Water

Many Michiganders take the incredible water that surrounds us for granted. We think it's going to be there forever.....how could it not be with the Lakes so vast and plentiful?!

Well, those who read the papers know, water privatization is something that is on the doorstep of our region's most precious natural resource. If you read the NYT last weekend, for example, you saw the story about Chili.

Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group, is helping to promote a new film and one that's already been shown in Ann Arbor and Traverse City: Blue Gold: World Water Wars.  This new award-winning documentary film exposes how corporate giants, private investors and corrupt governments are vying for control of the world's depleting fresh water supply. Blue Gold also illustrates the ways in which pollution, diversion, over-pumping and waste are exhausting the world's limited fresh water supply and how agriculture, industry and population growth are causing an increased demand for fresh water sources, setting the stage for a new global conflict.

Following the showing at the Environmental Film Festival in DC this week, Sam Bozzo, director of Blue Gold, talked to the audience about the film and the negative effects of water privatization. He was joined by non-other than cast member Noah Conttrell, a Michigan third grader who successfully protested and banned Ice Mountain bottled water from his elementary school.

Who are we kidding? Obviously not Noah! We sit on almost 20% of the Earth's fresh surface water! We don't think the Great Lakes are at risk from the same threats that plague other parts of the world?!! Yes, the Great Lakes Compact, which passed through Congress last year, was an important step to protect the Lakes. But, our waters are still not considered to be held in the public's trust. We allowed what is known as a "bottled water loophole" to remain part of the Compact.

Next steps? Make sure our waters are held in the trust of the public (not the private sector!). Let's close the loophole that third grader Noah Conttrell recognizes as a supreme threat to the incredible waters that define our state and sustain our lives.