Last Call at the Oasis – September 11

The first film this morning was a documentary about the threat to our water supply in the US and around the world. Unlike many documentaries this one had a decent budget and a great director. It was very easy on the eyes, beautiful cinematography and a great script. The message however is very frightening. Basically large parts of the US will be without water in the next very few years. There is an increasing population that is totally dependent on the Colorado River Valley for water and the snowpack in the High Sierra mountains. Both are in severe decline as the result of climate change and there is no real alternative source of water. There are similar threats in the US Southeast and Midwest. The worst places are not the US however. The worst are in South Asia dependent on the Himalaya snowpack also in decline and billions of people dependent on it. There are some possible solutions and sources including recycling waste water. The problem with this is the “yuck” factor. No one wants to drink toilet water. So the film makers went to the people who successfully got to pay for filtered tap water and asked them to sell recycled water. This was a very funny part of the film as they came up with possible names for the new product and got Jack Black to help them sell it. The winning name? Porcelain Springs. Funny but serious because we will have to be taking our water from Porcelain Springs before very long. Our water availability is not only declining but we are also polluting what little we have. Erin Brockovitch is still an activist working to save our water and she has a big part in this movie. We were lucky enough to have Erin there at the film for the Q and A and interestingly she looks just like Julia Roberts who plays her in the movie of her name. Great movie with an important message. Everyone needs to see this as we complacently rely that when we turn on our taps we will get as much hot and cold running water as we want. It won’t be like that for much longer.

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