Blue Gold: World Water Wars

This is a brilliant documentation which reminds us of how valuable a commodity water is and how easily the western world takes it unwittingly for granted. The information contained in the video is detailed and very well presented. Some of the contents was scary especially the political side of this resource which quite frankly should be non-existent. Water is life and everyone on the face of this planet should have access to it. I believe this movie would do well in schools worldwide. More awareness needs to be made of our dwindling resource and also the exposure of how corporate giants and private collectives are trying to control and profiteer from an essential commodity. I would encourage everyone to purchase this movie in show of support for Sam Bozzo's excellent presentation. I'll definitely be looking out for more work from Bozzo in the future. 10/10!

These people seem to have no real understanding of market mechanisms or of personal responsibility. The moment they said that we have an energy shortage already and because of this desalination is not an option, I started rolling my eyes. It goes to show that people who have no understanding of economics should stay away from policy work, because they only screw things up. Of course there are problems with the private companies but this film totally fails to capture the true cores of the problems which have to do with excessive ownership rights, rent seeking and political power.

Like usual laymen will love this movie but there's a reason most academics will dismiss it. Just to be clear, there are some valid inventions being talked about though perhaps not market ready yet its just that the these people fail to grasp the concept of adding bottom lines to market mechanisms, such as pigovian taxes, which is likely to be one of the few intelligent solutions and perhaps the most efficient.

This documentary and another made the following year on another aspect of the same subject by different people, TAPPED (2009, see my review), are both highly pertinent to the question of whether the human species will continue to exist or not. Public ignorance of the most crucial matters affecting our future as a species is truly remarkable. Nowadays people can no longer agree about carbon emissions, but one thing which should be agreed by everyone with any argument at all is that the future of the fresh water supply for the world is greatly endangered, and if we don't begin to focus on that problem without further delay, future generations will all die, and humanity will become extinct, along with most animal and plant species as well. Are we really so lazy that we do not care? Sometimes it seems that way. Otherwise, why are films like this not better known? The two films should be shown in all schools, they should be shown by all parents to their children, they should be on television, and above all, they should be shoved down the throats of all the idiot politicians who are doing nothing to save the human species, being too busy with stuffing their pockets with cash from corrupt sources in return for selling off public water to corporate buyers. This film attacks the 'sale' of the water (including even sometimes the rainwater!!) of some cities, counties, and even entire countries to corporate interests. Just imagine the bribes which have been paid to pull off such scams! And meanwhile the world's drinking water is running out. Although 75% of the earth's surface is covered with water, this film says only 3% of it is drinkable (and TAPPED says that only 1% of it is drinkable). And much of that is now heavily polluted. Large areas of the planet are going dry at an alarming rate, and 'water wars' are looming, while water riots have already begun in earnest. We are in a crisis of survival, but none of the governments in the world are taking robust action, whereas the international agencies are often the entities which are the most dangerous and corrupt, as they are entirely unaccountable to anyone, so they can take as many bribes as they like and no one will do anything about it, whereas at least some of the world's governments have to answer to their voters (assuming the voters are not kept in ignorance, which films like this are trying to prevent). This film begins with a harrowing description of what it is like to die of thirst, something we may before long all be able to experience for ourselves. This film is written, narrated and directed by an enthusiastic idealist named Sam Bozzo, who has done a very good job on a small budget. (TAPPED had a much bigger budget and higher production values.) It is based on a book by two other idealistic activists, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, who both also appear in the film. These people are all to be enthusiastically congratulated for their tireless work in attempting to alert the public to the dangers of human extinction due to the failure of our worldwide fresh water supplies. As Ford Madox Ford said in the February, 1924, issue of The Transatlantic Review, of which he was editor: 'That one should stand by and observe without a note of warning the sure shadow of doom engulfing a civilisation would be to display an equanimity passing the power of most men.'

We can't live without water. You may have thought it was a human right. But certain corporations have been plotting to control the water supply on this planet for a while now, and have been moving into place around the globe. Now the World Bank has required certain governments to privatize their precious water supply -- make it a corporate commodity answerable only to stockholders -- as a condition to getting a loan. In some places it is now illegal to catch rainwater, because rain is being considered private property, including the United States. The evil of this worldwide corporate grab for control of your most precious resource is practically inconceivable, but it is happening. Blue Gold: World Water Wars is a landmark documentary that every school, library and church should own and show. Do you want the cost of your water to be controlled by private corporations and stockholders only interested in their bottom line? Do you want to give up your right to the water around you, including rain? It is time to get educated and get active. Start with this film.

Water is the new oil, apparently - a vital commodity, in dwindling supply, controlled by corporate business, so tightly that the people of Bolivia were recently threatened with jail for collecting rainwater. Until the government drove out the big bad barons, that is.

If you're wanting a pantomime version of our global ecosystem, this is the one, every cliché firmly in place. It starts in the first seconds, with a stock image of parched and cracked soil, a slow dripping-sound, and Malcolm McDowell announcing that "whoever goes without water for a week cries blood." To give him his due, McDowell has matured into quite a good voiceover artist, almost mistakeable for Richard Burton. But this does not make the message any more credible.

It is basically that water is a human right, that should be administered by 'the people' or the United Nations, and not the ruthless, corrupt private sector. We are encouraged to feel that water belongs to everyone, rather like the Native Americans who couldn't get their mind round the ownership of land. We hear the startling claim that corporate business is 'not subject to clear-cut performance requirements', which is, of course, the standard weakness of the public sector and the charities, providing all manner of temptations when money is left lying around.

If, like myself, you are liable to develop hydrology fatigue, you can assess the main arguments quite effectively by just sizing-up the human types you're looking at, like bored constituents at an election rally. Every professional hippie-rebel is here, with their standard cries, of which "We the people must become the water guardians of the 21st century" is entirely typical.

The solutions, when they arrive near the end, are just too irritatingly naïve. Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth... Don't have a lawn... This is kindergarden-logic, as though the whole world is a well-run classroom. But then comes a surprise. The small town of Bolinas, California, has had a true brainwave. No new houses to be built, no more population to be encouraged, beyond the capacity of the water-supply. At long last, a breath of common-sense. Rights carry responsibilities. Instead of demanding clean water as a human right, you go to where the water is clean, if you want to raise a family. But alas, Bolinas is depressingly alone in its wisdom, a strange recluse-village that can only be reached by unmarked roads, and dismissed as yet another kookie Californian experiment.