of the Copper River &NW railway,countless gold rushes,the ALCAN,large airfields and defense outposts when things were REALY scary.
The A.R.R, TAPS and the Dalton highway and a handfull of other highways pioneered because somebody had vision.
Selfish small minds sit stationary,dont want anything to change,dont want to dream,dont want to reach for solutions,want everything handed to them at the expense of somebody else.
Water already is a commodity except for a small percentage of people,in this state and most of the continent.
ak
I could write a book in response to your comment – I’ve typed and deleted, typed and deleted til I decided to give up for now. What you said has a lot of merit!
Other than a rousing cheer for Alaska’s version of Manifest Destiny, I have no clue what you are trying to say with respect to the water shortage problem in the world.
The driving force in Alaska’s “countless gold rushes” was unvarnished human greed and selfishness. Resource exploitation has almost always been undertaken for personal gain, whether corporate or individual, and regardless of boldness of vision or largeness of mind.
Small minds may indeed “sit stationary and don’t dream,” but small minds don’t have a lock on selfishness. Selfishness is a human trait more correlated to the quality of character than the size of the mind.
“Large-minded” dreamers and visionaries (particularly well-financed ones) are just as capable of selfishness in their grand plans for resource exploitation. In fact, they are more likely to be wildly successful in their selfishness compared to the “small minds.”
Solutions which benefit humanity and our environment, and not just some corporate, state, or individual bank account, are the hallmarks of true visionary minds. Gold-rushers need not apply.
amen
“Selfish small minds sit stationary,dont want anything to change,dont want to dream,dont want to reach for solutions,want everything handed to them at the expense of somebody else.”
??????????????????
What does this have to do with this post?
Or is this a backhanded way of saying no one should question anything which brings economic gain?
If you look up Cochabamba, Bolivia and the story here
“Leasing the Rain”
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bolivia/links.html
amongst others
you will see the “visionary” minds at play – Bechtel Corporation and partners, a corrupt government and IMF which apparently agrees with you that water is already a commodity to the nth degree.
The “visionaries ” which brought us some the things you note here packed up and left when their bottom line no longer looked plump…
The Copper River and Northwestern Railway ran it’s last train whisking the mining supervisors out when the mine closed… leaving ghost towns and an abandoned rail behind…
Come walk with me to a spot , not 2 miles from my home, where nothing grows a hundred years after the mine which left this tailings pile is gone…
Talk to all of us here in Southeast about it…
http://www.lawyercentral.com/Former-Mercury-Mine-on-Alaskas-Prince-of-Legal-News–7-103437.html
Maude Barlow: “The wars of the future are going to be fought over water.”
She’s right.
Ship Bright: “we can avoid the suffering of conflict if we think ahead and approach the issue that water, like air, is fundamental for life and is not a resource that should be treated at the expense of another.”
I hope you’re right….but I’m not optimistic that the people who are looking ahead on this issue will be treated any differently than the climate scientists and environmentalists who have been looking ahead on the effects of global warming and human pollution, respectively.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Maude Barlow: “The wars of the future are going to be fought over water.”
She’s right.
Ship Bright: “we can avoid the suffering of conflict if we think ahead and approach the issue that water, like air, is fundamental for life and is not a resource that should be treated at the expense of another.”
I hope you’re right….but I’m not optimistic that the people who are looking ahead on this issue will be treated any differently than the climate scientists and environmentalists who have been looking ahead on the effects of global warming and human pollution, respectively.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Water usage is *the* futurist issue. The global south is feeling the impact already, whether from climate change, as most rational people believe, or “short-term” weather patterns, per the climate change deniers, who for the most part, ignore scientists.
In our own country, about a quarter of all irrigated land uses water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which (if memory serves) lies underneath eight states. Unfortunately, this water, which grows wheat, corn, and soybeans in places where such crops are quite foreign, is fossil water from the last glaciation. In other words, it’s being pumped out at a rate that is unsustainable, since it’s not being replenished at nearly the rate it’s being used.
In my own state, a week does not pass that I’m not writing letters or signing petitions against hydrofracking (hydraulic fracturing) for natural gas drilling in NY’s piece of the Marcellus Shale. In nearby Pennsylvania, right across the Delaware, hydrofracking has already polluted previously lovely wells and bodies of water. (See the movie Gasland at the home of someone with HBO.)
Thanks, quyana, to Ship Bright for an excellent post. IMO, the carrying capacity of our planet vis-a-vis the human population has already been surpassed (that’s one reason I joined ZPG on the first Earth Day all those years ago, and never reproduced). I hope I’m wrong about that, and hope that future generations prove to be better stewards of our beautiful Earth. When the International Treaty on Human Rights was drawn up, I cried. The reason for my (salty) tears was that there was no mention of water as a human right.
Health and peace.
Water usage is *the* futurist issue. The global south is feeling the impact already, whether from climate change, as most rational people believe, or “short-term” weather patterns, per the climate change deniers, who for the most part, ignore scientists.
In our own country, about a quarter of all irrigated land uses water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which (if memory serves) lies underneath eight states. Unfortunately, this water, which grows wheat, corn, and soybeans in places where such crops are quite foreign, is fossil water from the last glaciation. In other words, it’s being pumped out at a rate that is unsustainable, since it’s not being replenished at nearly the rate it’s being used.
In my own state, a week does not pass that I’m not writing letters or signing petitions against hydrofracking (hydraulic fracturing) for natural gas drilling in NY’s piece of the Marcellus Shale. In nearby Pennsylvania, right across the Delaware, hydrofracking has already polluted previously lovely wells and bodies of water. (See the movie Gasland at the home of someone with HBO.)
Thanks, quyana, to Ship Bright for an excellent post. IMO, the carrying capacity of our planet vis-a-vis the human population has already been surpassed (that’s one reason I joined ZPG on the first Earth Day all those years ago, and never reproduced). I hope I’m wrong about that, and hope that future generations prove to be better stewards of our beautiful Earth. When the International Treaty on Human Rights was drawn up, I cried. The reason for my (salty) tears was that there was no mention of water as a human right.
Health and peace.
1 cent a gallon doesn’t sound like a shortage of supply.
1 cent a gallon doesn’t sound like a shortage of supply.
Some outdated but interesting statistics from this source:
http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm
I have no connection to or interest in the source.
The world has a lot of water, approximately 1,385,000,000 cubic km. 97.5% of that is salt water. That leaves roughly 34,625,000 cubic km of fresh water. Unfortunately nearly 90% of that fresh water is in one relatively inaccessible place and form, Antarctic ice. That leaves about 3,400,000 cubic km. Of that a substantial percentage is “sequestered” in clouds and ground water and not readily available for use by us and all other living things not in the oceans. Only about 93,000 cubic km of fresh water can be considered “readily available” in rivers, lakes and aquifers that can be tapped. Since 1 cubic km contains 1 billion cubic meters our fresh water resources total about 93 trillion cubic meters. Seems like a lot doesn’t it?
Lets look at the other side of the issue. With roughly 6.8 billion people the arithmetic works out that we have about 13,676 cubic meters per human. What do we use now? Globally we extract 4,500 cubic km per year and of that extracted “use” slightly less than half, i.e. do not return it to the available resource. Of course, there are confounding factors. Distribution of population and distribution of available fresh water resources do not correspond exactly and both vary widely, so let’s think about who uses water and how much.
Annual per capita water use for different regions of the world looks like this:
North America 1,280 cubic meters
Europeans & Australians 694 cubic meters
Asians 535 cubic meters
South American 311 cubic meters
Africans 186 cubic meters
What is it used for? 69% is used for agriculture (mostly irrigation), 23% is used for industry and 8% is used for drinking/cooking/sanitation etc.
There are more statistics about water, its use, cost and availability at the site I linked to. They sell water purification technology but I think they are located in New Zealand (I am not sure) so I have no reason to shill for them and it is unlikely many of you would be interested in their products. I do advocate going and reading the linked page though for the additional stats. Also, these numbers are as I said out of date, about 7 years old or more. Things change.
Up thread KS sunflower asked about climate change, that is really the point of me citing all this here. Since the 1970s science has been trying to get a handle on the earth’s climate, what it was like in the past was a major focus at that time. But it began to be clear by the 1990s that things were changing from the historical trends some of which could look back hundreds of thousands of years. Change in and of itself is something we should expect, in either direction. Glaciologists tussel endlessly over whether major glacial advances are due to climate cooling or warming. So far as I know, they still don’t know, but one thing is clear, alpine, or mountain glaciers are being ablated much more rapidly than they were 100 years ago. In the last ten years climate science has gone hammer and tongs after trying to find out what is causing the rapid increase in the rate of change.
The trouble with science is that it seeks truth. So you can’t play the spin game and claim you absolutely know what the truth is. Neither can anyone else. But they do and that is to the disadvantage of everyone who could otherwise quite justifyably rely on the best available science as at least a fair approximation of the “truth”. The best available truth right now concerning climate from a scientific point of view is that things are changing fast and the most probable cause is the billions of tons of carbon dioxide we humans are taking out of their geological sequestration and dumping indiscriminately into the air we breath. Okay, so now the really big question becomes what will happen down the road because of these rapid changes? The only acceptable answer to that at this time is we have no idea. Well, we have far too many but probably not enough ideas. In all probability the single thing consequent to climate change that will really be a problem, hasn’t been anticipated yet.
I give an example, cited previously here some time ago. CO2 (carbon dioxide) has a “residence time” in the atmosphere. I could go into another deep digression here but I won’t. One of the ways CO2 is removed from the atmosphere is by it dissolving in the ocean and subsequently forming carbonic acid. I won’t add another link, but go to wikipedia and search on ocean acidification if you want more details. Look particularly at the possible impacts section. Most of the world’s oxygen is made available for us to respirate because of oceanic phytoplankton. They depend in some fraction of the overall population upon being able to extract from seawater the calcium and carbon and oxygen the use to make their cellular skeletons. Their ability to do this is an exquisitely precise production of proteins that act as catalysts to drive this synthesis. What happens to their ability to survive and reproduce when the fundamental chemistry of their watery world is shifted just slightly past the point where it is impossible to make their carbonates? They die and stop making oxygen. Less oxygen is available in the water, less is freed into the atmosphere. Even the species of phytoplankton with silicate skeletons may ultimately be affected by the change in oxygen levels.
Could this happen? What would it mean? We don’t know, and we haven’t even shown enough interest yet to have partial answers.
235 million years ago the fossil record shows that 90% or more of all extant species died out in a geologically brief period of time. Would you like to take those odds now? Line up ten people, execute all but one of them by firing squad. Would you bet on being the one they all missed? (BTW there is no evidence there was a giant comet impact at the end Permian extinction).
There is also the whole issue of foresight versus long term gain but I do not want to outlive my welcome so I will stop now.
BTW I did see in my usual perusal of sites that Pebble Mine permitting now faces a trial in court challenge. If there are any advogadro types out there inclined to file amicus briefs for the plaintiffs I would be happy to give input to precarious if not irresponsible aspects of the development plans.
I am not even sure if that pertains to this lawsuit as it appears to be about the lack of transparency in the permitting process.
You have not worn out your welcome by any means because I’ll wager many of us appreciate your input. It is this kind of intelligent, civil discourse that attracts most of us to themudflats. Sharing information enriches our discussion and our understanding. We all have contributed facts, links, and opinions (mostly well-educated ones it seems) and regardless whether we all agree or even understand, we grow individually and together. That is greatest blessing of this technology – expanding our social and intellectual contacts.
Mind you, I have a great time just playing here as well – being snarky when snarky is called for to save our sanity amidst the ring-wing mad rants and behaviors surging all around us. However, it is the insightful commentary of the posts and the commenting mudflatters that keeps me coming back day after day, even several times a day. This is one of the most stimulating (and fun) political blogs I’ve seen.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and insights.
Thanks also to Ship Bright for an excellent post! I love the shipbright.wordpress.com blog because it takes me out of my small corner of the world and places me smack dab in the middle of issues that will shape the entire world and even determine the future of it.
i agree with Sunflower……i always appreciate and enjoy your posts. even when i have to read them. go away and think about what i read then read again. i do that because i respect what you have to say. i may not always get a chance to tell you so but you are always interesting and thought provoking. keep it coming KN.
Thanks KS and Bubbles, a little positive feedback is all the encouragement I need.
My little discussion of the potential impact of climate change on ocean acidification did not seem to resonate much, probably because it is an entirely remote kind of result in the context of the topic of fresh water, but the two are still strongly related. If the phytoplankton begin to die off because they can no longer chemically make their skeletons, that is the very foundation of the global food chain.
It is also the source of more than half of all the oxygen available to us to breath. Most people don’t realize it but free oxygen is a rare thing indeed. If the total amount of oxygen produced by plants begins to decline, then ultimately the dissolved oxygen in the air will begin to decline as well. The supply of oxygen to the atmosphere is exclusively from plants. It is in a dynamic equilibrium. Another thing is that plants use oxygen as well as produce it. Most of their biochemical reactions involve the use of oxygen, and at night no photosynthesis occurs so the plant literally lives through the night holding its breath.
I guess the gist of what I try to say in my posts is that the real world is not a collection of sound bites. It is an amazingly complex, balanced and efficient system for converting sunlight into virtually everything we experience and appreciate.
Else thread other things were said that I should respond to, but I have a feeling the “big news” is going to kill this thread far more effectively than anything done to Macondo 252.
May your mud be free of hydrocarbons.
Still watching the real news here… appreciate your comments as always
Some outdated but interesting statistics from this source:
http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm
I have no connection to or interest in the source.
The world has a lot of water, approximately 1,385,000,000 cubic km. 97.5% of that is salt water. That leaves roughly 34,625,000 cubic km of fresh water. Unfortunately nearly 90% of that fresh water is in one relatively inaccessible place and form, Antarctic ice. That leaves about 3,400,000 cubic km. Of that a substantial percentage is “sequestered” in clouds and ground water and not readily available for use by us and all other living things not in the oceans. Only about 93,000 cubic km of fresh water can be considered “readily available” in rivers, lakes and aquifers that can be tapped. Since 1 cubic km contains 1 billion cubic meters our fresh water resources total about 93 trillion cubic meters. Seems like a lot doesn’t it?
Lets look at the other side of the issue. With roughly 6.8 billion people the arithmetic works out that we have about 13,676 cubic meters per human. What do we use now? Globally we extract 4,500 cubic km per year and of that extracted “use” slightly less than half, i.e. do not return it to the available resource. Of course, there are confounding factors. Distribution of population and distribution of available fresh water resources do not correspond exactly and both vary widely, so let’s think about who uses water and how much.
Annual per capita water use for different regions of the world looks like this:
North America 1,280 cubic meters
Europeans & Australians 694 cubic meters
Asians 535 cubic meters
South American 311 cubic meters
Africans 186 cubic meters
What is it used for? 69% is used for agriculture (mostly irrigation), 23% is used for industry and 8% is used for drinking/cooking/sanitation etc.
There are more statistics about water, its use, cost and availability at the site I linked to. They sell water purification technology but I think they are located in New Zealand (I am not sure) so I have no reason to shill for them and it is unlikely many of you would be interested in their products. I do advocate going and reading the linked page though for the additional stats. Also, these numbers are as I said out of date, about 7 years old or more. Things change.
Up thread KS sunflower asked about climate change, that is really the point of me citing all this here. Since the 1970s science has been trying to get a handle on the earth’s climate, what it was like in the past was a major focus at that time. But it began to be clear by the 1990s that things were changing from the historical trends some of which could look back hundreds of thousands of years. Change in and of itself is something we should expect, in either direction. Glaciologists tussel endlessly over whether major glacial advances are due to climate cooling or warming. So far as I know, they still don’t know, but one thing is clear, alpine, or mountain glaciers are being ablated much more rapidly than they were 100 years ago. In the last ten years climate science has gone hammer and tongs after trying to find out what is causing the rapid increase in the rate of change.
The trouble with science is that it seeks truth. So you can’t play the spin game and claim you absolutely know what the truth is. Neither can anyone else. But they do and that is to the disadvantage of everyone who could otherwise quite justifyably rely on the best available science as at least a fair approximation of the “truth”. The best available truth right now concerning climate from a scientific point of view is that things are changing fast and the most probable cause is the billions of tons of carbon dioxide we humans are taking out of their geological sequestration and dumping indiscriminately into the air we breath. Okay, so now the really big question becomes what will happen down the road because of these rapid changes? The only acceptable answer to that at this time is we have no idea. Well, we have far too many but probably not enough ideas. In all probability the single thing consequent to climate change that will really be a problem, hasn’t been anticipated yet.
I give an example, cited previously here some time ago. CO2 (carbon dioxide) has a “residence time” in the atmosphere. I could go into another deep digression here but I won’t. One of the ways CO2 is removed from the atmosphere is by it dissolving in the ocean and subsequently forming carbonic acid. I won’t add another link, but go to wikipedia and search on ocean acidification if you want more details. Look particularly at the possible impacts section. Most of the world’s oxygen is made available for us to respirate because of oceanic phytoplankton. They depend in some fraction of the overall population upon being able to extract from seawater the calcium and carbon and oxygen the use to make their cellular skeletons. Their ability to do this is an exquisitely precise production of proteins that act as catalysts to drive this synthesis. What happens to their ability to survive and reproduce when the fundamental chemistry of their watery world is shifted just slightly past the point where it is impossible to make their carbonates? They die and stop making oxygen. Less oxygen is available in the water, less is freed into the atmosphere. Even the species of phytoplankton with silicate skeletons may ultimately be affected by the change in oxygen levels.
Could this happen? What would it mean? We don’t know, and we haven’t even shown enough interest yet to have partial answers.
235 million years ago the fossil record shows that 90% or more of all extant species died out in a geologically brief period of time. Would you like to take those odds now? Line up ten people, execute all but one of them by firing squad. Would you bet on being the one they all missed? (BTW there is no evidence there was a giant comet impact at the end Permian extinction).
There is also the whole issue of foresight versus long term gain but I do not want to outlive my welcome so I will stop now.
BTW I did see in my usual perusal of sites that Pebble Mine permitting now faces a trial in court challenge. If there are any advogadro types out there inclined to file amicus briefs for the plaintiffs I would be happy to give input to precarious if not irresponsible aspects of the development plans.
I am not even sure if that pertains to this lawsuit as it appears to be about the lack of transparency in the permitting process.
You have not worn out your welcome by any means because I’ll wager many of us appreciate your input. It is this kind of intelligent, civil discourse that attracts most of us to themudflats. Sharing information enriches our discussion and our understanding. We all have contributed facts, links, and opinions (mostly well-educated ones it seems) and regardless whether we all agree or even understand, we grow individually and together. That is greatest blessing of this technology – expanding our social and intellectual contacts.
Mind you, I have a great time just playing here as well – being snarky when snarky is called for to save our sanity amidst the ring-wing mad rants and behaviors surging all around us. However, it is the insightful commentary of the posts and the commenting mudflatters that keeps me coming back day after day, even several times a day. This is one of the most stimulating (and fun) political blogs I’ve seen.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and insights.
Thanks also to Ship Bright for an excellent post! I love the shipbright.wordpress.com blog because it takes me out of my small corner of the world and places me smack dab in the middle of issues that will shape the entire world and even determine the future of it.
i agree with Sunflower……i always appreciate and enjoy your posts. even when i have to read them. go away and think about what i read then read again. i do that because i respect what you have to say. i may not always get a chance to tell you so but you are always interesting and thought provoking. keep it coming KN.
Thanks KS and Bubbles, a little positive feedback is all the encouragement I need.
My little discussion of the potential impact of climate change on ocean acidification did not seem to resonate much, probably because it is an entirely remote kind of result in the context of the topic of fresh water, but the two are still strongly related. If the phytoplankton begin to die off because they can no longer chemically make their skeletons, that is the very foundation of the global food chain.
It is also the source of more than half of all the oxygen available to us to breath. Most people don’t realize it but free oxygen is a rare thing indeed. If the total amount of oxygen produced by plants begins to decline, then ultimately the dissolved oxygen in the air will begin to decline as well. The supply of oxygen to the atmosphere is exclusively from plants. It is in a dynamic equilibrium. Another thing is that plants use oxygen as well as produce it. Most of their biochemical reactions involve the use of oxygen, and at night no photosynthesis occurs so the plant literally lives through the night holding its breath.
I guess the gist of what I try to say in my posts is that the real world is not a collection of sound bites. It is an amazingly complex, balanced and efficient system for converting sunlight into virtually everything we experience and appreciate.
Else thread other things were said that I should respond to, but I have a feeling the “big news” is going to kill this thread far more effectively than anything done to Macondo 252.
May your mud be free of hydrocarbons.
Still watching the real news here… appreciate your comments as always
… sounds like using it to provide power to the town before selling it off might be an added alternative…
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/pha.asp?docid=897&pg=1
“Blue Lake has been the main source of water for the City of Sitka Public Water Supply since 1986. Prior to 1986, water was supplied from Indian River. The Indian River system remains functional as a backup water supply. The Indian River system is used during times when the Blue Lake system is taken off line to complete required inspections and maintenance.
Blue Lake is a reservoir surrounded by mountains and steep terrain. The reservoir has a surface area of 1,330 acres at normal maximum levels with a drainage area of 37 square miles. The watershed is formed by steep mountain slopes that plunge to narrow glacial valleys. Sawmill Creek (formerly known as Medvetcha River) was dammed to raise the level of Blue Lake from 205 feet mean sea level to 342 feet mean sea level.
In addition to drinking water for Sitka, Blue Lake is also used to power the smaller of Sitka’s hydroelectric plants and was used for process water at the Alaska Pulp Co.(when the plant was open).”
… sounds like using it to provide power to the town before selling it off might be an added alternative…
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/pha.asp?docid=897&pg=1
“Blue Lake has been the main source of water for the City of Sitka Public Water Supply since 1986. Prior to 1986, water was supplied from Indian River. The Indian River system remains functional as a backup water supply. The Indian River system is used during times when the Blue Lake system is taken off line to complete required inspections and maintenance.
Blue Lake is a reservoir surrounded by mountains and steep terrain. The reservoir has a surface area of 1,330 acres at normal maximum levels with a drainage area of 37 square miles. The watershed is formed by steep mountain slopes that plunge to narrow glacial valleys. Sawmill Creek (formerly known as Medvetcha River) was dammed to raise the level of Blue Lake from 205 feet mean sea level to 342 feet mean sea level.
In addition to drinking water for Sitka, Blue Lake is also used to power the smaller of Sitka’s hydroelectric plants and was used for process water at the Alaska Pulp Co.(when the plant was open).”
National Geographic put out “Water: A Special Issue“, a couple months back — like Ship Bright’s article, well worth a read…as well as worthy, too, of some serious contemplation.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/table-of-contents
As the NatGeo mag’s editor noted: “As a chemical compound, nothing could be simpler than water: two atoms of hydrogen joined to one of oxygen. From a human point of view, simplicity fades. Though water covers our world, more than 97 percent is salty. Two percent is fresh water locked in snow and ice, leaving less than one percent for us.”
I hate to admit it, but it never even dawned on me [DOH!] that the *total* amount of water we –collectively– have on earth, is the same total amount of water we’ve always had… and will always have. It’s ‘form’ might vary [gas, liquid, solid, salted, fresh, etc.] but it’s the same total amount. Period – ain’t no *new* water! What we got, is what we got, and that’s ALL we got — never growing, never lessening, always the same amount. Amazing, ain’t it? beth.
National Geographic put out “Water: A Special Issue“, a couple months back — like Ship Bright’s article, well worth a read…as well as worthy, too, of some serious contemplation.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/table-of-contents
As the NatGeo mag’s editor noted: “As a chemical compound, nothing could be simpler than water: two atoms of hydrogen joined to one of oxygen. From a human point of view, simplicity fades. Though water covers our world, more than 97 percent is salty. Two percent is fresh water locked in snow and ice, leaving less than one percent for us.”
I hate to admit it, but it never even dawned on me [DOH!] that the *total* amount of water we –collectively– have on earth, is the same total amount of water we’ve always had… and will always have. It’s ‘form’ might vary [gas, liquid, solid, salted, fresh, etc.] but it’s the same total amount. Period – ain’t no *new* water! What we got, is what we got, and that’s ALL we got — never growing, never lessening, always the same amount. Amazing, ain’t it? beth.
Stunningly beautiful photograph of the harbor…
“…This is our collective challenge in our approach to this issue. The balance between water as a human right and water treated as a commodity is one that has and will create conflicts. …we can avoid the suffering of conflict if we think ahead and approach the issue that water, like air, is fundamental for life…”
many thanks, Ship Bright.
*eyes open and thinking cap on*
Stunningly beautiful photograph of the harbor…
“…This is our collective challenge in our approach to this issue. The balance between water as a human right and water treated as a commodity is one that has and will create conflicts. …we can avoid the suffering of conflict if we think ahead and approach the issue that water, like air, is fundamental for life…”
many thanks, Ship Bright.
*eyes open and thinking cap on*
Sitka water in Blue Lake is mostly rain water. The lake was dammed up in 1958 to accommodate a pulp/paper mill at sealevel below it. It provided power for the mill, which was shut down and ‘hauled away’ sometime in the 1980’s/90’s. Now the lake is not used for anything except the occasional fisherman or a hunter crossing in a boat to get to the higher mountains behind it. There is a rec area below the dam and a stream which produces nothing (i.e. no salmon go up to spawn) – there might be some snow melt that contributes to the lake, but no real glaciers that are receding and would eventually disappear as a source of water to the lake. Actually, in the 1800’s when Sitka’s climate was MUCH colder, water from a frozen sealevel lake was cut up in chunks, loaded in a ship and taken to California. Exporting water once more was an idea Wally Hickel (during his second term) proposed; putting in a ‘water pipeline’ from SE Alaska to California to help with their water needs. So selling water from Alaska is not a new idea. It probably needs to be explored; when the oil runs out (and it will), what then will Alaska have for ‘free’ to export???????
The lake is currently used. It helps provide the hydropower that supplies Sitka’s electric supply as well as drinking water.
There is one other lake currently also helping to provide hydropower and another will be developed.
You are correct that the water in Blue Lake comes from rain, but there is also snow melt from the surrounding mountains.
In the climate projections based on knowledge, Southeast Alaska will become wetter and a little warmer as global warming continues.
There are coming water wars and Alaska will be providing water to the rest of the US and world. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Alaska needs to think about what it is doing and hold out for good prices before selling water rights. Alaska will be the water and food basket as global warming progresses. This is why it is so important that if resource development (logging, mining, tourism)
is pursued, that it be done in a matter that will not leave harm to the food and water resources of the state. We are all going to need these resources in 25-50 years.
Sitka water in Blue Lake is mostly rain water. The lake was dammed up in 1958 to accommodate a pulp/paper mill at sealevel below it. It provided power for the mill, which was shut down and ‘hauled away’ sometime in the 1980’s/90’s. Now the lake is not used for anything except the occasional fisherman or a hunter crossing in a boat to get to the higher mountains behind it. There is a rec area below the dam and a stream which produces nothing (i.e. no salmon go up to spawn) – there might be some snow melt that contributes to the lake, but no real glaciers that are receding and would eventually disappear as a source of water to the lake. Actually, in the 1800’s when Sitka’s climate was MUCH colder, water from a frozen sealevel lake was cut up in chunks, loaded in a ship and taken to California. Exporting water once more was an idea Wally Hickel (during his second term) proposed; putting in a ‘water pipeline’ from SE Alaska to California to help with their water needs. So selling water from Alaska is not a new idea. It probably needs to be explored; when the oil runs out (and it will), what then will Alaska have for ‘free’ to export???????
The lake is currently used. It helps provide the hydropower that supplies Sitka’s electric supply as well as drinking water.
There is one other lake currently also helping to provide hydropower and another will be developed.
You are correct that the water in Blue Lake comes from rain, but there is also snow melt from the surrounding mountains.
In the climate projections based on knowledge, Southeast Alaska will become wetter and a little warmer as global warming continues.
There are coming water wars and Alaska will be providing water to the rest of the US and world. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Alaska needs to think about what it is doing and hold out for good prices before selling water rights. Alaska will be the water and food basket as global warming progresses. This is why it is so important that if resource development (logging, mining, tourism)
is pursued, that it be done in a matter that will not leave harm to the food and water resources of the state. We are all going to need these resources in 25-50 years.
@mipartee
As a near life-long resident of the border region here in Washington state, I hate to say this but not all Canadians are all that progressive. British Columbia has a most un-impressive record of stripping the provincial forests for every tree that can be harvested, mineral deposits of all kinds are exploited just as badly as they are in the US, and the petroleum industry in Alberta/northeastern British Columbia is second to none in pumping out pollution while tearing into the tar sands.
BC has a very spotty record on natural resources: provincial governments of both “liberal” and “conservative” bent have nearly always had the same policies in regards to the exploitation. My take is that there is a lot of lip service about being green, but that being said, what happens away from the Vancouver/Victoria area is rather different. Literally, trainloads of resources go past my house daily, while we send manufactured goods north. Another factor is the federal government vs. provincial government control, and often what the feds in Ottawa say is not what the provinces do. Provinces have more local control than our states do, and the provinces have always been guaranteed a certain amount of autonomy in matters like natural resources.
At some point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Canadian position on water exports to be reversed, especially when the price offered gets high enough to be really tempting. Climate change may very well change everything though, so what has happened and will happen over the next few years may be very different.
Look at the idiocy of “Fiji Water” for a comparison. Why does anyone think it’s a good thing to be exporting fresh water across the ocean from a very small country that may be able to use its’ own resources better? Who’s getting the major benefit here, the Fijians or the company that bottles it? I think the latter…
No snark intended: there are a lot of things I love about Canada, but natural resource exploitation is not one of them.
wow! i had no idea. i always imagined Canadian were more evolved than us.(sad and mad smileys)
Hi Bubbles!
In my most humble opinion, they generally are somewhat more evolved on a social scale than we are, but on the business side of life they tend to be just as cut-throat and malicious as we are. We unfortunately have trained them too well…
@mipartee
As a near life-long resident of the border region here in Washington state, I hate to say this but not all Canadians are all that progressive. British Columbia has a most un-impressive record of stripping the provincial forests for every tree that can be harvested, mineral deposits of all kinds are exploited just as badly as they are in the US, and the petroleum industry in Alberta/northeastern British Columbia is second to none in pumping out pollution while tearing into the tar sands.
BC has a very spotty record on natural resources: provincial governments of both “liberal” and “conservative” bent have nearly always had the same policies in regards to the exploitation. My take is that there is a lot of lip service about being green, but that being said, what happens away from the Vancouver/Victoria area is rather different. Literally, trainloads of resources go past my house daily, while we send manufactured goods north. Another factor is the federal government vs. provincial government control, and often what the feds in Ottawa say is not what the provinces do. Provinces have more local control than our states do, and the provinces have always been guaranteed a certain amount of autonomy in matters like natural resources.
At some point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Canadian position on water exports to be reversed, especially when the price offered gets high enough to be really tempting. Climate change may very well change everything though, so what has happened and will happen over the next few years may be very different.
Look at the idiocy of “Fiji Water” for a comparison. Why does anyone think it’s a good thing to be exporting fresh water across the ocean from a very small country that may be able to use its’ own resources better? Who’s getting the major benefit here, the Fijians or the company that bottles it? I think the latter…
No snark intended: there are a lot of things I love about Canada, but natural resource exploitation is not one of them.
wow! i had no idea. i always imagined Canadian were more evolved than us.(sad and mad smileys)
Hi Bubbles!
In my most humble opinion, they generally are somewhat more evolved on a social scale than we are, but on the business side of life they tend to be just as cut-throat and malicious as we are. We unfortunately have trained them too well…
I’m getting a really bad feeling about these proposed operations. There is bound to be some unforeseen problem that no one has realized until it manifests itself.
I’m getting a really bad feeling about these proposed operations. There is bound to be some unforeseen problem that no one has realized until it manifests itself.
Sitka will need the water supply for Alaskans and all those who will flock to your state in the coming Tribulation of the Last Days. (wink)
Seriously — This is a great post from Ship Bright.
Sitka will need the water supply for Alaskans and all those who will flock to your state in the coming Tribulation of the Last Days. (wink)
Seriously — This is a great post from Ship Bright.
I would also add a phrase my folks taught me: “when money talks, common sense walks”
I would also add a phrase my folks taught me: “when money talks, common sense walks”
Is the Sitka water dependent upon glacier melt, snow melt or snowfall? With climate change, what happens to their excess?
How long a contract for export are they thinking about? Has it been reviewed carefully if the city finds it needs the water for its own usage of if the State or the country as a whole needs water?
I think your suggestion of boutique water perhaps in glass, reusable bottles is a better choice, but can that even be considered now? It sounds as if this is a done deal and Sitka has sold its watery soul for short-term gain.
I’m all for enterprise, but I would prefer if developers, businesses, and their partners (i.e., Sitka) would take a more long-term view of the consequences – foreseen and unforeseen (projected).
Is the Sitka water dependent upon glacier melt, snow melt or snowfall? With climate change, what happens to their excess?
How long a contract for export are they thinking about? Has it been reviewed carefully if the city finds it needs the water for its own usage of if the State or the country as a whole needs water?
I think your suggestion of boutique water perhaps in glass, reusable bottles is a better choice, but can that even be considered now? It sounds as if this is a done deal and Sitka has sold its watery soul for short-term gain.
I’m all for enterprise, but I would prefer if developers, businesses, and their partners (i.e., Sitka) would take a more long-term view of the consequences – foreseen and unforeseen (projected).
I hate to sound harsh, but perhaps we do need to keep our water resources close to our chest and preserve them in the event that we in Alaska and Canada do not have enough for our populations.
Things are changing very rapidly in this world; populations are increasing and the ability of certain areas of the world to sustain themselves is decreasing dramatically. We in the North may find ourselves in this situation sooner than we think, thus we do have to think about ourselves first.
The drier and more overpopulated areas of the world; those in the lower latitudes will inevitably suffer human loss from starvation and drought much sooner than the North does, due to a changing environment. We can’t save the world, but we can plan for the future in our own backyard.
Just like the greedy development of any resource, the water brokers will promise millions of dollars but leave us holding the bag. Just as with the oil companies. Promises were broken, yet we realize a cash dividend each year based upon sale of this resource, complete with the threats to our environment and way of life. Pebble Mine is promising jobs at the detriment of all that we hold sacred.
Perhaps this is our chance to think twice before we jump on the profits for resources bandwagon.
I hate to sound harsh, but perhaps we do need to keep our water resources close to our chest and preserve them in the event that we in Alaska and Canada do not have enough for our populations.
Things are changing very rapidly in this world; populations are increasing and the ability of certain areas of the world to sustain themselves is decreasing dramatically. We in the North may find ourselves in this situation sooner than we think, thus we do have to think about ourselves first.
The drier and more overpopulated areas of the world; those in the lower latitudes will inevitably suffer human loss from starvation and drought much sooner than the North does, due to a changing environment. We can’t save the world, but we can plan for the future in our own backyard.
Just like the greedy development of any resource, the water brokers will promise millions of dollars but leave us holding the bag. Just as with the oil companies. Promises were broken, yet we realize a cash dividend each year based upon sale of this resource, complete with the threats to our environment and way of life. Pebble Mine is promising jobs at the detriment of all that we hold sacred.
Perhaps this is our chance to think twice before we jump on the profits for resources bandwagon.
I am so moving to Canada. They seem to be able to take the long view and make real “common sense” decisions.
I am so moving to Canada. They seem to be able to take the long view and make real “common sense” decisions.