The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System is the world’s largest known fossil water aquifer system. It is located underground in the Eastern end of the Sahara Desert. Gaddafi had invested $25B into the aquifer, which he announced had the potential to turn Libya that is 95 percent desert into an arable and fertile oasis. You know how that ended.
California’s nothing. California Goober Jerry Brown this week ordered mandatory water reductions for the first time ever in California’s history, citing the state’s four-year drought crisis after a winter of record-low snowfalls. This is nothing compared to what’s in store. I’ve written about this and have been most outspoken. In September of last year I penned the following tour de force, ’twas hailed by critics! I commend it to you herewith.
LIONEL PODCAST: ISIS-SCHMISIS! Unearthing the Sordid History of the American Nightmare and Welcome to Hydro-Imperialism
What it’s like to die from dehydration. This depiction from the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars.
“In 1906, Pablo Valencia, dared the journey from Mexico to California in search of gold. He survived without water for a week, seven days. He was rescued and documented the experience of thirst. Saliva becomes thick. The tongue swells so large that it squeezes past the jaws. The throat so swollen that breathing becomes difficult creating a terrifying sense of asphyxiation. The face feels full due to the shrinking of the skin. Many people begin to hallucinate. The eyelids red, the eyeballs begin to weep tears of blood. When Pablo Valencia was found, his skin was like purplish grey leather, scratched but with no traces of blood. His lips were disappeared as if squished and contriturated. His nose was at so hard its length. His eyes trapped in an insensate stare. This is not a film about saving the environment, it’s a film about saving ourselves, because whatever one’s environmental, political or religious opinions, whatever one’s race, sex or economic standing, whoever of us goes without water for a week, cries blood.”
Recalibrating the notion of right. Let me review a few things. First, we are in the third wave of colonialism. The first two saw gold and petro-imperailsm as its goals and now it’s hydrology and hydro-imperialism. There is no way to find alternatives to water and hydration. The human body is funny that way. And Mama Nature has steadfastly announced that the supply of the world’s water is necessarily limited and fixed, this despite the fact that demand is rising as the world’s exploding and burgeoning population increases without surcease. (Unless the eugenicists have a crack at changing that.)
Another commodity to seize, another vehicle of imperialism. By 2030 climate vicissitudes, population growth, critical pollution, deforestation and rampant urbanization will multiply to such an extent that the demand for water globally is estimated to outstrip supply by 40%! There are no stopgap measures available, as you may have noticed. Keep in mind also that as a dutiful and unquestioning mainstream media sign off on each and every military adventure allegedly caused by the terrorist bad guy du jour, the real reason for hostilities, the real casus belli will be water.
The current Chairman and former CEO of Nestlé, the largest producer of food products in the world, believes that the answer to global water issues is privatization. This statement is on record from the wonderful company that has peddled junk food in the Amazon, has invested money to thwart the labeling of GMO-filled products, has a disturbing health and ethics record for its infant formula, and has deployed a cyber army to monitor Internet criticism and shape discussions in social media. [Global Research December 2013]
Right? What right? Increasingly, for water to be useful, it needs to be mined, processed, packaged, and transported, just like gold, coal, gas or oil. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water. And with that come inordinate and incomprehensible potentials for mind-blowing profit. This is a marvelous treatise I commend to you.
“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
According to the U.S.-based Center for Public Integrity, Western nations stand to make up to a US$1 trillion from privatizing, purifying and distributing water in a region where water often sells for far more than oil.
Although over two thirds of our planet is water, we face an acute shortage. This scarcity flies in the face of our natural assumptions. The problem is that 97 percent is salt water. Great for fish, not so good for humans. Of the world’s fresh water, only one percent is available for drinking, with the remaining two percent trapped in glaciers and ice.
Put differently: if all the water on earth was represented by an 11-litre jug, the freshwater would fill a single cup, and we can only access the last drop.
Garikai Chengu
Global Research, May 26, 2014