OK, so let us assume that they are correct, that there really is a looming problem over fresh water supplies as a result of climate change.
What does one of the very men giving the warning say is the proximate cause (the climate change being the ultimate)?
Hmm.
Lord Stern, the World Bank\’s former chief economist, said governments had been slow to accept that usable water is running out. "Water is not a renewable resource. People have been mining it without restraint because it has not been priced properly," he said.
Yup, it\’s an absence of markets. Keep an eye open for the Greenies who are happy to tell you about the shortages but not so happy to tell you what the solution, at least in part, is, the creation of functioning markets to allocate what water there is.
This is rather more amusing:
Stanford professor Donald Kennedy said global climate change was now setting off a self-feeding spiral. "We\’ve got droughts combined with a psychotic excess of rainfall," he said.
"There are 800m people in the world who are \’food insecure\’. They can\’t grow enough food, or can\’t afford to buy it. This is a seismic shift in the global economy."
Yup, 800 million who are food insecure. That\’s something of a step up from the billion or two a decade and more ago who were actually malnourished or starving, isn\’t it?
How long before some intellectual/scientific luminary suggests we create a market in “air” because its not priced properly?
Tim adds: Already been done: or had you not heard about the various cap and trade systems being set up?
I’m guessing ‘food insecure’ is just a euphemism for ‘malnourished or starving’.
…and certainly parts of the US have been aware of the problem for some decades now.
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/water-shortage-could-transform-markets-51332.aspx
I suspect “food insecure” is a moving target. As the world gets wealthier its meaning will be adjusted to keep the numbers high. In one hundred years time “food insecure” will refer to people living in mansions without a Star Trek style food replicators.
cap and trade systems
Tim
Aren’t these systems for CO2 etc. I am talking about taxing us in addition for the ‘air we breathe’ that we get free at the moment-or at least without anyone claiming ownership of it and taxing it.
Tim adds: Ah, well, in that case this is about Commons. It’s only when there is greater demand for a resource than can be supplied under Marxian open access rules that we actually need to limit (via either regulation (which includes tax) or property rights) access. We’ve no shortage of breathable air so, no, there’s no tax likely.
“a psychotic excess of rainfall”: that’s a bit rude about God, isn’t it?