PHA-Exchange> A Christmas thought on "Providing the world with clean water"

[Aviva]

From: TBC <tbc at TheBellsConsultants.net>

This analysis of water ressources is limited in its grounding 
hypothesis: that "Fresh water is a finite source, making up less than
1% 
of the earth's total water" But this hypothesis assumes that human 
technology plays no part in defining what is "a natural ressource". It 
is Malthusian in essence.
For the same could be said, and often is, of anything and everything 
that is defined nowadays as a "natural ressource", notably land.
I would like to refer to Economics Nobel Prize Amartya Sen who has 
demonstrated that Malthus was wrong in his dire prediction that 
population growth would outstrip food production. Today enough food is 
produced, the problem is unjust, inadequate distribution which is the 
cause of famine. (see his article in the New York Review of Books)
The same is true for water.
Only what Thorstein Veblen called "The Predatory Class" is preventing 
all humans on earth from having the necessary food, water, education
and 
basic health needs met.
In this Chrismas day, let us remember that only greed prevents all of
us 
from enjoying our Humanity.
What defines a public good - said a wise Segenalese professor at the 
CERN conference recently - is that the more it is shared the more 
wealth is created! That is sound economics!
If we organized our inventions and our man-defined natural ressources 
more intelligently and equitably, we had all be many times richer!

Nance