Collapse of Civilization?

               I watched an interesting documentary recently on the National Geographic channel called 2210: The Collapse? The documentary was a science fiction story set 200 years after the hypothetical collapse of civilization as we know it today. The documentary doesn't make factual predictions or claims per se,  but challenges the viewer to use their imagination to explore what would cause the world to collapse, citing issues such as abuse of the water supply. 
           The heart of this story lies in the examination of our use and overuse of resources, searching underwater lost cities and civilizations swallowed up by drought and desert. What I found interesting about it was the information about the California water supply...although it was science fiction, it gave me pause to contemplate whether this could really happen. 
            As it went, there arose a serious problem with the California water supply. Drastic measures were needed, the documentary stated, in order to preserve this water supply. Farmers, who were consuming over 100 Lt of access water per farmer per day, according to the narrator, were struggling to survive. 
          As conditions deteriorated, farmers saw an opportunity to make great profit and turn their situations around. What happened was that farmers began taking a gamble with their savings to dig deep for water, hoping to cash in on society's need for this valuable resource. Farmers began to abandon their labor and the production of fruit in favour of selling off water allocations.
           What they would do is sink their savings into drilling down as far as 2400 feet, hoping for wet gold - water. Then they would sell it and make lucrative profits. The problem with this practice was obvious. Eventually, this continual pulling of water up from the ground would have a devastating effect on the water table. After a while, the water table would get so low, there would be no alternative but to cease this practice. Then what?
            New regulations were introduced to limit the amount of water residents could use. An L.A resident described being permitted to only water his garden or use large amounts of water twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. To do otherwise would be to pay a huge bill. He used the example that if he were to use large amounts of water on days other that what was regulated, he would see the difference in a water bill go from $400 to over $2,000.
            The documentary portrayed the fall out from water misuse quite candidly. It insisted that without water limits, and with the ongoing digging from deep below the ground, lands would eventually become equivalent to a desert - lacking water and moisture. What archaeologists would discover are highly compressed layers of soil. This would provide evidence of how this underground resource had been depleted and sucked dry. The documentary introduced the increased competition that will arise between countries as they fight for water. 
            Already, we see evidence of this in real life. For example, some poorer countries have staged protests against companies coming in and attempting to claim dominion over water supply, trying to charge citizens for the use of water. The documentary discussed the issue in Bolivia as an example of a water war, which it cites will soon become a common occurrence across the world.

            About ten years ago, the Bolivian government attempted to enter into a contract with foreign investors to sell Cochabamba's public water system. The privatization of this commodity did not sit well with the people of Bolivia, and soon a water war ensued. Here is a snippet of the Bolivia story:

           

Bolivia's Water War Victory

by Jim Schultz

Earth Island Journal, Autumn 2000

 

At 10am, President Hugo Banzer places Bolivia under martial law. This drastic move concludes a week of protests, general strikes and transportation blockages that have jerked the country to a virtual standstill, and follows the surprise announcement of government concession to protesters' demands to break a $200 million contract selling Cochabamba's public water system to foreign investors.

The water system is currently controlled by Aguas del Tunari, a consortium led by London-based International Water Limited (IWL), which is itself jointly owned by the Italian utility Edison and US-based Bechtel Enterprise Holdings. Upon purchasing the water system, the consortium immediately raised rates by up to 35 percent. That untenable hike sparked the protests.

In January, "Cochabambinos" staged strikes and blocked transit, effectively shutting their city down for four straight days. The Bolivian government then promised to lower rates, but broke that promise within weeks. On February 4, when thousands tried to march in peaceful protest, President Banzer had police hammer protesters with two days of tear gas that the 175 people injured and two youths blinded.

Ninety percent of Cochabamba's citizens believed it was time for Bechtel's subsidiary to return the water system to public control, according to results of a 60,000-person survey conducted in March. But it seems that the government has come to Bechtel's rescue, insisting the company remain in Bolivia. President Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971-78, has suspended almost all civil rights, banning gatherings of more than four people, and severely limiting freedom of the press. "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order," Banzer trumpeted.

Local radio stations have been closed or taken over by military. News paper reporters have been arrested. Police conducted nighttime raids searching homes for water protesters and arresting as many as 20 people.

The local police chief has been installed as state governor. The "emergency government" now consists of a president (Hugo Banzer), a governor (Walter Cespedes) and a mayor (Manfred Reyes Villa), each of whom is a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia (infamous for training foreign military personnel in terror and assassination techniques).

Rural blockades erected by farmers have cut some cities off from food and transportation. Large crowds of angry residents armed with sticks and rocks are massing in the city centers, where confrontations with military and police escalate.

Tear gas has engulfed thousands of demonstrators in downtown Cochabamba, while a large military operation is mobilizing to clear the highways in five of the nation's nine provinces.

All this puts Cochabamba on the front-line in the battle against a globalization of water resources. The Coordiadora de Defense de Aguay la Vida (CDAV, Coalition in Defense of Water and Life), a broad-based collaborative including environmental groups, economists, lawyers, labor unions and local neighborhood organizations, spearheads the campaign to prevent loss of local control over water systems. Its leaders either have been arrested or driven underground.

            The documentary also discussed impending water crises in Southeast Asia, as well as an ongoing water war between Syria, Turkey and Lebanon. Although the documentary was a science fiction look at what may lead to the collapse of our civilization, many of the points raised were valid and worth further investigation. What would those who come after us think of the way in which we handled our resources? What would they say about our inability to prevent the elimination of vital resources?


If you are interested, you can watch the documentary here:

As Children Learn...

          After commenting on another student's blog; where she talked about her memories of learning as a school child, I decided to expand my comments further in the form of my own blog. I began my comments to her with my agreement on her position that schools have been trying to make a change in the way children are taught. But I also agree that there are multiple challenges and difficulties to making a successful transition. The public school system still has a long way to go in its education of our children.
          As children, we learn from an early age through play. In fact, in the field of child studies, play is seen as a child's work. We know that in our work circles, we are at our best when we feel productive and achieve expected results. This is no different for a child who, through their play, is pleased when the sand castle is finally built or when they have won the track and field race. Yet, educators fail to acknowledge the importance of this process in children.
          Let's use an example of the workplace again. Suppose you were hired to wash dishes in a hotel kitchen. On your first day of work your boss or trainer will take the time to help you familiarize yourself with your new role. They will give you a tour of your work space show you where everything is that you will need to do your job. Then you are given pages of forms to fill out, documents to read, and policies to familiarize yourself with.
          After spending a whole day as a passive observer, taking in all of the information that was being deposited to your brain you are now pumped and ready to put all of that training into practice. But the next day, instead of getting your hands in, you are required to watch work videos of do's and dont's; fire safety; workplace hazard training; use of the machines and so on. Moe passive learning where the information is being deposited, but you don't receive the opportunity to contribute anything back. I think you understand where I'm going with this.
          For the remainder of that week, you have pretty much taken in all you possibly can about your role, what it will look like, how to handle situations as they arise, and procedures for safety. However, you still have yet to run the industrial dishwasher. You still have yet to discover which settings will work for you, and what your personal speed will be in clearing one large load for the next. Everything is still nestled in your head, but none of it has gained any real world value.
          Finally, the following week, you get to put your sills into practice. But on that day, there was a plane mishap and the rerouted passengers were being put up in your hotel for the night. All of a sudden, the dining room immediately filled up with unexpected patrons. You discover that you are not fast or efficient enough to keep up with the demand. You are not equipped to handle the overheating of the dishwasher from over use. You didn't realize the difficulty in transferring the clean dishes all the way across the kitchen without making multiple trips. You feel inadequate, ill-prepared and unproductive.
          This is what we are doing to our school children. We are depositing massive amounts of information into their brains. Their success is measured by their ability to memorize the information. They are rarely given the opportunity to put their skills into any hands on, tangible practice. Therefore, when the opportunity presents itself, our children are ill-prepared to apply this information to real world practice.
         Also problematic is the fact that classrooms are not inclusive. The diverse ways in which our children learn are still not taken into account during curriculum planning. Still needed are safe spaces conducive to the expression of free thought, the ability to challenge the learning, and the opportunity to expand the imagination. I also worry about the children who continue to fall through the cracks. The ones who have problems concentrating, or the ones whose behavioral issues become the main focus and stumbling block to their learning. Having four children of my own going through the school system, I can say that I have seen minimal progression toward inclusiveness and change. In thinking about it, perhaps its more of an acknowledgement that change is needed rather than actual change. Either way, I think we still have a very very long way to go.