British Columbia: Vanishing Waterfalls and the corporate water cause.

By far my most favorite nature writer in Canada is Richard Boyce. He
knows it’s wrong that we’re destroying rare and sacred places and the
way he writes helps to inspire myself and others to keep doing what
needs to be done… to raise awareness about how change must come!
Though the article below is more about water than forest, it’s
important to remember how much forests have to do with where our water
comes from. –Deane

I’ve explored much of the crystal-clear water of Englishman River, as
it runs its course of 10 km between the source on Mount Arrowsmith and
the estuary in the Strait of Georgia. Jumping off the cliffs at the
lower falls in the provincial park led my friends and I to swim across
the large pool to the gushing flow of water that was the falls.
Skirting around the edge of the pounding water and thick spray we were
able to access a fairly large cave in behind the cascading waterfall.

We sat on a log, wedged between the rocks, and watched the light
filter in through the emerald coloured waterfall. That memory will
remain with me forever. Today, that waterfall no longer exists. The
water has finally carved through solid rock, allowing the river to
flow under a massive boulder rather than over it. The deep canyon
between steeply carved cliffs, etched out by the river’s flow of
water, bears testament to the fact that this type of natural change
has been happening for millennia. The disappearance of this waterfall
reminds me to look at the bigger picture. Multi-national corporations
around the world are taking over control of the world’s water. The
pretense is usually that the local governments cannot keep up with the
public demands for increased water, safety and security. The result is
that the price of water doubles, public access decreases, and poor
people die of thirst. The fact is corporations have made water more
expensive than anything the general public consumes because it is
essential for us to exist. Water in small plastic bottles, fetches
double the price of gasoline at your local convenience store. Today
Natural Glacial Waters, a local company, pumps fresh water directly
out of Rosewall Creek, just north of Deep Bay. They export more than
24 million individual plastic bottles of water to Asia every year.
Recycling has to be a question, but so does ownership of water. Who
has the right to sell water?
http://islandlens.blogspot.com/2009/01/local-water-global-issue.html

— Posted to http://forestpolicyresearch.com via gmail to posterous and
also to forestpolicyresearch@yahoogroups.com

Posted via email from Deane’s posterous