No chances of war with Pakistan over water: India
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20102\11\story_11-2-2010_pg7_7
I have to admit…I did buy into the Water wars fantasy .Its a commodity for the consumer but does’nt lend itself to being really fungible between adjacent nations I thought.Easily annexed , diverted , dammed , siphoned …just too easy to manipulate .I think I was wrong.The ever optimist and realist , Dr Barnett , got it right with this post with quotes from an Israeli defense analyst claiming to the effect that …why fight over water…for the cost of one weeks war you could build and run many desalination plants
I never bought into the other commodities war silliness…nobody would withhold valuables to market without hurting themselves first .
If OPEC had an oil embargo no , Iran , Venezuela would crash promptly….Saudi Arabia remember how their Income per Capita had the greatest fall ever for any country and are not going to want to experience that again , and Russia would still keep pumping .
The Unobtainium ( minerals that only China has in any economic quantities) of China that the Economist termed ( I think) is also dealt with by Barnett in another post .Just like Oil….if China controls or prices other countries out of the mineral….alternatives will be found.
All our problems will solved by a high Oil price… oil will never run out…its the prices levels at which it is sold that will disappear.Alternatives will be found ….people will live closer to work….more people in cars. better cars…life WILL go on ……Essentially the Markets will fix the Environment ….nobody else can.
Middle class liberal Greens just festoon the process on its way but will actually perform no real function in the re-adjustment.The real difference we can make now..is to pressure new consumer Technologies to be power efficient …now…make an energy consumption tax on the kettle that uses 3000W to boil one cup or the flat screen that consumes power while off…..the Market can start its magic now..it just needs the rod of legislation….NOW.I just don’t understand why the EU..tailor made for the role is absent at the helm here.
Heres the Barnett post with a quote from Aaron Wolfe
“As we see, the actual history of armed water conflict is somewhat less dramatic than the water wars literature would lead one to believe . . . As near as we can find, there has never been a single war fought over water. The lack of actual water war examples should be compared to the more than 3,600 treaties concerning international water resources that were registered in the centuries between 805 CE and 1984. With the last hundred years alone, more than 149 treaties have been signed.
http://thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/2010/01/simmer_down_on_water_wars.html
I do buy into the resource war of Darfur…but then that shows a deeper delineation of the problem…a developmental problem.Countries that have reached a certain level of developement are not fighting over water..the undeveloped are/ could. As Barnett might of said…a Gap vs Core country difference.
