One subject I omitted coverage of in the book to a great extent is the title of this post, Water. The essential of human life, for we could go a while without food and just maybe, nibble on some leaves, but we could not go without water for very long. Even humans in the state of hubris mentioned in the previous post know water is essential. The French, with their rich language and cultural Celtic history that’s still under there somewhere, awaiting a revival, even refer to it as L’Eau, quite literally, the life.
Yet, it is clearly taken for granted right now.
We shouldn’t be surprised. It’s there, quite literally, on tap for most of us whenever we need it and need it we do, for our daily showers, pots of tea/coffee and even chucking 1,000 litres of the stuff into a pool in the garden for the summer. What traditionally happens in markets is that as abundant commodities get cheaper, their abundance becomes relied upon and factored into modern life with increasing usage and reliance. It’s much the same with oil, where it’s used for heating, transport, packaging and even pharmaceuticals, among many things. Even corn, is apparently so abundant that the excess can be used to make Ethanol for adding to petrol, in an effort to appear “green”. I have no idea what’s green really about producing a foodstuff with artificial fertilisers, often produced from Natural Gas, then expending energy to convert that foodstuff into a fuel that can be added into petrol, but no matter, apparently this is somehow good for the planet. To the extent that the UK is about to introduce a new fuel with a higher percentage of Ethanol that may even damage car engines. It’s for the good of the environment though, right?
On this environmental note, did you know that manufacturing one car consumes a water footprint of approximately 500,000 litres of clean water? Think about that the next time that you’re told your water consumption is responsible for the destruction of the planet. Next, refer to the relatively recent James Bond film, A Quantum of Solace, in which water was the commodity targeted by the bad guys in order to take control of the world. Quantum, interesting word choice for another post on another day…Now you’ve done that, and realised that perhaps yet again the goldfish bowl entertainment presented to you years before is predictive programming, it may be time to think about potential water shortages. After all, little could re-engineer society quicker than a world where water was a resource to be fought over.
Which leads me onto recent press.
In a variety of locations, reservoirs are being drained. Official reasons given include cleaning, or simply to top up river levels. That’s certainly the reason given for the emptying of Tunstall reservoir, near the place of my birth in Northern England :-
To the locals, that one doesn’t make any sense. The river in question, The Wear, has not been short of water lately and in fact overflowed a short while ago. It got me thinking, where else in the world this may be happening and a few internet searches helped confirm this is not an isolated phenomenon.
California, for example. Farmers here are mystified, since some of them will be unable to grow their planned crops this year at all because of this.
Colorado is also indulging in the same activities.
In Northern Italy, the story is presented as the exciting uncovering of a lost village.
In London, canals are drained as a clean-up operation. Might be a valid reason, or may not.
So, enjoy your water while you can. Nothing could displace the existing way of life quicker than to leave people without drinking water. Food -well yes, but you can survive a few days. Water – it all falls apart quickly. If it was possible to wager on how this goes, I’d put my money on that it’ll be water shortages caused by a dry summer, which was of course caused by….(dramatic pause)…Global Warming! Then it’s only one small step further to an extreme solution of locking people down into their homes and enforcing rationed usage of key resources. Perhaps even the curtailment of meat (those pesky cows and their methane are destroying our planet, of course), alongside water, electricity and even the stopping of retailing certain items in shops and online. Forcing people to stay in their homes would once have been seen as untenable, but after the flock has accepted it for the past year, they are very likely to do as they are told again. It’s for the good of the planet, right? I’d even take this a step further and say that the surveillance society now has the technology to actually monitor that you are sticking to the enforced climate lockdown, something that they have been lacking since The Crown implementation of 2020. Magnetised beings and a 5g network feels like something with great tracking potential, if you’re into that. Perhaps the Eriksen experiment was a public test run.
If this sounds like the life you want, then great. I don’t, but we’re both on this planet, trapped in what feels like a dystopian video game. Good luck with your quest, only the bad news is that this is not actually a video game, where, if it goes badly you can just press reset and start again. No, this is it and the choices we make now may be the difference between life and death.