The Blue Gold Rush

Starr, Kayla M. “The Blue Gold Rush” Sentient Times: Alternatives for Personal & Community Transformation 11. No.1 (2003). http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed March 5th, 2011).

In 2002, “The United Nations issued a report stating that two out of three people will face water shortages by 2025” (Starr 1). According to Starr, the reason for this impending shortage is being blamed on “mismanagement of existing water resources, population growth and changing water patterns” (Starr 1). Another useful piece of data is contained in a report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency, stating that “an estimated 1.1 billion people now have no access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation and more than 5 million people die from waterborne diseases each year—10 times the number of casualties killed in wars. Globally, water use has tripled between 1950 and 1990” (Starr 1). Because of the crisis that is stirring because of the limited potent water supply on earth, (“the amount of fresh water available for human use is less than .08% of all the water on the planet” (Starr1)) multinational companies have poised themselves to take advantage of this, by taking ownership of the water municipalities (privatization). Starr cites Atlanta, GA, and Jacksonville FL as examples of cities who have had their water privatized, and suffered negative consequences such as dirty water, loss of jobs, and increases in water bills. Also mentioned is the fact that Perrier was given access to Mecosta County’s water in Michigan, as it rests on the largest supply of fresh water on earth. Citizens became very concerned about the fact that Perrier was allowed to take the water, bottle it, and sell it back to residents of the upper Midwest, and sued. I am not sure about the outcome of this suit, but intend to find out through further research. I think that some of the data cited in this article is very significant, and I will probably use some of it in my research paper. I do wish that the article was more recent, as it is approximately 9 years old. However there is a lot of information in it that could possibly lead to newer sources, thus rendering it even more valuable. For instance, I was not aware of that water usage has tripled since the 1950’s, and cannot fathom how we are managing to allow such a magnitude of water to go to waste!