Task: Read the following 5 questions and choose one to comment on. To support your points, you must use quotations or paraphrasing from the many readings and videos you have watched. You will be graded on 2 things - your comments and relevant support from a source. You must identify the source that you quote, in parentheses. Use APA style documentation if you know how. You will have until Tuesday, September 27th to comment.
1. Do you think water should be a commodity to be bought and sold, or a shared natural resource?
2. Is water the new oil?
3. Nestle takes 5 million litres of water per day from Ontario lakes, bottles it and sells it back to us. Should private companies be able to take the water resources? Should they pay for the water resource?
4. 1/6 of all people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water. What do you think the answer is to solving this problem? Who is to blame?
5. Does Canada need a national water policy? Explain
I would like to make a comment on question 4. “75% surface water is polluted in India and 80% surface water is polluted in China”. (Maude Barlow states in the video “The Looming Global Water Crisis”) Who is to blame for the water pollution? It is certain that the shocking facts show me some clues about the causes of water pollution. As far as I’m concerned, the governments and the industrial should develop long-term strategies and take actions immediately. For example, In China, some industries only focus on their economic interests, not the environmental effects. Clearly, the polluted water is the result of pouring the waste water directly into the nature by some irresponsible industries. However, some local governments did not forbid these illegal behaviors seriously. Equally important, environmentalists, ecological scientists, community groups should work together to find a way to solve this big issue.(Maude Barlow suggests in the video “What is the State of the World’s Water?” ) Finally, according to Storm Water, as individuals, we need to use a car wash to avoid spilling detergent into storm drain and water your lawn properly. All above will reduce our environmental footprints.
ReplyDelete2. Is water the new oil?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think the water will become new oil in the future, because in recent days we have watch many videos are talking about water crisis. For instance, according to Maude Barlow's "The Looming Global Water Crisis" in the video,she claims that nowadays lack of water is a huge issue in many counties and also the surface water and ground water will no longer running in the future. Its meaning water will become very value for people's lives in late on. Moreover, due to the limited of water, some water company will take this opportunity to provide water resource for people's living and will increase the water prize for satisfied with their own benefits and greed ,water prize will become expensive just like oil prize now. I think the most of people may can not afford it. In addition, nowadays many counties has been suffering the shortage of water. If the water resources become more short through enviromental pollution or nature weather disaster, water resource will turn into like oil outstanding universal worth. Therefore, it will lead to new world war eruption. All in all, we need to prevent this situation happen in our future. From now let us to take some measures to protect our environment and earth to avoid lack of water resources for next generations.
For this week’s topic, I was interested in question five and would like to comment on it. The question is, does Canada need a national water policy? Well, in my opinion, yes, every country needs a national policy, including Canada. In the conserve and protect(webisode), Dan Fagre, an expert from the U.S Geological Survey, emphasized to us that “Water is the lifeblood of our society, and this has been clear many times in the past. When water supplies dried up, the entire civilization disappeared. Water and human’s fates are very much in twine.” Therefore, if we don’t have any water policy and just let our citizens use as much water as they want, the water will dry up, the plants won’t grow, and we will die from drought. Not only that, the policy should also include guidelines for the industries; at least, to reduce the amount of unsafe water. Since, according to Women and the Politics of Water, “Every year 2.2 million people die because of unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation. And, according to the UN, two thirds of people on the planet will face some degree of water shortage by the year 2025.”
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ReplyDeleteAccording to Maude Barlow’s book Blue Gold, water promises to be the 21st century what oil was the 20th century. As with oil that is the blood of country’s economy, water plays a vital role in people’s lives. Oil is being run out of, and water is on the brink of crisis. As we know, every country is doing what they can to exploit oil. They spend money, use expertise, human resources and advanced technologies to find the oil. Likewise, the people in many countries are sparing their efforts to find clear water to meet their daily demands. For example, most women in Tanzania spend a large amount of time in looking for water resource; some of them walk 5-6 hours in round trip to get water (Video “Women and the Politics of Water”). Addition to the sameness in finding resources, water plays a more and more important part in economy the same as oil did before. There exist many deals about water in today’s society. For example, the Middle East counties which have a lot of fossil fuel purchase water from other counties in high price. Also some states in America anticipate being able to buy water from Canada. Like oil, there are also some drawbacks brought by water. For instance, the gas that produced by burning oil or from the car can harm people. Similarly, water has adverse impact on people’s health. According to a survey displayed in the video “Rivers to Oceans - Waste water webisode”, some polluted water with chemicals is not treated completely in the treatment factory, but it still be sent back to the rivers or lakes which supply people daily water use. Naturally, the people will get various illness caused by their drinking water. Overall, water is to people what oil is to car. Car can’t get started without oil, people can’t survive without water.
ReplyDeleteIs water the new oil?
ReplyDeleteI would like to put comment on question No.2. I think the answer of the question is obviously. Can you believe that water will become more expensive than oil? According to IRIN’s news report Global: the Global Water Crisis: Managing a Dwindling Resource, in 2050, there will be two billion people short of water. Water could become more valuable than oil. We use to think water will never run out and we take it as granted. As a result of population increase rapidly and global industrialization, the global consumption of water increase rapidly as well. Moreover, many country drink water systems are polluted. Nowadays, more and more people concern about water crisis around the world because all the facts we can see are warming us that if we keep the way we use water right now, in not far away future, people will run out of water. Everyone needs to do something to protect our mother earth and our drink water. Otherwise, water will become the new oil for sure.
Reference
ReplyDeleteIRIN (2011) Global: the Global Water Crisis: Managing a Dwindling Resource. Retrieved from: http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?IndepthId=13&ReportId=62312
I am interested in question number two. Water is natural resource and it must not be considered as commodities. All civilization grew up with the support of water. All societies were connected by water ways. Now we are 7 billions people. We are using water to prodce essential food and products. So, day by day water is playing a greater role to feed the people. According to Maude Barlow, China is transferring water from Tibet. World have lots of International River. It is a natural phenomenon that every country, which has a part of the international river, has equal right to share the river water. Due to over population, many country are lifting huge water from international as well as Local River. Up stream countries are exploiting more advantages. As a result, down strem countries are facing acute water shortage which affects their whole economy, environment and politics. This is happening in the least developed countries. It is not far away that developed countries might follow the same path. If we are not able to control the population increase, water will be the new oil.
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ReplyDelete"Extreme droughts, floods, melting glaciers and other water cycle-related effects of global warming are why there'll likely be 150 million global climate refugees within a decade. Diplomats warn that 21st century conflicts will be fought over water as they were for oil in the 20th" (Solomon, 2009). Water is becoming valuable resource in this society. People in some countries cannot find enough water for drinking or using water such as washing dishes or taking a shower.
ReplyDeleteReference
Solomon, S. (2009, December 7). Water Is The New Oil. Retrieved September 26, 2011, from Huff Post Books: www.huffingtonpost.com
Should the Nestle pay for the water resource? Yes, of course. The kind of this company (Nestle, Coke and Pepsi) should pay for the water resource to the local people. When the companies take the water to package to bottle, they are robbing the local people. In the statement of the article “Message in a Bottle”, over half Fiji people have no access to the clean, fresh water. However, those giant enterprises sell one millions bottles Fiji water in the US. They get tremendous profit from the bottle water, but they don’t feedback to the local community. In order to produce the bottle water, they build the bottling factories and big electricity generators. The local neighbourhood suffer the pollution of the plants and get a tiny benefit from these international companies because they control the water resource. It is very unfair for the local residents. The local public should have the right to say no to these private companies. They should have the right to share the profit of the water plants which is owned by those big companies.
ReplyDeleteFor this week topic, I am interested in second question. “Is water is new oil?” I think most people answer is yes. Why the answer is so obviously? It might be due to following reasons. First, the shortage of water resources, it is become a new global issue. As I knew the Aral will dry up completely by 2020. However, it was the fourth largest inland lake in the world. Second, same like oil resources, countries have many conflicts because exploit and control water resources, especially, in the Middle East and North Africa. Last, when we enjoy convenience tap water in our daily life. In Africa, India and some droughty countries, they already faced the shortage, dirty water. Moreover, they spend long and grueling times for collecting this unclear water. Women are collectors for their family; they carry heavy pot and walk on uneven paths. The water for them is more precious than gold or oil. To conclude, according to Maude Barlow’s book “Blue Gold”, water become a new costly nature resources. Absolutely, water is new oil.
ReplyDelete1/6 of all people in the world don't have access to drinkable water. According to the article, "Problems for Women", in poor countries people are struggling to collect water by walking for miles. "As well as travelling such long distance, women often have to wait in turn to collect water. To avoid such long waits many women get up in the middle of the night to get to the water source when there is no queue." As far as I am concerned, governments of developing countries should invest money in water and sewage system. If governments can't afford to pay for the system, they should find investors or supports from big companies or charity associations. I was not aware of this severe problems. I think that public indifference should be blamed. People should know that this problems is not only for poor countries, this will happen around us in the near future.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #6. This is very sad but is a fact; many people suffer around the globe from this issue. According to the “Women and the Politics of Water” video (english.aljazeera.net, 2007), it will be worst and by 2025 2/3 of people will face this problem if no urgent and radical measures will be taken. The answer must be wide and complex as the problem is. In my opinion, the main solution is to make clear for everybody in the world that water is a basic right. Therefore, everyone in this world has the right to clean and safe water. To do that the UN and the entire International world should recognize it. In addition, people must exclude water from the list of commodities. Strong laws and standards should be imposed to the industry in order to reduce the pollution and the impact on aquifers. Everyone is to blame. We all are responsible for what is happening around us. However, the governments and industry have to take the responsibility and make the changes right now. If not, people must require them to change and we saw the example in the video where women organize themselves. To conclude, everybody can make changes we only need to want it.
ReplyDeletePatti I've already posted my answer, but here is some problems and that post was lost by system and I will type it again now.
ReplyDeleteI chose question #4. 1/6 of all people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water. What do you think the answer is to solving this problem? Who is to blame? According to Maude Barlow, author of "Blue Gold", during the interview by correspondent of Aljazeera in the program, "Everywoman - Woman and the politics of water", (Part 1), Barlow said, "The surface water of the world so badly... “ “two billion people live in water stress". We just can imagine that a lot of people around the world don’t have access to clean drinking water. Everybody in the world have to unite in one whole and think about this question. We have talk to each other about water crisis, even with our kids, because they are our future generation. Also people have to protest against government, against companies, who privatized access to clean water. In addition, everybody can blame this person or another, but we have start from ourselves. I think we must make action right away, late will be too late.
ReplyDelete