Water: Blue Gold

Water is a resource that is so unknown to most people that they simply are ignorant to the reality of the scarcity of clean water. Water covers 70% of the surface of the planet, but only 2.5% of that is freshwater, with 70% of that in the frozen ice caps and most of the remainder in aquifers. That leaves 0.007% of the Earth's freshwater that is available to drink. Clean water is a finite resource. As such, it is subject to the same economic efforts to control and profit from it as oil, coal, natural gas, and other resources are. There is a great documentary called Blue Gold : World Water Wars, which gives insight to the scarcity of clean water and the results of that lack of availability.

Award-winning featured documentary narrated by Malcolm McDowell. Global Warming is an issue of 'how' we live, the water crisis is an issue of 'if' we live. DVD at www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com

It may sound like paranoia, but that is why I set up a rainwater collection system. It was mostly to reduce municipal usage to water gardens and lawn, but in an emergency like a natural disaster where water supplies are cut off or contaminated (like Hurricane Katrina), 2,000 gallons of clean water can provide survival for a family of four for up to 800 days.

Human Appropriation of the World's Fresh Water Supply