Sunset on water tower, New York City, 2007 © Ronnie Farley
It was "World Water Day"
two days ago and a large symposium was held at the United Nations to
commemorate this day--and address the daunting issues that face the world
regarding water. Was there a spot of news about any of this in our
mainstream media? There was a billboard at Times Square that had an animation
about water that would flash a few of times an hour (according to a New York
Times blog called "Green"). The Times also had a "Picture of the
Day"--a girl from India with water dripping from a spigot. That was it. I
guess at least there was some kind of nod towards the issue. But folks, this is
our life's blood, the Earth's blood! Shouldn't there be more concern over this
in our mainstream media?
The arm of the global energy
interests reaches far into our mainstream media outlets—whether they are
owners, investors, board members, or major advertisers.
Almost half, that is HALF of the
water consumed in this country is used for 'thermoelectric power generation.'
Simply put, that is the production of electricity through steam driven turbine
generators—burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, or petroleum to create
steam, which propels the turbines that create electricity. Then, the machinery
used to produce the electricity needs to be cooled down—hence using more water,
then that water gets too hot and needs to be stored to cool off, before being
drained into a lake, a river, the ocean, or some kind of holding pool or
drainage system (Nukes is not the alternative because they use even more copius
amounts of water—especially to cool the rods, and nukes also create waste from
spent uranium, which also needs to be cooled, often by immersion in water).
In addition to the use of water in
the creation of electricity, there is an enormous amount of water used in
the extraction, processing and transport of these natural resources to the
power plants, usually contaminating the local water source with toxic
by-products of the mining operation. Oftentimes the communities with power
plants in their back yard are Indian reservations or low-income areas, who
suffer high cancer rates as a result of the toxins in the water they drink
Water is our most precious resource and yet
we have created machines that are sucking our life blood out of the Earth,
and in turn, killing us. All for the profit of a few, under the guise of
"making life easier." We've created a social, economic, and political
system completely dependent upon electricity and at the same time, we are
writing ourselves onto the endangered species list. As we dive headlong into
our technological future, it is my hope that the generations to come will
address this madness and embrace a way of thinking that works with the laws of
Nature rather than against her, and create technologies that advance us forward
towards life-sustaining ways. The responsibility of technology is 'Kapieren
und Kopiernen'—first understand Nature, then copy it. If we continue to think
we will harness and bend Nature to our will, we are further coercing her
destructive powers to save herself from our hubris.
No comments:
Post a Comment