Because Canada's lakes and rivers hold approximately one-quarter of the Earth's fresh water, global entrepreneurs are vying to ship billions of liters of Canadian water to customers in California, Mexico, Japan and the Middle East. The International Joint Commission, a US-Canadian body that oversees protection of the Great Lakes, opposes plans to privatize Canada's liquid assets, noting that future rains and snows can replenish no more than one percent of this water. It's an environmental matter. Sun Belt Chairman Jack Lindsey is determined to win a license to buy and trade Canada's water. It' s not just businessfolk like Jack Lindsey that are preparing to profit from the coming global water shortage.
Multinational corporations are also busy making plans to capitalize on catastrophe.
We, in the Western world, are in the former class. The flush toilet accounts for nearly half of US domestic water consumption. According to EcoForum, the magazine of the Nairobi-based UN Environmental Program, standard flush toilets use 2,000 tons of fresh water to flush each ton of human waste. Many clean, odor-free composting toilets are already on the market. Many Far Eastern societies have used dry toilets for centuries and have been remarkably free of the fecal-borne epidemics that have plagued Western history.