The problem with the Doomsday scenarios

Part 1 Water

I was reading an article the other day that says the world will be short 40% of its water needs by the year 2030. It basically has all the trappings of all the problems we face if we do not do something about the problem.

And this is one of the problems. There are hundreds of articles telling us about problems, however, very few follow through with a real solution map. Water or supply of water is a real problem our world faces and there are things we can do. One of the posts following the article says nothing ever gets done unless someone can make a lot of money. And in some ways this is correct. And the great thing is water can be a business, but if managed well can still be available to all. The key is not to have water as a commodity, but work to make the technologies to provide water continue to be a profitable venture. We do need to keep water in the profit sector, but because it is such a valuable resource, the business aspect of it needs to be kept in check. No one wants to hear the word regulated, but something will need to be done by governments around the world to keep this from becoming a traded or hedged commodity.

And there are many solutions to maintain the world’s water supply. I once wrote an entire post dedicated to a very long term and macro scale project for the United States to improve our water planning going forward. And it incorporates a business aspect which allows for growth of water projects and growth of technologies to help create new jobs and new industries. This is just one idea.

Desalination projects are another solution. Two obstacles talked about by people who do not think desalination is viable can be overcome. One is building the plants and where to locate them and the other is the need for large amounts of energy to run the plants. The second can be overcome with improving solar energy or even better wind energy. Location will need to be near an ocean or sea so the natural breezes coming onto shore gives some opportunity to power the plants. Location can be solved by concerted efforts of state and local governments to dedicate the land to these plants, heck they do it for roads and other projects. It would be harder to argue against building water plants in areas where they need water. And with some costal real estate over-priced you will get push back, yet there are still areas available. One area is the Baja peninsula. This is open land on an ocean in an area that needs major economic growth for multiple reasons. It will take work to get it started, but once going the change to the area, the people, the country could be so positive the start-up costs in hindsight would be nil comparable to the benefits. And we already have successful desalination plants operating around the world so we are not starting from scratch to develop this into a major industry.

Going back to what the post said about money, having new technologies develop such as improvement of wind or solar energy, the plants themselves, developing more efficient ways to transport water to cities and agricultural areas, creates new ways to run other industries. The opportunity to create new economic wealth will help offset the need for people to make money off water which allows the increase of the water supply without creating a commodity cost to water itself. And yes this will take governments keeping the water supply available to all. And this is part of what our constitution says, one of the government’s responsibilities is protecting the people. Since we need water to live, this should not be considered a hindrance to true capitalism. Sometimes all involved need to do what is best for all. The greed oligarchy will argue, but as such our need to retain power for the people in a democracy and not be run by economic oligarchies is another obstacle that needs to be overcome to have a viable water supply.

Of course conservation, graywater technology, more efficient use of water in agriculture, and if you talk to any liberal ecologist there are many other ideas out there to manage use of water. All these can be applied, some as stop gap measures, others developed over time to slow the waste of water to better use of water allowing us to slow consumption down to the level of us using only what is needed.

The answer is the same though, with work we can have viable solutions without all the hyperbole of the doomsday scenarios. And this brings me to my second beef with these articles. They are written with much effort to scare us into action, yet no action ever follows. Yes there are international groups or other academic conferences etc.. to tell us how bad we are with water and how bad things are going to be, but no one enforces a will to drive the world into action. There is a I am telling you that you are bad, and my responsibility has ended tone to these article. Now is this previous statement unfair to some who are working on the problem, yes it is, but the amount of ivory tower finger pointing exceeds the true amount of work that is being done, much less needs to be done.

And the work will have to come from us the people. And we the people need water the most. So here is the real problem for all the talk. The problems are being caused by the people who most need the problem solved. This reality never works in the political arena to get something done. How does one change the verbiage, the perception to create solving the water situation as a positive that has many benefits and can be done versus the negative tone of the world is ending because we are bad of most of these articles?

This makes the first step in solving the water shortage nothing to do with water. It is the message. Let’s quit talking doom and start talking in the language of those who can make it happen. And those who can make it happen are all of us. Let’s start selling the benefits of change, the benefits of growth, the benefits of this is for me, and the water solutions will start to sell themselves.

Part 2: The Middle East. coming to a theatre near you , or at least a blog post