Part III. Blue Gold
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
—Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey, 1957
“Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Hungarian biochemist and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
In virtually every nation on Earth, at least some of that country’s citizens can stand on the ocean’s shore and gaze into the seeming infinity of eternal water. Even landlocked nations often have seas and lakes large enough to provide this vista. Romanians, Bulgarians, and Ukrainians look across the Black Sea; Turkmen, Kazakhs, and Azerbaijanis view each other across the Caspian; Ugandans can look across Lake Victoria and see, on the far shore, the dim outline of Tanzania or Kenya. In addition, rivers flow, or at least muddle, through every nation, even Saharan nations such as Algeria, Libya, and Chad. But as you will see, the availability of potable (drinkable) water, essential to human survival, is not afforded to all those who seek and see these endless vistas.
Oceans, lakes, and rivers have beckoned explorers, adventurers, and migrants from time immemorial. Water has provided ease of transportation, the ability to move large objects great distances, energy, personal mobility, and the answer to the question of what lay beyond that seemingly endless horizon. But the essentiality of water is even greater than all that—something far more elemental.
We evolved from water. Every organism on Earth first developed in the oceans, and 80% of the planet’s denizens reside there still. Humans are among the survivors who left that water world and via intellect, brutality, and/or luck exist on land today.
Spencer Wells, an American geneticist and anthropologist, used DNA markers to postulate quite convincingly that our human ancestors, our own “Adam” and “Eve,” originated in Africa. They were able to migrate across the whole of the coastal Middle East and Southwest and Southeast Asia and then on to Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines only because of the life-giving oceans. Roughly 40,000 years ago, man was more prey than predator. By staying close to the coast, man could avoid both the predators of the sea and, for the most part, the predators of the land. Collecting potable water where freshwater rivers ran into the sea, as almost all ultimately do, the fecund oceans and rivers always provided ample water and food—seabirds, fish, clams, oysters, and other shellfish.
Mankind has come a long way since these early explorations and migrations. But one thing has not changed: We still need our daily quota of disease-free water, or we will die. Today, we use water to generate energy, as with hydroelectric power; we enable commerce and global development by using it to transport massive quantities of goods in the cheapest way possible; we irrigate our fields and crops, providing food, none of which can grow without water; we bathe in it and clean our clothes and dishes in it; and, of course, we sustain our own biological survival with it. Many developed nations (most of which developed because of the availability of rivers, lakes, and streams for sustenance, food, and transportation) have a clear advantage over other regions and nations on this water planet. Some less-developed nations have water, but not the means to keep it disease-free. Others have endless miles of ocean coastline but cannot drink a drop of that water. Both of these problems can be addressed today—for a price. It is for these two categories of nations that the future is most secure—and these nations may well control the future of mankind. Not necessarily those with oil, although they may barter it for water or use their profits to create potable water. Not those with coal, or wind, or endless sun. Those with water.
Part III discusses the distribution, science, geopolitics, and investment possibilities of water. Answers to important questions will be posed:
• Who doesn’t?
For those who don’t, to what lengths will they go to get it? What might one nation be willing to do if another nation inhibits its access to water?
Will science and technology provide inexpensive desalination for areas that border the world’s great saltwater oceans? Even if they do, where does that leave the 44 landlocked nations with no access to the world’s oceans? Do they have enough fresh water in lakes and rivers to ensure their inhabitants’ survival? And how secure are those sources? Who controls the headwaters of those rivers?
Can we take the precious little freshwater we have and make it pure enough to ensure the survival of an ever-expanding world population? In short, is there enough water to keep alive the 6.9 billion people the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are on the planet today, let alone the 8.3 billion the United Nations forecasts as its medium variant projection in just 20 years?
Will water be used as a political carrot or stick to control another nation’s domestic and foreign policy? (If you think oil is a club in the wrong hands, imagine the power of life and death you hold over another for the one substance he or she cannot live without for more than three days.)
What sectors, industries, and companies rely on water the most? Which are the most vulnerable to water shortages?
What sectors, industries, and companies might benefit the most from ensuring access to potable water? Today waterborne pathogens kill more children than any other factor. Watching a child being lowered into a mud hole 40 feet below ground to scrape “water” and mud into a goatskin bag is not the future of mankind. Yet, for many, it is the present. Huge opportunity exists for scientists and commercial enterprises that can provide water free of pathogens that kill rather than give life.
We came from water. We cannot exist without water. From water comes food to nourish us and comes rain, freshwater lakes, rivers, springs, and aquifers. Water is the one substance we need for our very existence that has no replacement on Earth. All foods can be substituted with some other food. While some cultures may prefer rice, and others wheat, and still others corn or soybeans, to the human body it’s all the same. Around the world, people wear different clothing made of different fibers and live in shelters composed of different materials. Oil and coal can be replaced with other sources of energy. But water is the one thing we can neither replace nor substitute.
Water is life.