Flow

I just watched the documentary "Flow," about water rights issues. Coincidentally, I heard on the radio this afternoon that Stephen Chu is warning that, at the current rate of global warming, there could be no more agriculture in California by the end of this century.

The film did a great job of bringing together information about the fight for water rights all over the world, from South Africa, to Bolivia, to Michigan. I also appreciated its emphasis on common sense, low tech solutions like strategies for harvesting rainwater and simple, inexpensive filtration systems.

The declining supply of fresh, clean water is similar to the degradation and corporatization of the food supply in that both issues seem huge, complex and insurmountable, yet there are important small actions we can take as individuals, like drinking tap water instead of bottled water, or choosing to eat locally. These small steps may or may not add up to bigger changes, but we'd all be in much worse shape if we didn't even try to make a difference.