Michael:
>Mark may be wrong that oil will be the ultimate constraint. I suspect
>water will come first -- although our economy wastes an enormous amount,
>which gives us some wiggle room. In other parts of the world, the people
>are note so fortunate.
Actually, it probably makes sense not to use a verb tense like "will come"
when referring to water. Our Tom Kruse was on the front lines of a struggle
over water in Bolivia, while Palestine and South Africa are confronting
sharp struggles over this issue *right now*. While there might be technical
substitutes for oil--at least in theory--there is none for water. Bill
Moyers had a very good show on PBS the other night that explored many of
these issues. In South Africa they are hiring people from places like
Soweto to cut down Eucalyptus trees near rivers and streams. These are not
only not native to the country, they suck up water just like the more
familiar weeping willow tree in the USA. Despite such measures, there are
enormous capitalist pressures to waste water even more than is the case
today. For example, a steer requires TWENTY GALLONS of water each day. And,
along with automobiles and entertainment, Macdonalds and Burger King serve
as the storm troops of neoliberalism. One of Moyer's interviewees made the
point that if this process does not come to an end, the world will look
like Haiti before the end of the century. This I fear is the way that
capitalism is moving, not so much toward cataclysm but desperate inequality
where the apologists for the system, both on the left and the right, live
inside walled communities with air conditioning and 3 square meals a day.
Louis Proyect
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