During a 2008 visit to Ottawa Senator John McCain commented, “Water exports will be the defining issue of the 21st century but it must be done with the consent of the people.”

So why wouldn’t Canadians consent to exporting water, which Matthew Simmons pointed out, “is even more priceless than oil.”?

To the Council of Canadians such a prospect is abhorrent. Its chair declares “The wars of the future are going to be fought over water,” and yet opposes sales because water shipped halfway around the world will only be affordable to the privileged and will deepen inequities between rich and poor.”

How the water needs of the poor are to be serviced goes unaddressed by the Council.

It is said that wheat prices helped to fuel the Arab Spring.

Any elite that would deprive its public of a staple such as water would do so at their peril and yet that is what the opponents of water exports seem to counsel. Nature has been generous enough to desalinate massive amounts of ocean water and deposit it within our borders in the form of rain and snow and yet they would have use hoard.

Not only is this inhumane, it imperils our water and food supplies and as the Council points, out makes us a potential object of aggression.

Canada has the third most renewable fresh water in the world, ranking behind Brazil and Russia. According to Environment Canada we have 20% of the world’s total freshwater resources but only  7% of the global renewable supply because our non-renewable or fossil water is retained in lakes, underground aquifers, and glaciers.

For example it takes 191 years for the water in Lake Superior to recycle.

One of the most compelling reasons, beyond the inclination to capitalize on a valuable asset, for Canada to export its water excess is, it is the country’s best opportunity to address the climate issue while still benefiting our economy.

Sea-level rise is one of the most important and threatening risks of climate change. It is caused three ways; thermal expansion of sea water as it warms up, melting of land ice and changes in the amount of water stored on land.

The first two are the result of fossil fuel burning, which as a significant source of carbon fuels Canada is often vilified for exporting.

The latter however provides an opportunity to compensate for the damages consequent to our carbon exports while at the same time servicing the country’s economic and environmental needs.

Jason Box, a glaciologist from Ohio State University, suggests humans have already set in motion 69 feet of sea level rise. Though it will take centuries to reach this extent, the result will be the inundation of low lying fresh water sources, such as Vancouver Island’s Kennedy Lake, as well as fertile river deltas, such as the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, which furnish much of the world’s food supply.

A recent study “Source found for missing water in sea-level rise” by Yadu Pohkrel et al., determined “The drawing of water from deep wells has caused the sea to rise by an average of  .77 millimeters every year since 1961,” which is about 42 percent of the total measured over the period.

A BC study “Groundwater and Climate Change” co-author by Diana Allen of Simon Fraser University has confirmed Dr Pohkrel’s finding and notes that low lying crop lands in B.C. are at risk as a consequence. It further notes, “about half of British Columbia’s food supply is imported, much of it from California, which has suffered from drought and is projected to become even more reliant on groundwater as precipitation declines due to climate change.”

There are numerous regions of British Columbia where annual rainfalls average in excess of 3 meters which ends up back in the ocean providing no benefit.

Williston Lake is the largest freshwater body in British Columbia. It is an artificial lake created by the W. A. C. Bennett Dam, which refills from snow and rainfall every 2 years and drains into the Arctic. Actually about 60% of Canada’s fresh water drains to the north, whereas the need is to the south.

Canada needs to be diverting as much of this flow to the south as possible because currently it is simply contributing to sea level rise even as we pump aquifers dry to counter drought which exacerbates the sea level problem. North American and global food supplies are at risk due to this miss match, the damage from sea level rise will be costly, water exports would be lucrative for Canada and hoarding water may imperil our national security.

Diane Katz of the right leaning Fraser Institute recently suggested, “Canadians’ general refusal to consider bulk water export defies logic.”

From the other side of the political spectrum, as Quebec Minister of the Environment, Thomas Mulclair, current leader of the New Democratic Party, was also interested in pursuing water exports.

The problem of sea level rise never entered into the calculus of either nor has it with the Council of Canadians.

The North American Water and Power Alliance project and the Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal scheme are two projects that would divert northern flowing fresh water to the south. They each offer a large hydro electric component as well. And here too support comes from both sides of the political spectrum, Lyndon LaRouche and the Center for American Progress.

As holders of 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, Canada is in a unique position to capitalize on the defining issue of the 21^st century. In fact it is in a more dominant position with water than with oil where its reserves account for only 13 percent of the global total.

Energy Collective

13 Comments on "Canada’s Most Priceless Commodity Is Not Oil"

keith on Fri, 22nd Mar 2013 7:37 pm 



Maybe the world is over populated.

GregT on Fri, 22nd Mar 2013 7:50 pm 



keith,

The world has been overpopulated for a very long time. We are rapidly approaching peak everything, and the world will no longer be able to sustain this many people. What is coming in the next couple of decades will not be pleasant, to say the least.

Kenz300 on Fri, 22nd Mar 2013 8:37 pm 



And the world adds 80 million more people to feed, clothe, provide water for, provide energy for and provide jobs for every year.

Endless population growth is not sustainable.

Access to family planning services needs to be available to all that want it.

John Orr on Fri, 22nd Mar 2013 10:07 pm 



Eventually with tech we will all artifically grow our own needs & do something with human body waste…..though if u eat exactly what your body needs the food situation would improve…. death numbers will depend on what comes first…

BillT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 3:20 am 



John, I hope your tech comment was done in jest. We will NOT ‘tech’ our way out of this mess. Tech requires energy, lots of it. It cannot exist in the coming energy starved world. Look at the latest ‘tech’. The gadget has materials from all over the world and is probably wrapped in plastic. ALL of that is due to oil being still available at a reasonable cost. When it is not, and that day is coming soon, then all of that ‘tech’ will cease to be produced. IBM, Apple, Microsoft, etc. will all die away, as will the internet. Think about it. What came first, oil or electronics?

BillT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 3:23 am 



As for Canada’s water, what they did not pollute with fraking/tar sands greed will be plundered by the Empire south of them. Wait and see.

GregT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 4:42 am 



BillT,

Maybe John is on to something here……………………………….Soylent Green.

GregT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 4:51 am 



Oh, and the empire has already plundered Canadian water. The deal was done years ago under the acronym; NAFTA.

Arthur on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 7:10 am 



What’s in an acronym…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha

Hugh Culliton on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 1:05 pm 



BillT: Just so the record’s clear, there are many Canadians who see the Alberta Oil Patch as being an horrible long-term misuse of our natural resources. People don’t realize how bad it is until they actually see what tar sands mining does. As for the Empire to the south taking our water, I fear that by the time they are really desperate they will be so far gone into their own collapse that they won’t be able to launch a coorinated effort to take it. In our future I see a lot of American climate refugees taking over as post-oil farm labour.

BillT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 3:38 pm 



Hugh, I know there is a resistance movement in Canada. I also know that the Us will take Canada down with it, unfortunately

GregT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 5:15 pm 



Arthur,

Acronym:

a word (as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters.

NAFTA:

North American Free Trade Agreement

NAFTA and Canadian water:

http://www.water.ca/nafta.asp

GregT on Sat, 23rd Mar 2013 11:08 pm 



Hugh,

When the US goes down, Canada is going down with it.

If an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants have been able to migrate from Mexico into the world’s largest superpower, how do you figure that Canada will be able to stop the migration of Americans? Especially when you consider the fact that they have 7 times as many guns as Canada has people.