The Big Thirst explores man and society’s relationship to
water and how it is seen, or not seen, and how placing a price on the only
resource humans have labeled as free is the solution to present and future
water crises and water wars. Fishman disproves the idea of a ‘global water
crisis’ by explaining how each potential or ongoing crisis is local, and how an
individual’s water use in America does not correlate to water availability in
India. Thorough case studies of water shortages, debates, solutions and Plan
B’s from Las Vegas casinos to Indian peasants to Australian coal mines gives
Fishman a strong foundation for his arguments: We look at water as a common
property, as free, as limitless, as the source of life and a force of death,
and yet societies’ take no measure to properly manage, conserve, and allocate
this vital resource. Fishman states, “We may well go directly from the golden
age of water to the revenge of water.”
An abundance of free water enabled Las Vegas to become a
“water oasis”, allowed Australia to irrigate the majority of its state, and let
Galveston, Texas glean over the fact that they did not have a Plan B. While the
water saved from a low-flush toilet can not cut back the hours Indian women
walk for water, it can be used for better purposes – replenishing our drying
rivers and aquifers. As the island off of Texas realized after Hurricane Ike, a
Plan B for water is necessary, and yet this has only been realized when Plan A,
the only plan, fails. Instead of freely allocating water to whomever can pay
the shipping and handling costs, Fishman argues that water needs to be treated
economically, as if it were any other resource, as if it were “Money in the
pipes.”
On the other side of free water is India, where the idea of
free water is still pervasive, but 24/7 water seems ludicrous and women and
children wake up to water-walks instead of work or school. Lack of water
management, of water security and pollution control essentially cripples the
people and the economy. Understanding water and its sources as more than holy
items is what is lifting new, “planned,” Indian cities from vicious cycles of
poverty and disease.
New systems of water management proposed and implemented by
IBM include monitoring water like we do our oil. Where is there waste, where is
there energy loss? Desalination plants, water monitoring systems, and
wastewater recycling, however, all require intense capital. While United
States’ metropolises and Australian drylands can afford such new and improved
water management, places like India require outside investment. Fishman’s ideas
of an economically based water system leaves many fearful of a dystopic future
where only the rich get clean water. The basis of such a system however, would
be a “first-glass” allocation in which fixed amounts are provided for drinking,
as well as the environment. But limiting the discussion to any specifics,
whether it be economics or reverse osmosis, misses the point entirely. His goal
in Big Thirst is merely to talk about water and by doing so, “rescue water not
so much from ignorance as from being ignored.”
Water’s apparent limitlessness is a plague that has reached
nearly every aspect of our natural society. From the buffaloes to the fish,
from oil to water, perceptions of a resource as infinite slowly give way to
depletion and extinction, as well as (hopefully) better understanding and management.
Whether that can be accomplished before the herd or the school is gone, or the
well is dry, is unfolding right now. Fish stocks are disappearing at never
before seen rates, and efforts to combat their extinction at the hand of market
forces are floundering. On the other side, efforts to combat water shortages
and water wars are being fought by the juxtaposition
of market forces. Although seemingly contrary in their approach, both reveal an
increased awareness and understanding of the resource at hand, whether it be
fish, or the waters in which those fish swim.
Fishman states at the end of Big Thirst, “Many civilizations
have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage
it.” Skeptics such as Lomborg might argue, with facts of decreasing water usage
in the U.S. and increasing supplies of clean drinking water to children, that
water is not as assumedly important as the Big Thirst states. Whether or not
humanity faces an upcoming water crises, or these are exaggerated figures as
stated in Lomborg’s Skeptical Environmentalist, it seems most important to prioritize
above all else our understanding of the resources which we are dependent. The
capital and the labor to be spent on urgent water programs is not the first
argument. The initial discourse must be on awareness, and then education, and
then action.
An understanding of the soil is needed for an agricultural
program, an understanding of fish stocks is needed before a fish conservation
program, and an understanding of the basic life force of water is absolutely
necessary before any water system is to be implemented. However, humanity
already created water infrastructures without this knowledge, and the events
unfolding now, in the form of Young’s “water glass” paradigm or Pat Mulroy’s
reduction solutions, will reveal just how great a value we want to place on
this resource.
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