This is beyond scary and we will do our part to keep on top of this. Hopefully it's not as Grim as were starting to make it.

Were working on getting the www.NoMoreGeysers.com riser to market to aid in water conservation.

Thanks for posting this. I dont think the general public really accepts what ahead.

Let's see, in California, growing alfalfa uses 4 million to 5.5 million acre feet of water a year. The entire city of Los Angeles uses only about 650,000 acre feet. Agriculture uses four times more water than urban areas. The California gross domestic product for agriculture is $15 billion; for urban-based manufacturing, it's $172 billion. So, when we talk about water conservation, let's talk about California's biggest water user.
http://blog.jimgogek.com

Remove the Lid!!!! how many BILLIONS of gallons of water are lost by just recapping a bottle before throwing it away? sealing all that water or liquid inside forever how much effect does this have on climate, global warming etc??? REMOVE THE LIDS!!! Around the world, this could amount to BILLIONS of gallons lost forever. In landfills, along highways, wherever people live.

tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!

Nice article, we too believe water will be a huge problem in the future. You can do your part by implementing household water saving products. We offer great solutions on our website such as the Sinkpositive grey water solution or our rainwater harvesting products. As the price of water continues to rise, so will the popularity of these products.

Thanks,

Brian Townsend
Tierrapath.com

Why should So Cal residents go out of thier way to conserve water?? The more there is the more developers will scheme, lie, bribe, cheat or whatever to build more and increase demand on water, it is WORSE than a waste of time and effort to conserve water in my opinion. My feeling is to use more than ever and help keep it an impending crisis.

The suggestion of "remove the lid on refuse bottles" might sound good but consider this: A huge percentage of the bottles will come to rest top pointing upwards. Now all the water making it's way down into the water table is trapped in all these bottles at various upright angles and levels of fill. not to mention all the other plastic containers including huge trash bags! If you really wanted to do something it would be to break the glass bottles, and cut corners off bags and SAFELT cut gashes in bottles. Unfortunately In spite of our best efforts we are just doomed.

Anyone who looks at a photo of North America taken from outer space will notice the colours.

Most of North America is green but the lower left hand side of the photo is brown.

This phenomenon reflects the water distribution patterns, rainfall and snow, over North America.

The patterns of rainfall and snowfall over North America are the result of weather patterns in both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans which lift massive amounts of water into the air through evaporation and transport that water, fresh water without the salt and other minerals, to other regions of the planet. Most of that water falls directly back into the ocean as rain or snow, probably seventy percent, but the remainder falls on the lands masses of the earth, 30% of the earth's surface.

Looking at the photo of North America, it is obvious that the brown areas of the photo represent those areas of North American that receive little rainfall or snowfall and the green areas represent areas of North America that receive more rain or snow. If the earth started spinning in the opposite direction, those rainfall patterns would change and, likely, reverse.

So, first and fundamentally, we must remember that all fresh water comes from the Ocean.

The reader should get this right and the reader should get it now because there are a lot of mis-conceptions about fresh water.

Fresh water does not originate in glaciers, lakes, rivers, creeks, streams, brooks or underground springs.

All fresh water originates in the ocean, falls on the land, and is carried back to the ocean by channels called rivers, streams, brooks, or creeks. Even underground aquifiers were laid down by rain or snow melt and trace their source to the Oceans.

Looking back at the photo of North America, the other color one would notice is the color blue.

The parts of the photo colored blue are the lakes and the rivers where the rain and melting snow pools and accumulates before it finally drains away into the ocean.
Some lakes may have taken longer to fill that others and may drain drain more slowly than other lakes but, nonetheless, all the fresh water, the blue parts of North America, originated in the Oceans and will, eventually return to the Oceans. The streams brooks and creeks are too small to be reflected in a page sized photo of the earth taken from outer space but they are there by the thousands.

If you see any white in the photos, then you are seeing fresh water in its frozen state, snow or ice, waiting for warm weather to covert it to liquid so it, too, can begin its journey back to the ocean where it came from.

Looking closer at the photo of North America, you will notice that there is very little blue in the brown areas of the photo.

This is because there is very little water comparatively speaking in the American southwest and northern Mexico. In the brown areas, the water is precious. In the green areas, the water is valueless. The water is so valueless that the people allow it to wash away into the sea knowing that it will return each year as snow or rain. In Canada, most fresh water originally appears in the sky as snow flakes, accumulates on the ground and is so plentiful that people pay contractors to remove it from their driveways. This is no market for snow in Canada. It is a nuisance.

However, in the 19th century American writer Mark Twain observed of the American southwest “Where whiskey is for drinking over and water is for fighting over”. People fight over water in the American southwest and in northern Mexico.

In the 1950's, retired Canadian General Andrew MacNaughten observed that eventually the Americans were going to need Canadian water and that Canadians should figure out how to sell it to them before they came and took it.

In the 1970's the National Security Administration of the United States reported that the biggest long term threat to the United States economy was the lack of fresh water resources in the American southwest.

Eventually, people of business, big business, recognized the enormous potential markets in the American southwest and northern Mexico that could be supplied with fresh water from Canada.

In some parts of Canada, without abundant rainfall, such as the southerly parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, average people are bitterly opposing water exports.

In other parts of Canada, such as Quebec which has an abundance of fresh-water, there is general sympathy towards earning revenues from the export of fresh water that usually flows into the ocean.

In British Columbia, in the 1980's, public opinion and political opinion favored the development of a water export industry from coastal streams and rivers. There was ample water and, as long as fish stocks were protected, there was no apparent environmental or other concern with extracting a moderate amount of water from the abundance or water resources that flowed into the ocean annually.

The Government of British Columbia estimated that about 400 million acre feet of water flows annually into the Pacific Ocean from the coast of British Columbia. (An acre foot = one acre covered one foot deep in water = 43, 560 cubic feet of water = 1,613 cubic yards of water = 1,233 cubic meters of water)

This estimate excludes the Fraser river and rivers or streams flowing south, east and north.

In short, the quantities of water and sources of water available for export in British Columbia are huge and so varied that they far outstrip any conceivable demand. These issues of supply and demand presented a practical business problem because free market competition would invariably lower prices and, therefore, lower profits.

The solution was a monopoly.

Monopolies are highly sensitive political issues. Typically, governments and the public resist monopolies because they know that the business people involved will gouge them with higher and ever higher prices.

So, the investors behind the bulk water export business hatched a bold and devious two step plan:

1. Obtain a source of abundant water for export from the British Columbia Government.

2. Use the environmental movement and the public media in Canada to persuade policy makers in the Governments of Canada and British Columbia to impose a ban on their competition.

The investors went to work, set up a company called W.C.W. Western Canada Water Enterprises Ltd., persuaded the British Columbia government to give it a source of water and then hired public relations firms to lobby the government to impose a ban on bulk water exports that affecting only the competition and gave WCW a monopoly.

The plan was so brilliant that, to this very day, many Canadians actually believe that water or snow is Canada's most precious resource when, in market terms, water is next to worthless - in most parts of Canada.

The plan was so brilliant that, to this very day, many Canadians believe that water comes from glaciers lakes and rivers when, in truth, it originates in the ocean.

That plan was so brilliant that, to this very day, most Canadians believe that water is a non-renewable resource like oil and that every drop of water exported is gone forever when, in fact, it pretty well returns every year in the form of snow and rain.

The plan was so brilliant that, to this very day, most Canadians believe that the creation of a few pipelines or aqueducts to deliver water to the United Sates and Mexico will forever destroy Canada's environment.

The plan was brilliant, it was devious, and it would have been hugely profitable and, incidentally, tax free for many of the insiders who held their interests offshore.

There were two problems with the plan.

Firstly, it was illegal and, secondly, WCW took advantage of it's monopoly and attempted to gouge the American customers who balked at high prices.

The plan was illegal because the abundant source was conferred on the would be monopolists, WCW, by an illegal government contract and the government ban on bulk water exports, that created the monopoly and exempted the monopolists, was also illegal because it was contrary to the British Columbia Water Act and the Canada US Free Trade Agreement.

Because the plan was illegal, it was a well guarded secret and the Canadian public have been left with an incomplete understanding of the fraud that was foisted upon them while the nation was left with an ill-conceived and ill-thought out bulk water export policy that originated as part of a fraudulent conspiracy.

In addition, WCW attempted to gouge the first US customer by pricing its water at 50% more than its American competitor, Sun Belt Water, that expected to be supplied with water by its Canadian joint venture partner, Snowcap Waters Ltd. When the US customer, the Goleta Water District, elected to do business with Sun Belt the Government of British Columbia imposed its first moratorium on bulk water exports in order to prevent Sun Belt from getting water for export thereby forcing the Americans to do business with WCW at exorbitant prices. With no fresh water to serves its customers the Sun Belt venture, a small business, collapsed. Goleta refused to do business with WCW and WCW carried on for a few more years before collapsing into bankruptcy although it had raised over $100 million to finance its business.

Into to this mix of political and business corruption entered BC lawyer, John Carten and his friend, Karen Gibbs, who were attacked by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia because they were perceived to be helping Sun Belt Water Inc., an American victim of the Canadian fraud, recover its losses and their activities might put some well known public figures in Canada in jail.

Taken from WaterWarCrimes website "The Big Picture"

http://www.waterwarcrimes.com

Luckily some of us are aware of the water scarcity threat. We might be the few that aren't as badly hit by the crisis that is coming.
The time to start focusing on sustainable water use is with us now and will be here for quite some time.