« PNAS Journal Article and News Release: 'Reclaiming Freshwater Sustainability in the Cadillac Desert' | Main | Special Feature: Eight Papers on 'Climate Change and Water in Southwestern North America' »
This little article was forwarded to me on one of my lists. It's by Gary D. Libecap of the University of California-Santa Barbara and was published by the Milken Institute Review.
Is it odd that I post this after the Cadillac Desert paper? Not at all. It's worth noting that towards the end of his life (he died in 2000), Marc Reisner was involved in water marketing.
His mama didn't raise no fool.
"Water flows uphill towards money." -- Unknown
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.
Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
Libecap's article is a refreshing overview of how water markets could help us out the the water mess we've created, but he applies his prescription (markets) too broadly. We can learn from South Africa's water law that sets aside water for human needs (not wants, but real needs, which then have to be defined) as the first priority, and water for ecosystem health (which also get defined by lots of scientists) as a close second priority. So far we don't need markets, because they will not "value" human needs or environmental needs properly, because markets are lousy at valuing what's really important but can't be translated into $$. Markets are really good at valuing all the things that can get measured in money, so that's how markets should be used. In South Africa, that comes under the category of "economic development" which is the 3rd priority for their scarce river water. That's how we need to look at water markets, as a necessary mechanism for using economic water more efficiently, but not as a replacement for social and enviornmental valuation that is incommensurable with monetary measures. That's why we need to recognize the topic of values and ethics as an inherent aspect of water policies, and not something we can pretend isn't there. When values are uncovered and analyzed, we'll make better water decisions, and we'll have a better judgement about when to use markets, and when not to. (See www.waterculture.org, and the blog, for more about water values and ethics).
Posted by: David Groenfeldt | Wednesday, 15 December 2010 at 06:03 AM