Article 03, paisea 024. The water tank project | Kimberlie Birks
Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? Joni Mitchell’s melodic questioning in her 1970 hit, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, echoes the cautionary observation of America’s founding father, Benjamin Franklin: “You don’t know the value of water until the well runs dry.”
While we may think of the water as infinite and inexhaustible, only 3 percent the Earth’s supply is fresh and access to water is a critical issue of both environmental and social justice. Despite new attention being paid to the environment, the depletion of this essential resource is continuing at roughly twice the rate of global population growth. Today, more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Pollution, meanwhile, is further endangering what precious water we do have. In the United States, 40 percent of all rivers have been rendered unsuitable for bathing, fishing or drinking. In China that figure doubles. As Mitchell’s song forewarned, we are indeed paving paradise. In New York, filmmaker, artist and activist Mary Jordan hopes to crack that, with a monumental public art project and awareness campaign devoted to making us realize the value of water before the well runs dry.
Full article HERE
paisea 024 [waterscapes], available in online store HERE and in digital edition HERE
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