Give It Away | Microphilanthropy Blog

Give It Away #13
Water Has Enemies

Sometimes when I am scanning news items, I have a weird out-of-body experience. I read some story that's buried in the electronic equivalent of the back page, and I can't understand why it isn't one page one, on the top of the page. In really big bold letters. Every single day, for at least a year. Zooming out of our solar system, I picture in my mind's eye what we must look like to a race of aliens from another galaxy. When I feel connected to gOd, I wonder if she feels frustrated by our infantile myopia.

Well, it turns out that I'm not the only one that is frustrated by the fluff that passes for news in the mainstream media. There is an organization called The Long Now Foundation that sits on a cloud somewhere up on Alpha Centauri with a massive telescope, sifting through the incessant babble on Planet Earth, filtering out whatever will be irrelevant in a year, ten years, a hundred years' time. It would seem that means about 99.9% of what passes for news items nowadays! Thanks, Long Now, I'm glad someone's looking out for future generations.

Now I'm not so sullen and serious, I'm willing to listen to all kinds of trivial information that doesn't have anything to do with my survival. It's completely natural for human beings to be interested in each other's love lives, and I'm a sucker for a good soap opera, straight up. But I just don't understand why the news agencies have to lead with this stuff. Okay, so Lady Gaga is now dating Marilyn Manson; Wow! My life is oh-so much more complete for knowing this potent piece of information. But is it more important than the imminent evaporation of the Jordan River?

Just what I said! The Jordan River -- yup, same one as in the Torah -- is going to be the Jordan RiverBED in a year and a half! I live in this country and I read the news headlines every day. Why am I learning about this from ecological groups on the other side of the ocean? This is the single largest source of fresh water in Israel. Needless to say, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, like other human beings all over the world, are essentially skin-sacks of water and a handful of minerals. No water, no us. Why aren't we talking about this?!

That's a rhetorical question. I know at least a few of the reasons why water is not on the media radar. The largest consumers of water on the Israeli side of the river are the big agro-businesses. Well, we need to eat, right? Yes, we do; it is important that we grow our own food. Growing food locally means that fresh fruit and vegetables make it to your table much quicker, with far fewer petroleum dollars. Also, the ability to provide for our own nutritional needs ensures that we will remain a sovereign state, whether we get along with our neighbors or not.

Okay, so we need to divert water from the Jordan River in order to grow food crops. But do we really need to reduce the river to desertification levels in order to grow dates and grapes, not for ourselves, but for Northern European people thousands of miles away? I imagine that large profits are being made selling Mediterranean mangos to Scotland and Scandinavia, but at what cost? This water is the lifesblood of every living being in the bioregion, it cannot be embedded and exported in the form of fruit just so Montsanto can make a quick buck!

I'm not a protectionist patriot, I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't engage in fair trade with far-off friends and allies. But to be stocking supermarket shelves from the UK to Canada means selling off our dissipating water supplies. As the Cree people say: "Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river has been poisoned; Only when the last fish has been caught; Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten!" I repeat: you cannot eat hummus with computer chips, you cannot eat felafels made out of fighter jets, and you cannot eat New Israeli Shekels!

Have I struck terror into your hearts with tales of our water woes? I must sound like Debbie Downer, huh? Yeah, this is the second reason why the media almost never makes mention of it. Who wants to hear such horrible news? Please don't kill the messenger! Okay, friend, I'm going to cut a deal with you. I'm going to tell you the name of an organization here in Israel that is doing whatever it can to protect our precious water supply. What do you say? You help them help us out, and I'll stop manic street preaching? Deal?

Okay: the name of the organization is Good Water Neighbors, and here is their webpage. Thank you in advance. And if you love H2O like I love H20, you can learn more at Know Your H2O!