Ban the Greens! That's How to End the Water Shortages in France

A water shortage crisis is now playing out in France, in which the nation is suffering from drought needlessly, because it lacks water management infrastructure.

"Ban the greens," declared Lyndon LaRouche yesterday. He identified the campaign by the greenies, as responsible for creating conditions for mass deaths. They have acted to stop water-management improvements. "Ban them. We'll look at their suggestions later. For the time being, all green policies are suspended for the duration of the crisis." LaRouche spoke of the water shortages in France, as "an emergency created by the greenies, who are stalking Europe with their pseudo-scientific" demands.

France is one of the world's nations with a highly abundant rate of rainfall—170 billion cubic meters per year, but little of this is held back—"withdrawn" in hydrological terms—for utilization. A full 97 percent of that rainfall goes back into the ocean. As a result, 47 of the 100 departments of France are now adopting water-control measures, forcing farmers and others in those areas to limit their consumption regularly throughout the Summer months. Three departments are currently hit by drought as bad as that of 1976, which was a record drought year, despite the fact that this past Winter saw abundant rainfall.

But a law adopted in France in 2006, dictates restricting consumption, instead of organizing expanded water resources, through storage systems for dry spells. This French greenie law conforms with the greenie EU Water Framework Directive of 2000.

"There is human death on the planet," because of the greenie pseudo-science," LaRouche said. "Cancel death! We're not green. We're human. Green is not a color of a human." He advised that it's best to insult greenies this way. A lot of people are afraid of greenies. But we should turn this fear into more constructive emotions.

A member of the Union of Young Farmers of Southwestern France, says that, instead of limiting consumption of water when there are shortages, "we should create added resources to better deal with periods of crises." The President of the General Association of Corn Producers, Christophe Terrain, said that the reality is, "water reserves cost 3 to 5 Euros, the cubic meter stocked."

Wheat Losses

France, the largest wheat producer nation in the European Union, is suffering wheat crop losses this year from the lack of water infrastructure. According to this morning's monthly report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, France's wheat harvest this crop year (all types), will be down to 37.5 million metric tons, which is less than last year, despite a 5.5 percent increase in plantings, because yields are down per hectare.

The case is similar for wheat, barley, and other crops across Europe, because of the dry spring and early summer in the western nations, and the heavy rains and floods in the east. The USDA estimate today, is that the EU-27 wheat production for 2010-2011 will fall to 137.51 mmt (or less), from 138.2 mmt last year; and 151 mmt the year before.

After WW II, there were plans for installations in the Carpathians to mitigate flooding—for the 10 percent of the run-off going north (the Elbe Neisse, Oder and other basins), and 90 percent to the south, in the Danube Basin, but these were never fulfilled, given the onset of greenie-ism. The EU is, instead, conducting a pretense of soliciting successive "river basin management plans" for sometime off in the future.