Tech | October 18, 2010 | 55 comments

We are Facing the Greatest Threat to Humanity: Only Fundamental Change Can Save Us

source: http://www.alternet.org/story/148519/

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JanforGore
Maude Barlow gave this stirring plenary speech, full of hope even in the face of ecological disasters, to the Environmental Grantmakers Association annual retreat in Pacific Grove, California. Barlow, a former UN Senior Water Advisor, is National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and founder of the Blue Planet Project. Barlow is a contributor to AlterNet's forth-coming book Water Matters: Why We Need to Act Now to Save Our Most Critical Resource.

We all know that the earth and all upon it face a growing crisis. Global climate change is rapidly advancing, melting glaciers, eroding soil, causing freak and increasingly wild storms, and displacing untold millions from rural communities to live in desperate poverty in peri-urban slums. Almost every human victim lives in the global South, in communities not responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The atmosphere has already warmed up almost a full degree in the last several decades and a new Canadian study reports that we may be on course to add another 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.

Half the tropical forests in the world – the lungs of our ecosystems – are gone; by 2030, at the current rate of harvest, only 10% will be left standing. Ninety percent of the big fish in the sea are gone, victim to wanton predatory fishing practices. Says a prominent scientist studying their demise “there is no blue frontier left.” Half the world’s wetlands – the kidneys of our ecosystems – were destroyed in the 20th century. Species extinction is taking place at a rate one thousand times greater than before humans existed. According to a Smithsonian scientist, we are headed toward a “biodiversity deficit” in which species and ecosystems will be destroyed at a rate faster than Nature can create new ones.

We are polluting our lakes, rivers and streams to death. Every day, 2 million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are discharged into the world’s water, the equivalent of the weight of the entire human population of 6.8 billion people. The amount of wastewater produced annually is about six times more water than exists in all the rivers of the world. A comprehensive new global study recently reported that 80% of the world’s rivers are now in peril, affecting 5 billion people on the planet. We are also mining our groundwater far faster than nature can replenish it, sucking it up to grow water-guzzling chemical-fed crops in deserts or to water thirsty cities that dump an astounding 200 trillion gallons of land-based water as waste in the oceans every year. The global mining industry sucks up another 200 trillion gallons, which it leaves behind as poison. Fully one third of global water withdrawals are now used to produce biofuels, enough water to feed the world. A recent global survey of groundwater found that the rate of depletion more than doubled in the last half century. If water was drained as rapidly from the Great Lakes, they would be bone dry in 80 years.

The global water crisis is the greatest ecological and human threat humanity has ever faced. As vast areas of the planet are becoming desert as we suck the remaining waters out of living ecosystems and drain remaining aquifers in India, China, Australia, most of Africa, all of the Middle East, Mexico, Southern Europe, US Southwest and other places. Dirty water is the biggest killer of children; every day more children die of water borne disease than HIV/AIDS, malaria and war together. In the global South, dirty water kills a child every three and a half seconds. And it is getting worse, fast. By 2030, global demand for water will exceed supply by 40%— an astounding figure foretelling of terrible suffering.

Knowing there will not be enough food and water for all in the near future, wealthy countries and global investment, pension and hedge funds are buying up land and water, fields and forests in the global South, creating a new wave of invasive colonialism that will have huge geo-political ramifications. Rich investors have already bought up an amount of land double the size of the United Kingdom in Africa alone.

We Simply Cannot Continue on the Present Path

I do not think it possible to exaggerate the threat to our earth and every living thing upon it. Quite simply we cannot continue on the path that brought us here. Einstein said that problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. While mouthing platitudes about caring for the earth, most of our governments are deepening the crisis with new plans for expanded resource exploitation, unregulated free trade deals, more invasive investment, the privatization of absolutely everything and unlimited growth. This model of development is literally killing the planet.

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55 comments // We are Facing the Greatest Threat to Humanity: Only Fundamental Change Can Save Us

  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • DogBoy
    • +1
      DogBoy  

    • There is always hope as long as the perceptions of our current and future generations changes from raping the planet for greed's sake to being Stewards of the planet.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • rodstradamus
    • -1
      rodstradamus  
    • Image

    • Lenin called people like you, "useful idiots", b/c you're a sap who pushes eco-fascist, alarmist propaganda cooked up by a bunch of corporate eugenicists and treasonous scum like Al Gore and Ken Lay. Its so pathetic how you buy the snake oil hook, line and sinker.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • rodstradamus:

      Book Burner. You're one to talk about fascism. And how is conserving water and actually fighting corporate privitization fascist? I think you need to rewire your hatred, it's eating away your brain.

    • 1 year ago
  • Debra_
  • DogBoy
    • +2
      DogBoy  
    • rodstradamus:

      I never heard people like you yelling treason when assholes like Jeffrey Skillings caused thousands of folks to loose their jobs and lively hoods.Thousands of people that can't buy food for their families. Thousands of people that lost their pension funds. That was real treason. Where were people like you then ? Screaming treason for convenience sake is just another cop out.
      Another I.M.C lackey.

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
    • -1
      ayipis  

    • Janforgore...and who is going to police this??the UN?? like any of these brilliant "lets save the.." crusades..it is not going to work because its too complex its open to corruption and if every law and polices that were created in the past actually swayed people before THEN WE WOULD NOT BE IN THIS SHIT TODAY..am i correct?? you know why?? because PEOPLE DO NOT GIVE A SHIT...

      again you try to bite more than you can chew..it becomes a bigger disaster than your disaster.....declaring water as a global human right?? LOL..your too jaded and naive..if people listen to your ideas we are going to fuck ourselves in an EVEN FASTER RATE..

      so for all you folks..JUST FUCKING CONSERVE....pray to your science that we develop a technology to baby our spoiled asses out of it

      ..no need to power grab anything..no need to MAKE A MOVIE..no need to give undeserving *bleep* the noble prize

      again..C O N S E R V E..

      no need to blog all friday to come up with that..

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • hombre76
    • 0
      hombre76  

    • So my question is this Jan, "What Action should we take?" I honestly do not expect you or even the smartest minds to tell us. Is it local? where you can be overcome by shear mass of capital or to take it to the extreme and be beaten with overwhelming arms and capital? I believe that this monstrosity is too large to defeat even with the backing of nations, but I also believe that it shear size and weight will be its down fall. Yes innocent people will die from its collapse, but would they not in an uprising. our defense is our awareness of the Machine so that when it stops working we are not caught unaware. we increase exponential our likelihood of survival and of taking steps to create something truly new.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • hombre76
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • hombre76:

      http://blogactionday.change.org

      Thousands of people including myself just spent this past Friday blogging about water, this crisis, and ideas and solutions in solidarity to bring it into the consciousness of more people because one reason why this is not being solved is because it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Not only can it be done, it is already being done, even though there is still much to do. That is the entire point of this post and Maude Barlow's speech. Water warriors, people like you and I who make that commitment to spread the information and to inspire that shift in thinking in regards to the importance of water and in supporting those organizations already doing great things to bring water to those who do not have it are making headway in working to solve this. People working for renewable energy are working to solve this. People working to hold polluters accountable are working to solve this. People working for sustainable agriculture practices and irrigation methods that save water are working to solve this. People working to decrease GHG emissions are working to solve this. People joining together globally to stand up to privitization schemes are working to solve this. Calling me names definitely won't solve anything. Thankfully, there are thousands of us out here who though we see the challenge know the consequences of doing nothing and expecting someone else to always come up with the solutions. And yes, that means local, national, and global. The answers are in US.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • JanforGore
  • bc_f
    • bc_f [removed]  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/technology/92556579_experts-name-the-top-19-solutions-to-the-...

      Reading over this I noticed one solution missing from this: declaring water a global human right. Without doing this we are leaving our water sources as prey to the privitization of huge corporations that see the signs of the coming droughts and effects of climate change/glacier melt, and are moving into place to take advantage of it. This is not only happening in the food sector, it is also happening in the water sector which effects agriculture as well. So while I do agree that education and awareness are very important, what can you do with it when the tools to implement those solutions are taken from you?

      So in making out my short list of five, I would state them in this order:

      1. Declaring water a global human right to stop the commoditization and corporatization of a public trust.

      2. Improvement of irrigation and agricultural practices as well as improvement of crop rotation techniques that suit areas of the world currently feeling the effects of climate change ( including sequestration of carbon in soil)

      3. Rebuilding water infrastructure that wastes huge amounts of water and causes price increases that the poor cannot afford

      4. Stricter penalties for pollution of waterways which effects water sources and causes much in the way of increased health care costs and damage to soil, acquifers, rivers, etc. that would be put back into communities to provide for access to clean water for all.

      5. Making water conservation part of any climate bill in assessing the risks of water scarcity due to glacier melt, storms, sea level rise, etc. and providing incentives to businesses that conserve water sustainably.

      There are other ways to accomplish this, and with much of this world now suffering through some form of drought or other water related stress, it is imperative we take action to conserve and protect our most precious resource- and it ain't oil.

      And just to add, you can call to reduce population through birth control methods, but unless you educate the people who are here already in having the shift of consciousness needed to turn this around the viscious cycle continues.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • LAJOLLAMUSIC
  • 11dim
  • Debra_
    • +1
      Debra_  

    • The article lists many things but really beats around bush. The fundamental problem is people. We are parasites sucking mother earth dry. Our population has become too great to control.

    • 1 year ago
  • mindcruzer
  • JanforGore
  • mindcruzer
  • Debra_
    • -4
      Debra_  
    • JanforGore:

      Eugenics is a legitimate science, people just need to have intellectual fortitude, progressive thinking, and the ability to reject religious superstition in order to recognize its benefits as a necessity for a greater society.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Debra_:

      http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17644.html

      And who gets to pick who dies or who is not born? Bill Gates and his "new vaccines?" The rich controlling who among the poor and brownskinned people of the world are expendable? Forced vaccinations? Or would that just be disguised as something else for "their own good?" Or just perpetuating the use of GMOs to somehow bring about infertility by the second or third generation? How pretty you wrap such an immoral agenda. So you spend millions to make millions vaccinating the African population yet doing nothing about the toxic water they drink by making money from investing in the companies polluting their water and dare to say you care? BS.

    • 1 year ago
  • Debra_
    • -2
      Debra_  
    • JanforGore:

      Everyone is going to die so that point is moot. But no, that is not the thrust of it, its more so who gets born. Lets face it some people should not reproduce because their offspring (like them) will contribute nothing to human civilization. A targeted sterilization program is a soft-handed way of making sure undesirable characters don't reproduce, and ensures that we continue to progress to a more civil society.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • Debra_
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Debra_:

      Oh my, now you are getting nasty. Are you actually saying I am an "undesirable character" who should be sterilized simply because I stand up for the environment? You really are sick. Must be getting to you to have your true anti environmental genocidal agenda here exposed which you can't even defend.

    • 1 year ago
  • Debra_
    • -1
      Debra_  
    • JanforGore:

      From your post you seem pretty anti-intellectual and therefore,somewhat.. undesirable. You don't stand up for the environment. If you did, you would be supporting responsible population control through GMO's

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • ras_menelik
  • Dazedandconfused
    • 0
      Dazedandconfused  

    • First off, what the fuck is with the biodegradeable chip bags being scrapped because they make to much noise? Normal bags make about the same amount... i just dont get it, that can't be the reason. Secondly the worlds gonna end deal with it, were already past the point of no return, we've been running head first down the wrong path for to long, and to many, well ill just call them hicks, stand in the way. Its all over people, walmart and america killed the economy, politics are RETARDED, and the world is gonna heat up like an easy bae oven and roast us all, just spark it and wait i suppose

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • http://polluted.it

      Excerpt:

      How Clean Water Became a Human Right

      We all, as well, have to find ways to thank and protect those groups and governments going out on a limb to promote an agenda for true change. A very good example is President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who brought the climate justice movement together in Cochabamba last April and is leading the campaign at the UN to promote the Rights of Mother Earth.

      It was this small, poor, largely indigenous landlocked country, and its former coca-farmer president, that introduced a resolution to recognize the human right to water and sanitation this past June to the UN General Assembly, taking the whole UN community by surprise. The Bolivian UN Ambassador, Pablo Solon, decided he was fed up with the “commissions” and “further studies” and “expert consultations” that have managed to put off the question of the right to water for at least a decade at the UN and that it was time to put an “up or down” question to every country: do you or do you not support the human right to drinking water and sanitation?

      A mad scramble ensued as a group of Anglo-Western countries, all promoting to some extent the notion of water as a private commodity, tried to derail the process and put off the vote. The U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand even cooked up a “consensus” resolution that was so bland everyone would likely have handily voted for it at an earlier date. But sitting beside the real thing, it looked like what it was – an attempt, yet again, to put off any meaningful commitment at the UN to the billions suffering from lack of clean water. When that didn’t work, they toiled behind the scenes to weaken the wording of the Bolivian resolution but to no avail. On July 28, 2010, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to adopt a resolution recognizing the human right to water and sanitation. One hundred and twenty two countries voted for the resolution; 41 abstained; not one had the courage to vote against.

      I share this story with you not only because my team and I were deeply involved in the lead up to this historic vote and there for it the day it was presented, but because it was the culmination of work done by a movement operating on the principles I have outlined above.

      We took the time to establish the common principles that water is a Commons that belongs to the earth, all species, and the future, and is a fundamental human right not to be appropriated for profit. We advocate for the Public Trust Doctrine in law at every level of government. We set out to build a movement that listens first and most to the poorest among us, especially indigenous and tribal voices. We work with communities and groups in other movements, especially those working on climate justice and trade justice. We understand the need for careful collaborative cooperation to restore the functioning of watersheds and we have come to revere the water that gives life to all things upon the Earth."
      _____________
      Declaring water a human right is but a first step to the paradigm shift needed to work to bring an end to poverty and to bring education to areas where women and girls spend their days walking hours to procure water that is many times not enough and polluted. It is the first step to securing water supplies that are pumped in the millions of gallons from acquifers by Nestle and other companies to put in bottles to make a profit from it while people go without. It is a first step in working to protect it from the toxic waste that has already polluted major rivers and water sources beyond human use. The state of our global water supply is a direct reflection of our morality as a species and there is also no disputing now that glacier melt, sea level rise, erratic rainfall patterns, drought, desertification, and deforestation have all worked to threaten agriculture, soil, and potable water sources for millions of people. This is the reality regardless of what you think is the cause of it. That horse has been beaten to death here to no avail. What we need now as a species is a new consciousness in realizing that the problems we face on this planet will not be solved unless we look beyond the old ways and in repeating the same actions thinking we will get different results. Protection and conservation of water sources including our oceans is essential now to our continued survival as a species. You either understand that and work to act, or you continue to bury your head in the sand.

    • 1 year ago
  • CalgarC
  • JanforGore
  • CalgarC
  • JanforGore
  • trut
  • hunzedog
    • -2
      hunzedog  

    • grow hemp and save the planet for free...
      and this article would make great fertilizer
      because its bullshit.
      our temp is controlled by the sun...
      same temp fluxuations on mercury venus and mars....
      wake up sheeple

    • 1 year ago
  • IceKat
    • -2
      IceKat  

    • "Global climate change is rapidly advancing, melting glaciers, eroding soil, causing freak and increasingly wild storms, and displacing untold millions from rural communities to live in desperate poverty in peri-urban slums."

      Emotional clap-trap! And to think there are so-called intelligent humans who actually believe this rubbish!!!

      "The atmosphere has already warmed up almost a full degree in the last several decades..."
      Temperatures have risen and fallen during that time period. The reasons why temperatures have risen over the past few decades is well known and understood, and man's activities have nothing to do with it!

      Then the author goes on to write, "I do not think it possible to exaggerate the threat to our earth and every living thing upon it. " Well, that has to be the funniest line I've read for a while. This whole article is one massive exaggeration borne from the heart of an unbalanced mind.
      Thirty years ago this person would have been seen wandering around some city wearing a placard, "The end is nigh". People would have laughed then, but now the lunatics have found an audience, one that is willing to join in with the wailing and bawling. It really makes me wonder...

    • 1 year ago
  • noxidereus
    • -1
      noxidereus  
    • IceKat:

      Propagandistic bullshit. The intelligent people you speak of are called scientists.

      "The reasons why temperatures have risen over the past few decades is well known"

      Not by you, being either a big oil propagandists or one of it's unthinking victims, but by scientists. Climate change is caused by man, nearly 90% of the top climatologists agree. You, on the other hand, lover of CO2 that you are, are peddling pure bullshit. The ONLY reason for resisting the truth of man-caused climate change is profit and greed.

    • 1 year ago
  • hombre76
  • IceKat
    • 0
      IceKat  
    • bc_f:

      As I don't currently dump plastic in lakes or drive a 5mpg truck I still won't be doing either when man-made climate change is disproven.
      As for people buying $2.99 bottles of water or driving Hummers in downtown Boston, well, that's their choice. I don't/wouldn't do it but it is still a free world, or am I mistaken?

    • 1 year ago
  • IceKat
    • -1
      IceKat  
    • noxidereus:

      Of course the only way I can have an opinion is if I've been indoctrinated or paid for by big oil! I mean, it couldn't have anything to do with decades of reading and discussing, and more importantly, questioning the science that you will probably never get to see because of your limited and already settled view of climate science.

    • 1 year ago
  • Elevator
  • ejasun
    • +5
      ejasun  
    • Image

    • Einstein said that problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. While mouthing platitudes about caring for the earth...
      Einstein also said:
      "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

      http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • figgdimension
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/technology/92726593_blog-action-day-the-global-water-crisis-l...

      I couldn't agree with her more. WE are killing the ecosystems of this planet that sustain us. THAT is what should be number one on the nightly news!

      And on edit: This affects people regardless of religious belief or lack thereof. Regardless of politics. Regardless of economics. Regardless of skin color. Perhaps then people who continue to use all of these distinctions to do nothing but widen the divide between humans can for once understand what is happening while we are all bickering over them.

    • 1 year ago
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