Sunday, June 1, 2008

Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act grist: "A coalition of corporations, green groups, and unions issued a joint statement to senators yesterday declaring their support for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which will hit the Senate floor on Monday. Among the endorsers is General Electric, one of the five largest companies in the world -- definitely a big pick-up for the legislation." Be sure to click through for the list of organizations. "cc" 8:38:38 AM     Access to water: Human right? Access to clean drinking water is a human right? Correct? Not if you're one of the large multi-nationals lining up to sell it to the highest bidder. Here's some background from The Environmental News Service. They write: Water, Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris told the World Economic Forum in February, "is the oil of this century." Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as "blue gold." Water's hot-commodity status has snared the attention of big equipment suppliers like General Electric as well as big private water companies that buy or manage municipal supplies -- notably France-based Suez and Aqua America, the largest US-based private water company. Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report. But governments pushing to privatize costly to maintain public water systems are colliding with a global "water is a human right" movement. Because water is essential for human life, its distribution is best left to more publicly accountable government authorities to distribute at prices the poorest can afford, those water warriors say. "We're at a transition point where fundamental decisions need to be made by societies about how this basic human need -- water -- is going to be provided," says Christopher Kilian, clean-water program director for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. "The profit motive and basic human need [for water] are just inherently in conflict." "colorado water" 7:41:37 AM

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