Think $4 gallon for gas is bad? Wait until water is $4 gallon. I support the idea that property owners own the water beneath their land. On a personal scale, using water only for their own needs, it is sustainable.
But, do I have the right to drain the groundwater beneath my farm dry and drain the groundwater from all my neighbors, too, for the sake of selling it elsewhere?
What about the giant corporation that buys property over an aquifer for the purpose of draining it dry, for profit? I think T. Boone Pickens is looking forward to draining America”s largest aquifer so he can profit off a city”s desperate need for water? Dallas” poor urban planning and growing thirst could vastly increase his fortune, while 20 percent of America”s farmlands could be drained dry.
Anything wrong with that? How about other corporations that sell U.S. water overseas, draining our lakes, our streams, our aquifers, and turning millions of acres into arid desert, all in the name of profit? Anything wrong with that? Do those corporations really own the water they are selling? Really? How? Who sold it to them? Did whoever sold it to them have the right to sell it? Why?
Or, is America”s water part of our nation”s birthright?
Why/when/where/how did a tiny number of wealthy companies obtain the legal right to sell our nation”s birthright, resources that belong to all of us? Resources vital not only to our people”s health, but also to our national security?
Odds are, most of us have never asked ourselves these questions. That was yesterday. In the future these questions and the answers may be crucial to survival. Some call it capitalism. Some call it greed. I call it treason.
It is not just a crime against the environment and against future generations. It is a crime against the United States of America, against our nation”s food and water security.
Less than a dozen giant corporations already outright control 90 percent of America”s food supply. They want to control our water, too?
When is enough, enough? What will it take to really wake up the 99 percent?
Deb Baumann
Upper Lake
