California Water Wars: Another Form of Asset Stripping?

Written on March 27th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

on Global Research.ca (first on Web of Debt), by Ellen Brown, March 26, 2015.

In California’s epic drought, wars over water rights continue, while innovative alternatives for increasing the available water supply go untapped.

Wars over California’s limited water supply have been going on for at least a century. Water wars have been the subject of some vintage movies, including the 1958 hit The Big Country starring Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood’s 1985 Pale Rider, 1995’s Waterworld with Kevin Costner, and the 2005 film Batman Begins. Most acclaimed was the 1975 Academy Award winner Chinatown with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, involving a plot between a corrupt Los Angeles politician and land speculators to fabricate the 1937 drought in order to force farmers to sell their land at low prices. The plot was rooted in historical fact, reflecting battles between Owens Valley farmers and Los Angeles urbanites over water rights.  

Today the water wars continue on a larger scale with new players. It’s no longer just the farmers against the ranchers or the urbanites. It’s the people against the new “water barons” – Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Monsanto, the Bush family, and their ilk – who are buying up water all over the world at an unprecedented pace.

A Drought of Epic Proportions: … //

… No Contingency Plan: … //
… Tapping Underground Seas: … //

… The Water Wars Continue:

California officials have been unresponsive to such proposals. Instead, the state has undertaken to regulate underground water. In September, a trio of bills were signed establishing a framework for statewide regulation of California’s underground water sources, marking the first time in the state’s history that groundwater will be managed on a large scale. Water has until now been considered a property right. The Los Angeles Times reported:

  • [M]any agriculture interests remain staunchly opposed to the bill. Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, said the bills “may come to be seen as ‘historic’ for all the wrong reasons” by drastically harming food production.
  • . . . “There’s really going to be a wrestling match over who’s going to get the water,” [Fresno Assemblyman] Patterson said, predicting the regulation plans will bring a rash of lawsuits.

And so the saga of the water wars continues. The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. One of its former directors, Ismail Serageldin, stated, “The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water.”

In the movie Chinatown, the corrupt oligarchs won. The message seemed to be that right is no match against might. But armed with that powerful 21st century tool the Internet, which can generate mass awareness and coordinated action, right may yet prevail.

(full text).

(Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 300+ blog articles are at EllenBrown.com).

Links:

Mathew D. Rose: Greece – Plus ça change, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, March 26, 2015;

Epic Fail for the Postal Service, The Wrong Model and the Wrong Board, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, March 26, 2015;

L’Islande retire sa candidature à l’adhésion à l’UE, dans Arrêt sur Info.ch, par Horizons et débats, le 25 mars 2015;

Chroniques du mensonge ordinaire, dans Arrêt sur Info.ch, par Jacques Sapir, le 25 mars 2015;

Video: What Will Politics Be Like in the Future? 1.53 min, uploaded by Alberto Rizzoli, March 23, 2015;

UK: Labour will not raise basic or higher rate of income tax if we win General Election – Ed Balls, on London Evening Standard, March 16, 2015;

Pourquoi l’Occident hait-il Poutine ? La raison secrète, dans Arrêt sur Info.ch, par AustralianVoice, le 8 mars 2015;

Online Future Day Conference 2015, India, 255.20 min/4h15.20, upladed by India Future Society, March 1, 2015;

Geld – Gold – globale Gesellschaft, Feb 8, 2015;

aus der Rosa-Luxemburg-Konferenz, Feb 5, 2015;

Wem gehört die Welt? Machtkampf um Ressourcen – Heiner Flassbeck, 44.42 min, von ARD am 21. August 2014 hochgeladen … in der SWR Tele-Akademie … plus weitere Videos in autoplay;

… und noch dies:

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