Water for Profit: Seizing Climate Change as a Chance to
Corporatize the Commons
“Not enough people are thinking long term of [water] as
an asset that is worthy of ownership,” says one executive
- Andrea Germanos,
staff writer
น้ำเพื่อค้ากำไร:
ฉวยโอกาสภูมิอากาศเปลี่ยนแปลงเป็นโอกาสเพื่อแปลงทรัพย์สินน่วมให้เป็นทุน
“มีคนไม่มากพอที่กำลังคิดถึงน้ำในระยะยาวว่าเป็นทรัพย์สินที่มีค่าพอที่จะถือครองเป็นกรรมสิทธิ์”,
นักบริหารคนหนึ่งกล่าว
-
แอนเดรีย เยอร์มาโนส
-
ดรุณี ตันติวิรมานนท์ แปล
As the effects of climate change continue to ripple
throughout the planet, some groups are acknowledging that the warming planet
means big money is to be made on a resource more precious than oil — water.
ในขณะที่ผลกระทบของภูมิอากาศเปลี่ยนแปลงยังคงสะท้านสะเทือนอยู่ทั่วพิภพ,
บางกลุ่มกำลังเห็นว่า โลกร้อน หมายถึง
โอกาสการทำเงินมหาศาลในทรัพยากรที่มีค่ามากกว่าน้ำมัน—น้ำ.
“If you play it right,” says one hedge-fund
advisor, “the results of this impending water crisis can be very good.” (Photo:
On the Commons/flickr)
In an article titled "Investors Seek Ways to Profit
From Global Warming," Bloomberg Businessweek provides a revealing quote from
the corporation Water Asset Management (WAM), for whom "drought is helping
spur business," and for whom climate change will help them profit from
water as a commodity:
ในบทความหัวข้อ “นักลงทุนหาทางทำกำไรจากโลกร้อน”,
Bloomberg Businessweek ได้อ้างคำพูดของบริษัท การจัดการทรัพย์สินน้ำ (WAM), ผู้เห็นว่า “ภาวะแห้งแล้งช่วยกระตุ้นธุรกิจ”,
และภูมิอากาศเปลี่ยนแปลง จะช่วยพวกเขาให้ทำกำไรจากน้ำในฐานะเป็นสินค้าชิ้นหนึ่ง:
“Not enough people are thinking long term of [water] as an
asset that is worthy of ownership,” says Chief Operating Officer Marc Robert.
“Climate change for us is a driver.”
“มีคนไม่มากพอที่กำลังคิด
[ถึงน้ำ] ในระยะยาวว่าเป็นทรัพย์สินที่มีค่าพอที่จะถือครองเป็นกรรมสิทธิ์”, หัวหน้าออฟฟิศ มาร์ค โรเบิร์ต กล่าว.
“การเปลี่ยนแปลงภูมิอากาศสำหรับพวกเรา เป็นตัวขับเคลื่อน/กระตุ้น”.
Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of
Canadians and founder of the Blue Planet Project, has described the kind of
water rights buy-ups Water Asset Management capitalizes on as "creating a
new wave of invasive colonialism," saying:
ม๊อด บาร์โลว,
ประธานระดับชาติของสภาแคนาเดียน และ ผู้ก่อตั้งโครงการโลกสีน้ำเงิน, ได้บรรยายการกว้านซื้อสิทธิน้ำแบบนี้
ของ WAM แล้วติดป้ายราคาว่า เป็น “การสร้างคลื่นลูกใหม่ของการล่าอาณานิคม”,
กล่าวว่า:
Knowing there will not be enough food and water for all in
the near future, wealthy countries and global investment, pension and hedge
funds are buying up land and water, fields and forests in the global South,
creating a new wave of invasive colonialism that will have huge geo-political
ramifications. In Africa alone, rich investors have already bought up an amount
of land double the size of the United Kingdom.
ด้วยรู้ว่า
จะไม่มีอาหารและน้ำมากพอสำหรับทุกคนในอนาคตอันใกล้, ประเทศร่ำรวยและการลงทุนโลก,
เบี้ยบำนาญ และ hedge funds กำลังกว้านซื้อที่ดินและน้ำ,
ทุ่งนาและป่าในโลกซีกใต้, เป็นการก่อคลื่นลูกใหม่ของการบุกรุกล่าอาณานิคม
ที่จะมีผลพวงมโหฬารในเชิง การเมือง-ภูมิศาสตร์.
ลำพังในอาฟริกา, นักลงทุนที่ร่ำรวยได้ซื้อที่ดินไปแล้วรวมพื้นที่เป็นสองเท่าของสหราชอาณาจักร.
And as the non-profit organization GRAIN has documented,
behind every land grab is a water grab.
และอย่างที่องค์กรไม่แสวงกำไร
GRAIN ได้บันทึกไว้, เบื้องหลังการฉกแย่งที่ดิน คือ การฉกแย่งชิงน้ำ.
But Water Asset Management is not the first to see profits
in water crises.
แต่ WAM
ไม่ใช่กลุ่มแรกที่เห็นกำไรในวิกฤตน้ำ.
Scott Edwards, co-director of the Food and Water Justice
project at Food and Water Watch, has pointed to "an insidious shift
underway in our nation’s water policies that can only mean disaster for the
most precious resource on the planet." He continues:
สก๊อต เอ็ดเวิร์ด,
ผอ.ร่วม ของ โครงการ อาหารและน้ำที่เป็นธรรม ภายใต้ กลุ่มเฝ้าระวังอาหารและน้ำ,
ได้ชี้ไปที่ “การขยับตัวภายใน ด้านนโยบายน้ำของประเทศของเรา
ที่อาจหมายถึงหายนะสำหรับแหล่งที่มีค่าที่สุดในพื้นพิภพ”. เขากล่าว,
As populations grow, water demands increase and industry
seeks workarounds from our environmental laws, the Wall Street investment
industry is looking for new ways to profit. And what’s the best “commodity” for
any investment banker? As Goldman Sachs puts it, “As a necessity for life,
there is no substitute for water. It is the only utility you ingest….” For the
investment banking industry, water-related death, drought and degradation
aren’t calamities; they’re profit opportunities. “If you play it right,” says
one hedge-fund advisor, “the results of this impending water crisis can be very
good.”
ในขณะที่ประชากรเพิ่มมากขึ้น,
ความต้องการน้ำก็เพิ่มสูงขึ้นด้วย
และอุตสาหกรรมก็มองหาช่องทางจากกฎหมายสิ่งแวดล้อมของเรา, อุตสาหกรรมการลงทุน
วอลล์สตรีท กำลังมองหาหนทางใหม่ในการทำกำไร.
และอะไรเป็น “สินค้า” ที่ดีที่สุด สำหรับการลงทุนของนายธนาคาร? ดังที่ Goldman Sachs แถลง, “ในฐานะที่เป็นสิ่งจำเป็นต่อชีวิต,
ไม่มีอะไรทดแทนน้ำได้.
มันเป็นสาธารณูปโภคเพียงอย่างเดียวที่คุณกิน...” สำหรับการลงทุนของอุตสาหกรรมการธนาคาร, ความตาย,
ความแห้งแล้ง และ การเสื่อมสลายที่เกี่ยวข้องกับน้ำ ไม่ใช่หายนะ; มันคือ โอกาสค้ากำไร. “หากคุณเล่นถูก”, ที่ปรึกษา hedge-fund คนหนึ่งกล่าว, “ผลของวิกฤตน้ำที่รออยู่ข้างหน้า
เป็นเรื่องที่ดีมาก”.
The State Department, too, has laid out how coming water
wars will be a chance for the U.S. to capitalize on other nations' water
scarcity.
กระทรวงมหาดไทย,
เช่นเดียวกัน, ได้ร่างแผนว่า สงครามน้ำที่กำลังจะมาถึง จะเป็นโอกาสให้สหรัฐฯ
ทำเงินจากความขาดแคลนน้ำในประเทศอื่นๆ ได้อย่างไร.
But for water justice advocates, water cannot be seen as a
commodity. As Barlow has said, "We
cannot buy our way out of the global water crisis. It will require refocusing
on respect for nature and respect for each other."
แต่สำหรับนักรณรงค์เพื่อน้ำที่เป็นธรรม, น้ำไม่อาจถูกมองเป็นสินค้าได้.
ดังที่ บาร์โลว ได้พูดว่า, “เราไม่สามารถซื้อทางรอดจากวิกฤตน้ำโลกได้. มันจะต้องเปลี่ยนมุมมองให้มีความเคารพต่อธรรมชาติ
และ เคารพต่อกันและกัน”.
If water justice is to exist, a "radical rethink"
of the resource is necessary, one in which water is not a profit opportunity, a
fact sheet from Our Water Commons asserts, and states that
หากจะให้น้ำเป็นธรรมอยู่ได้,
จำเป็นต้องมีการ “คิดใหม่อย่างถอนรากถอนโคน” ต่อทรัพยากร, ประการหนึ่ง คือ
น้ำไม่ใช่โอกาสของการทำกำไร, ข้อเท็จจริงจาก Our Water Commons ยืนยัน และแถลงว่า
Climate solutions cannot be successful without stopping
water abuse. Sustainable and democratic water governance is a must for
achieving climate justice!
ทางแก้ไขภูมิอากาศ
ไม่สามารถประสบความสำเร็จได้โดยปราศจากการยุติการข่มเหงน้ำ. การปกครองน้ำแบบประชาธิปไตยและยั่งยืน เป็นสิ่งที่ต้องทำ
เพื่อให้บรรลุภูมิอากาศที่เป็นธรรม!
_______________________
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 by Common Dreams
ribeekah • 8 hours ago
To describe greed as psychotic behavior on the part of the
ruling elites is easy and all encompassing for the ills that human societies
are plagued with. The term "Psychotic" relieves the perpetrators of
responsibility for their actions and provides the victims with an excuse for
the behavior. A toxic relationship that can be palatable to both sides.
However, greed is a manifestation of spiritual decadence in human societies.
Community life is eroded, first within the family and then in external social
relationships. Thus, it is easy for the hedge fund managers of corporations to
seek to "commodify" water while simultaneously seeking to frack the
water bearing land. This is evidence of spiritual bankruptcy, to destroy the
building blocks for the sustainability of human life.
12guns > theinitiate • 3 hours ago
Really what did he/she say exactly? What is spiritual
decadence and and how dose it equal spiritual bankruptcy? In Argentina after
the IMF crashed the currency they took over the water companies, which had been
in the works for years by the UN and the World Bank, as is happening here. When
they shut off the water people were forced to move and all the bad guys stole
their private property. They are in the "convince the idiots stuff like
spiritual decadence and water greed" so they can brainwash you into
allowing them and helping them take over the water...for sustainable smart
growth, agenda 21, global, equality social justice. In the end you will have
your water shut off, you will have to move and live in an apartment by the
train station without a car. Greed is a sin and deception works and you are
suckers.
Steve Purcell > 12guns • 2 hours ago
All of us to some degree have a role in this.
The elites have only the power
that we materially supply with our daily labor, our purchasing, and our debt
fueled dreams.
That's you, and me, that's people
you work with and know by name.
There's a whole new crop of us
being brought up in China and every one want's their piece of the American
dream.
All of us are just regular decent
people trying to get through life as best we can. We're not evil, but we're
also not going to sacrifice our comforts for a cause.
Very few are willing to restrain
themselves to the level of consumption that could realistically be sustained.
The Earth can not sustain this.
We know this with every bag of trash we throw away, but we choose to ignore our
complicity in the crime in order to enjoy the modern life.
The 'elite' take advantage of our
natural tendency to sloth and greed it's no more than that.
Throughout history men have been
willing to do the evil deeds for the elite in order to share in a part of the
spoils and relax upon their own little pile of booty at some point in the
future.
12guns > Steve Purcell • 2 hours ago
the earth is dirt and old things that have decomposed, most
of the earth is uninhabited, capitalism grows exponentially until the
controllers and government gets in and messes with it, the idea that it is a
crime to enjoy the good things we earn and work for is from jealous people in
the world who try to make Americans feel guilty, if we work for it and earn
it,, we have the right to buy a product of our choice, sustainability is a
global in agenda 21 Marxist wealth redistribution word, define it, I will, its
a massive consumption tax that you will vote for and pay because you are guilty
of consuming too much in your mind. I live in a tiny rental and hang my
clothes, most of the time some student who lives in a big house with mom and
dad, wants to control what I do with my earned labor cash.
Alcyon • 7 hours ago
This "new wave of invasive colonialism" that Maude
Barlow talks about is made possible by the flooding of the US dollar, euro and
the British pound all over the world, and made available to
"investors" at practically zero interest. The U.S. and many European
countries suck resources from all corners of the world, while paying for them
with their fiat currency -- which the exporting countries are forced to accept
as payment. Anyone worried about the long-term value of these
"reserve" currencies and who thinks of demanding alternative, more
valuable forms of payment, will be taken out -- like Saddam Hussein and
Gaddhafi were taken out. There is a reason that the U.S. and the European
countries come together in these imperial wars of aggression: they KNOW that
their domestic consumption is made possible to a large extent by forcing their
currencies on the rest of the world.
Countries with large reserves of
these imperial currencies know very well that they cannot be holding on to them
long-term, because of their very low intrinsic worth. So they quickly try to
offload them by buying up resources, expanding domestic infrastructure, etc.
Corporations from these countries also buy up or lease land in poor countries
to grow food to export back home. People from these countries go traveling as
tourists to poor countries, causing great ecological destruction. Poor people
in these countries are pushed out of all "prime" lands near
waterfront, and the usage of scarce freshwater is diverted to tourist
operations, farmlands converted to golf courses for these visiting morons, etc.
While such exploitation is on a
cross-border basis, even domestically, those with the money and influence get a
stranglehold on water resources. While in a "rich" country like the
U.S. no one can stop the enormous usage of water for livestock operations
(including in California where alfalfa is the largest water user among
agricultural crops), in a poorer country like India, scarce farmland and water
supplies are diverted to cater to the consumption of dairy and meat productions
by the rich and the middle class, leaving more people hungry and suffering
malnutrition (there is at least one study that directly links an increase in
malnutrition to an increased consumption of dairy and meat in India).
Everything we consume has an
effect somewhere. People in rich, western countries need to understand the
implications of their imports using imperial currencies. People in exporting
countries such as China, Korea, Japan, India, Brazil, etc., need to understand
that their "prosperity" comes at great cost to the environment and
inequalities in other countries. This consumption based on imports is also
directly responsible for violence elsewhere -- by their own militaries, as well
as in local clashes elsewhere, made possible by weapons from these western
countries. Weapons and meat, soy and corn are among the major exports from some
of these imperial countries, in return for all kinds of other imports.
Ordinary people did not ask to
offshore their manufacturing industries elsewhere. But ordinary folks must
understand -- not just in the U.S. and Canada, but in many European countries
-- that their level of consumption is way beyond sustainable, and has all kinds
of consequences all over the planet! The "new wave of invasive
colonialism" cannot be looked at separately from everything else. Maude
Barlow is a GREAT human being fighting on behalf of the whole of humanity in a
matter of life and death (literally, for what can be more fundamental than water?).
I just thought I should add some additional factors.
see more
Doug Latimer • 6 hours ago
You see remarks like these, and it puts the lie to any
notion of those making them being unaware of the consequences of their acts,
doesn't it? They are fully cognizant of
what they're doing, and the outcome And
they don't care. Whatever produced that
psychopathy The only term for its
manifestation is "evil".
69Tuscany • 6 hours ago
Dylan Ratigan has invested in a 30,000 square foot
"farm incubator" that can serve as the prototype for job-creating,
water-saving, food-producing, veteran-led hydroponic organic greenhouses. His
goal is to build it into a nationwide network. I wish him luck.
In Bolivia when Bechtel bought
the water rights, it was illegal for people to collect rain water.
beaglebailey > 69Tuscany • 6 hours ago
In UT and other States, it is illegal to collect rain water.
One car lot was given a huge fine after being caught
collecting rain to wash their cars because of that law.
UT is a desert, so i thought they were being smart.
And companies getting rich off of people's needs is beyond
evil.
Speculation drivesbup every commodity.
I really hope there is a Hell waiting for them.
Theodora Crawford > beaglebailey • 3 hours ago
It defies credulity. Illegal to collect rainwater??? We are
truly insane.
Archie1954 • 5 hours ago
A nation that holds approximately 10% of the world's fresh
water supplies has refused to allow water to be commodified. By preventing such
a capitalistic policy it also prevents water from becoming a tradeable
commodity under its trade treaties. Water there is protected for the citizens
of the country where it is situated. Any other nation that wishes to purchase
it will have to modify its trade treaties with that country so that bulk water
resources sent out of country never become a commodity under such treaties.
SanctuaryOne > Archie1954 • 4 hours ago
If you are referring to Canada (Harperland™) you need to be
very aware that Harper would love to emulate all the failed privatisations of
the USA (jails, medical insurance etc. etc.)
Being a true corporate right-wing evangelical
fundamentalist, one of his historical pet hates is for Canada's publicly funded
universal healthcare system.
He'd privatise that and water in a blink if he thought he
could get away with it -all that stops him is the knowledge that he'd no longer
be in office.
Nothing comes higher than his lust for personal power, you
see.
(Most of Canada's water flows north to the Arctic so is not
readily available to the south where most of the population resides. Estimates
are 6-7% for usable water)
Archie1954 > SanctuaryOne • 3 hours ago −
You are so correct! Harper is an evangelical and he thinks a
whole nation should also be.
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