Trading water

Last year, I wrote an extensive piece about a vision of trading in the future based upon 24*7 real-time global markets and the impact of news algorithmics.  A key piece of that article was the idea of water being a rare commodity and hence of very high value.

Traders globally focused upon Oceans, Rivers and Lakes, and the world fought wars over water.

Part of this was based upon real ideas of what is happening in the world, as exemplified by the film "FLOW".

FLOW is "Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel."

The film was released in December (US import DVD only) and illustrates some mind-numbing numbers about the trading potential of water reserves:

• Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water (www.charitywater.org)

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminants (www.foodandwaterwatch.org)

• While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five
  (www.charitywater.org)

• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns
  (www.water.org)

• According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic (www.nrdc.org)

• Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil (Source: CBS News, FLOW)

"There are estimates that from five hundred thousand to seven million people get sick per year from drinking tap water" - Erik Olson, Deputy Staff Director of Barbara Boxerʼs Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW)

"Californiaʼs water supply is running out – it has about 20 years of water left in the state" -
Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians

"There are over 116,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into public water supply systems" -
William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World

"In Bolivia nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water" -
Jim Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center in Bolivia

"The cost per person per year for having 10 liters of safe drinking water every day is just US$2" -
Ashok Gadgil, Senior Staff Scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

I would seriously suggest you (a) watch the film and (b) invest in water as a rare commodity!

Hattip to Michael Pawlisz

Meanwhile, for the opposing view in a film, watch Kevin Costner's "Waterworld":

Finally, if you missed it, I recommend you spend one minute and just watch this:

It is truly amazing, from the new BBC series "South Pacific".