Sachs j. P. Morgan chase citigroup u. B. S. Deutsche Bank Credit Suisse and others are consolidating their control over water and wealthy tycoon such as the late t. Boone pickens and george h. W. Bush and his family were among those buying thousands of acres of land with aquifers lakes water rights Water Utilities and shares in Water Engineering and Technology Companies all over the world how close are we to nothing coming out of a faucet lets ask the author of chasing water a guide to moving from scarcity to sustainability Brian Richter is president of Sustainable Waters a Global Education service sharing information about water scarcity water shortages and information and tools for solving water problems brian welcome thank you very much happy to be with you a citi Group Economist predicts that. A water market will eclipse the oil market there are water hedge funds now and u. B. S. Investment Research Calls water scarcity the defining crisis of the 21st century where here in the usa is water already most scarce and why well its its actually unfortunate were experiencing water shortages literally from coast to coast here in the United States now. Basically any place that ends up using most or all of the available water on is going to be on the brink of disaster when we get into drier times but its certainly a much more serious issue out in the western United States and specifically the southwest so the Colorado River basin the Central Valley of california and those are some of the places where of course much of our food in this country is produced well if thats where the red light is flashing no where is the yellow light flashing about water scarcity in the usa well i think what were seeing is were seeing for the 1st its important to understand that most of our water that gets consumed is going to irrigating crops irrigated agriculture and so to understand water scarcity you really want to understand where water is being used supplemental water is being used to produce crops or food in other crops use for clothing and that sort of thing what were seeing is that because of water shortages and a warming climate and therefore greater and greater risks with water scarcity or the possibility of water shortages were starting to see a lot of crops move from the western United States toward the east and specifically the southeast and were also seeing more and more farmers using water supplemental water Irrigation Water to grow those crops because theyre trying to hedge against the climate so were actually irrigating more than were drinking. We are by far so d just a couple of quick stats 3 quarters of all the water that gets consumed in the United States is used to grow crops in our food. And so its a very small portion that we actually use in the cities but the way that we use water in the cities is also critically important and its its incumbent upon all of us to do the best we can and conserve and be as efficient as we can now you mentioned Climate Change talk about how that is impacting water availability. So its still very difficult to predict how the rainfall in snowfall is going to change in the coming decades but one thing that we do have a lot of confidence about is the fact that its going to continue to get warmer and warmer over the coming decades and so just as the atmosphere heats up that causes a lot more evaporation from our rivers and lakes it also causes us to have you to after use a lot more water on crops on your gated crops and so its putting a real strain on a lot of places where where a lot of irrigated agriculture is is practiced. Just to give you some example of what were looking at some of the recent scientific projections have suggested that in the Colorado River basin by the year 2050 we should expect about 20 percent less available water because of Climate Change and by the turn of the century its going to be 30 percent or more how much does fracking impact the aquifer. Well in a very localized way it can have a big impact and because it does use a awful lot of water. One of the things that that industry is trying to do is say use alternate sources of water so to use water thats too brackish too salty to use for human Drinking Water supplies or use for agriculture and i think as they move more and more off of the Potable Water supply the fresh cream clean water that could be used for other purposes it will become that aspect of fracking you know may diminish somewhat but in a localized in localized areas southern texas parts of pennsylvania for example on that can be a very big deal we talked about billionaires and banks and hedge funds buying up water rights how imminent a threat is greed. Well its a great question and i think its very easy to demonize or vilify big investors investment banks large corporations and that sort of thing but the part of that story that isnt getting told well enough in that not enough people understand is the role of governments in all of this so in the United States water is a public resource and its held in the public trust by our governance by our governments and then its allocated in administered by our governments here in the United States its primarily the state governments but also the local municipal governments play a role as well and so its really alternately they have a very important responsibility to make sure ringback that theyre not over allocating or letting too much water get used for any. Less valuable or wasteful purposes a great example is here are my hometown im sitting in Charlottesville Virginia right now and a couple of years ago a large brewery wanted to come in establishing themselves here in charlottesville and the local officials after taking a look at how much water we had available said you know we just dont think we can accommodate you and i think thats responsible Sustainable Water management is being able to make decisions about how you can use water where you can use water how much water you can use and so that role of governments is really really important now on the flip side there is of course huge responsibility on the parts of the investors in the corporations. To use the waters efficiently as they can not to waste the water and and also to knotts to not settle to not develop businesses or establish new farms or grow crops that are inappropriate in water stressed areas thats quite a supply and demand example youve given us in a big college town certainly theres demand for bruno but there just wasnt enough water to supply yeah i tell you a lot of my friends are quite disappointed this is a company that makes some pretty good craft beer so this is not a this is not of the situation that was taken lightly well youve given us a very local example and i wonder if there is a generic message to write to your congressman what would it be. Well i think theres a couple of ideas there one is that congress because of what i said about how important what a big user irrigated agriculture is the governments at the state and federal level can provide a lot of financial incentives to encourage farmers to become more and more efficient with their water use and that can go a long way so if we can bring that big chunk of water use back down to lower levels that would alleviate a lot of the stress a lot of the risk the other thing though is the e. P. A. Sponsors a really Important Program called water sense and you may have seen if you go to the store and youre buying a washing machine or a dishwasher or a toilet there are some of them that are available in the stores that have the tag of the water sense tag on them and if you select for those you have you have the confidence that theyre going to be the more water efficient appliances and plumbing fixtures and again that comes out of the e. P. A. That Program Needs full support from the federal government as well when i visited bermuda they told us and showed us how all the water we drink there is rainwater that theyve collected in a cistern is that to the point yet is it worth doing where the folks who are watching us tonight and gather rain water should be getting snow runoff is there something we should buy at home depot to do this you know im really happy you bring up that issue because i think its so critically important in many cities across the United States and not just in the west but also in the eastern u. S. Half of the half the water that gets used is go is getting used outside and so to irrigate your laws your flower beds your vegetable gardens and if we can do that without having to use the public water supply system if we can instead install rainwater cisterns rain barrels and that sort of thing and capture the rain coming off of our roofs and apply that water to those outside landscaping areas thats going to be a really really important way to lower how much water each of us is you. Using and of course you can also select not to not to grow a green lawn that requires a lot of water you can make choices about the type of landscaping that youre going to have around your home and that can have a very big effect as well Brian RichterSustainable Water is dot org thank you not only for your time on this weeks show but thank you for the work you do thanks very much and thanks for giving attention this critically important issue you bet theres lots more on the big picture after this short break im holland cook in washington youre watching our team america. Kobe 19 pandemic not only sees much of the world. But it is also devastated economies and demi has been painful recovery from it maybe even more painful is it all falls. South to man resistant Climate Change on the standard you know little sponge thats them. With nothing to do and that it is next in a. Bunch of old of the. Local just a little bit of them still. Real some you know but show was still up because i. Use them well push it. Puts a little. New prince not just on thoughts the most unusual not among them a little not so nice to stop and think stupid when i see you. Is your media a reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe from. Isolation community. Are you going the right way or are you being led. Direct. What is truth what is faith. In a world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. Aura maybe in the shallows. The. Impeachment should be behind us although Lindsey Graham now wants to turn the tables and subpoena the whistleblower in the ukraine scandal fortunately cooler Senate Republican heads are eager to move on and one urgent issue is a painful one we have been following all along veteran suicides which number some 20 each day and some people think that number is low senator john bozeman an arkansas republican notes that just this month in arkansas alone a veteran of the National Guard along with 2 current National Guard members and a member of the army reserve took their own lives our approach simply isnt working as impeachment seemed to stall other activity the Senate VeteransAffairs Committee unanimously approved legislation to fund Suicide Prevention and the Emergency Care through v. A. Grants to nonprofits and Community Programs step in the right direction or too little too late lets ask matthew hoh a former United States marine and pentagon and state Department Official now a senior fellow at the center for International Policy and hes a certified peer. Specialist for Mental Health and Substance Abuse disorder and as matthew and i talk youre going to see a phone number at the bottom of your screen for the Veterans Crisis hotline if you are hearing this show is a pod cast that number is 802738255 matthew whats being called the mission the act will expand comprehensive assistance for family caregivers which until its passed has only been available to veteran seriously injured in the line of duty on or after september 11th 2001 but these wounds run deep and many of the vets who are taking their lives served long ago correct. Oh absolutely holland and thanks for having me on and thanks for continuing to talk about this yet the wounds of war the invisible wounds of war posttraumatic stress disorder moral injury and now as were seeing traumatic brain injury. Dont get better with time they can be managed with their p. With professional care with Lifestyle Changes however they stay with you for your entire life and as you and i have discussed before. This notion that. As time goes on it sure gets better has been disproved by studies but also by the knowledge we have that you know men who are in their seventys sixtys and seventys who are Vietnam Veterans who fought 50 years ago or still killing themselves at rates 3. 00 to 4. 00 times higher than their civilian peers in world war 2 veterans you know so many have died off now because of the time its been 75 years since the end of that war but we still see world war 2 veterans who are in their eightys and ninetys. Killing themselves and there was one study done a number of years ago that showed that that rate of suicide was 4 times higher than that for men their own age who didnt go to war so youre absolutely right in bringing this up that in mentioning it in this way that it doesnt get better with time the only way it can be managed is when professional care is involved when family and friends are involved and when the severity of the invisible wound is truly understood following the Iranian Missile strike against the Assad Air Base in iraq President Trump weighed in on reports that 34 Service Members suffered traumatic brain injuries heres what the president said. Then. They had headaches and a couple of other things but i would say and i can report it is not very serious no i dont consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that ive seen no i do not consider that to be that injuries no through that has got a sting. Simply as a man who doesnt know what hes talking about. You know and where do you blame him for this and where do you blame his advisors in the people at the v. A. The people the department the fence the people at nationalised is the health who should be advising him i dont think his ignorance on this issue runs much deeper than the ignorance of most americans it is a these are invisible wounds these are wounds that. Are not seen you can even see these wounds by putting someone into an m. R. I. Machine the hairs in the brain are so microscopic that the only way you could actually see this wound to see these types of brain injuries is when the person is dead and the head is cracked open and an examination is done of the brain up until that time you cannot actually physically say this person has a brain injury the only way youre able to diagnose it is through the symptoms as well as to through certain experiences the person may have had in this case explosive blast the other thing holland that is so important as to understanding why this ignorance exists about traumatic brain injury is because these types of brain injuries caused by explosive blasts are relatively new in the sense that they are more common in this is because in these wars in iraq and in afghanistan. We states forces or we have such body armor and we have such vehicle armor that we are surviving feelings that previous generations of soldiers of war fighters would have been killed in that we are basically getting up and dusting ourselves off from explosive blasts that would have easily killed any of our counterparts in wars previous to this and you see this in such by knowing such information too as as that in the 1st and 2nd world war the ratio of killed to wounded was about one in the killed was about 2. 00 to 1. 00 so for every 2 soldiers wounded there was one killed but time korea comes around and into vietnam that ratio is now 3 to one in these wars the ratio is 10 to one in iraq and afghanistan because vehicle and body armor improved as well as medical and care improved even more the ratio of wounded to killed was 12 to one and in many cases those of us who were hit by these roadside bombs or by mortar blasts or other types of explosions arent even counted as wounded because we have at that time no visible signs of wound so thats why the v. A. Says about 20 percent of the 2700000 men and women who have gone and fought in iraq and afghanistan have dramatic brain injury i mean when you do the math on that right that comes out to well over 500000. 00 of us who have this form of traumatic brain injury because again we survived explosions that previous generations would not have survived that is an interesting irony that kia is better so the numbers dont compare its apples and oranges now right that thats the right in the fact is that even theres even studies have shown that our helmets cause the problem because the blast will go up into the helmet and then. Well get basically trapped inside the helmet and boun