EVENT: THE WALRUS TALKS WATER, DIRTY AND OTHERWISE

[Oscar]

EVENT: THE WALRUS TALKS WATER, DIRTY AND OTHERWISE:

Hear Chris Wood "talk dirty about water" when he joins a panel of other authors and thinkers on stage at two events convened in Vancouver and Toronto by The Walrus magazine.

Join "The Walrus Talks Water" open discussion on May 22 in Vancouver or May 28 in Toronto.

Vancouver details here:
[ http://thewalrus.ca/the-walrus-talks-water-vancouver/ ]

Toronto details here:
[ http://thewalrus.ca/the-walrus-talks-water-toronto/ ]


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WOOD: Let's Talk Dirty about Water

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/05/17/Di ... ign=190514 ]

Time to spout some Canadian sacrilege: H20 is a commodity -- and markets will help save it.

By Chris Wood, 17 May 2014, TheTyee.ca

Round up the children and send them to their rooms to play something mindlessly destructive on their PlayStation screens. I am about to use language scandalous to the ears of the typical socially-conscious Canadian. I am about to use the M-word. Also the C-word.

We're talking here about water. The sine qua non of life. The sacramental symbol of every religion. The blue stuff spattered about the national map and identity. The pride and perennial hair-trigger of Canadian nationalism.

There is a psychological theory, backed by some evidence, that we are more averse to potential loss than we are attracted to potential gain. We'd rather forego a shot at a dollar's profit than risk a quarter's loss.

This may partly explain the character of so much of our conversation about water in this country. We imagine we have the world's largest holdings of fresh water (this is not as true as we think, but close enough). But rather than make us generous, or even thoughtful about our good fortune, our relative bounty has produced in us a defensive parsimony: not a drop of Canada's water shall ever leave our shores for any purpose!

Water has made us rich. From the days of the beaver trade borne on canoes to the tanker-loads of fine, pure water that we poison irrecoverably every day (the equivalent of four or five Exxon Valdezes) to produce synthetic crude oil from sandy tar, Canada's economy has run on H20.

But God and Maude Barlow have prevented us from having a real conversation about how to get the most from the commodity -- there, that C-word -- let alone about how markets -- oh no, the M -- might help us achieve that. It's time that changes.

MORE:

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/05/17/Di ... ign=190514 ]