Peru is in big trouble - will run out of water

[donsu]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert.php?lang=eng


Climate Change - Peru


Peru's Cordillera Blanca, the largest glacier chain in the tropics and one of the country's major tourist attractions, may have to be renamed to Cordillera Marrón in the near future. Rising temperatures let the glaciers melt rapidly and may turn the snowy and icy mountain tops from white to brown. Glaciologists consider the health of the world's glaciers an indicator of global warming, and they warn that what is happening signals trouble. Lonnie Thompson, a geologist from Ohio State University in the United States, warned that the melting has accelerated to a level that the ice cannot replenish itself. And this means trouble for Peru because it endangers future water supplies to the arid coast where most Peruvians live. The scientist used the Quelccaya in Southern Peru, the world's largest tropical ice cap, as an example which is retreating at about 60 meters (200 feet) a year, up from six meters (20 feet) a year in the 1960s. Peru's tropical glaciers feed the rivers that provide water to the cities on the desert coast line, not only for consumption but also for agriculture and electricity. Two third of Peru's 28 million population lives in an area that produces only 1,8% of the country's overall water supply. In the last ten years the ice layer of the Mt. Pastoruri, located south of the city of Huaraz, has reduced by almost 40% and since 1970 the Peruvian mountains in general lost 22% of their glacial surface.
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[Deja Q]

1. Climate change, but given the population of the world has more than doubled since 1970,

that has got to be a factor too. (well, more people drinking the available clean water...)

:shrug:

[donsu]

3. either way - in the not too distant future people will have to move away

from the coast of Peru. that's a lot of people! moving someplace else to drink water.

[havocmom]

2. EVERYBODY is in big trouble

for the same reason.

Big Oil, as nasty as it is, is just a diversion from the real problem: Corporate usurption of water.

Things are gonna get nasty. Start learning how to collect and store.

[donsu]

4. excellent advise - learn how to collect and store

nt

[KansDem]

5. Fear not! The Bush Family should be able to help out...

As you can see, Peru is relatively close to Paraguay, home to the Bush Family's purchase of over 90,000 acres of land that sit on the largest fresh water aquifer in that region. So, all that needs to be done is to bottle up that water and truck it to Peru! Oh, maybe the Bush Family could get the Bolivian government to authorize and finance a water pipeline...

Pipeline through foreign countries to transport a much-needed liquid commodity? Now, that has a familiar ring to it...

[bahrbearian]

6. I'm sure they will build a pipeline,, just think of all the farms

Chimpy could condemn using Imminent Domain, Texas Rangers style.

[PhilipShore]

7. Excellent --- Do you have a link for that story? I bet the Waxman...

Global warming Committee would like to read that story.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-ex-climate30jan31,0,253239.story?coll=la-home-nation

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at the start of a hearing on global warming that he and the committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, had repeatedly asked the White House last year for documents to show that senior officials were suppressing scientific reports within the administration about the severity of the problem.

[KansDem]

8. Sure!

The rumours, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush's supposed interest in the "chaco", a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay's north, might be.

Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.

Rumours of Mr Bush's supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay, although officially she travelled with the UN children's agency Unicef to visit social projects. Photographers from the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color tracked her down to one restaurant in Paraguay's capital Asunción, where she was seen flanked by 10 security guards, and was also reported to have met Paraguay's president, Nicanor Duarte, and the US ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family "mission" to tie up the land purchase in the "chaco".

--more--
The Guardian


Natural resources may also figure into the US motivations for expanding its military presence in South America. One branch of the main opening for a huge Bolivian natural gas field apparently crosses the international border and is accessible in Paraguay at the Independencia I site, not far from Mariscal Estigarribia. If US troops occupied the base there, they would be in striking distance of the Bolivian provinces of Santa Cruz and Tarija, where US natural gas corporations are active. Bolivia will soon be voting on autonomy for the provinces. A “yes” vote is expected to result in privatization. In the event of civil unrest following that outcome, the corporations could call for military protection.

The military base overlies the Guarani aquifer, one of the world’s largest underground fresh water reserves. Already water wars have riled Bolivian politics. Oligarchic interests in both the United States and South America have great longings to advance the process of turning water into a commodity.

--more--
Political Affairs


But Oliviera warned that the privatizers of water now have their sights trained on another indigenous water source - Paraguay's Guarami basin, the earth's largest reserve of sweet water. Under the pretext of Bush's Terror War, U.S. troops have established a garrison strategically sited close by the Triple Frontier (Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina) near the spectacular Iguazu falls.

"We must be vigilant of those who would make water into a merchandise. Water is a fundamental human right," Oliviera emphasized.

--more--
Counterpunch


Use the keywords bush paraguay water purchase aquifer in Google; there are some 11,400 links that will result.

If the Bush Family wasn't wanting water rights (and I think they want to become the Saudi Family of water), and the land purchase is legit, how does this affect the US president's stance toward that part of the world? Would Bush be able to make objective decisions about Paraguay or South America if he and his family own 100,000 acres of that region?


On edit: Hey! I got a heart!! :blush: Thanks so much, whoever who are!!! :hi:

[PhilipShore]

11. This is truly great news --- Perhaps the Investigators from Congress

could look into it. The following link is an excellent way -- if you want to contact Congress, etc.

Townhall.com :: Contact Congress

http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/

[Zookeeper]

13. Wow! Thanks for that information...

Even with all of his responsibilies and "troubles," Bush isn't too busy to increase his family fortune.

I feel sick....:puke:

[piedmont]

14. It figures-- They got rich on fossil fuels, now they get richer on fossil water.

[bridgit]

9. sad, enter privatized water delivery systems & corporate entities for profit...

[Duer 157099]

10. Jeez, what a link!

At one glance I can completely justify my paranoia and doom-n-gloom. That's one helluva link there, isn't it?

Global disaster at-a-glance

Wow. I better not visit too often

(but thanks for providing it :D I know it will come in handy)

[PhilipShore]

12. Fox News: Peru Losing Andean Snowcaps to Rising Temperatures

FOXNEWS SCIENCE
Peru Losing Andean Snowcaps to Rising Temperatures
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251448,00.html

Monday, February 12, 2007



ASTORURI GLACIER, Peru — Peru's "White Mountain Range" may soon have to change its name.

The ice atop Cordillera Blanca, the largest glacier chain in the tropics, is melting fast because of rising temperatures, and peaks are turning brown.

The trend is highlighting fears of global warming and, scientists say, is endangering future water supplies to the arid coast where most Peruvians live.

Glaciologists consider the health of the world's glaciers an indicator of global warming and they warn that what is happening in the Andes signals trouble ahead.