According to the United Nations, more than one billion people on Earth already lack access to clean fresh drinking water. Still, industrial water users expect to double their consumption within the next twenty-five years. By then, two- thirds of the world population will be suffering from severe water shortage. As the water crisis becomes worse, one would anticipate that governments and global bureaucracies, conscious of the planet's limits, would advocate conservation. Sell it to corporations, and let the global market decide who gets to drink it, or use it.
Corporations are excited.
Water may soon be more valuable than oil, so there are billions to be made. Among their schemes is to ship North American lake water across the Pacific. Picture a gigantic supertanker crossing the ocean while towing a humongous floating balloon carrying part of Lake Superior. Very few thirsty people can afford to buy the water for drinking. As for environmental consequences from such shipments, and the further depletion of American lakes and rivers, no one is asking.