Beyond Labels

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Great American Water Crisis

In the wake of the recent Camden Conference (this year’s topic: “The Global Politics of Food and Water”), Court Haight clipped the attached article from UTNE. I’ve never heard of this organization, but here’s what they say about themselves:

Utne Reader and Utne.com are digests of independent ideas and alternative culture. Not right, not left, but forward thinking. We’re most interested in creating a conversation about everything from the environment to the economy, politics to pop culture.

201402 Great American Water Crisis (UTNE)

As I read the article, it appears to decry the “privatization” of water and asserts that public control and, in addition, ownership is far preferable for this common resource. I’m not convinced (at least as far as ownership is concerned) that this is the case…many other “public goods” are privately owned but subject to a certain amount of regulation.

What do you think?

1 Comment

  • Hi Scott:
    I generally agree as far as “public” ownership of water supplies are concerned. I don’t know how you own an aguafer anyway, except to own thesurface from which one can drill into the water supply. Still, some form of rationing -Govt mandated?- may be necessary in the future. There is apparently a recent study suggesting that the big Ogalla (sp?) aquafer under much of the central U.S. is being drawn down far faster that it is being replenished and may exhaust itself within the next century. I have not been able to find the text of the study, but it was mentioned by one of the speakers at the Camden Conf.


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