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back water use significantly, and people are harassed if they wash their car. Yet even with such drastic measures to reduce consumption, the state of Georgia is trying to move their state boundaries one mile north to gain access to the Tennessee River. Naturally, Tennessee is against the idea.

In other areas, once plentiful water is disappearing under the strain of increased demand. The Aral Sea has shrunk by more than 60% of its volume because of upstream Soviet river diversions, leaving 36,000 square kilometers of salt land where water used to be. Already in China many rivers (such as the Yellow River) do not make it to the sea for most of the year due to water diversion for drinking, living purposes, and irrigation. Many countries down river are suffering from the water cutoff, and China's profligate dam construction is causing a "dam war" between them, Laos, and Thailand, leaving Vietnam in the lurch. Turkey is constructing dams on the Tigris and Euphrates, enabling them to cut off Syria and Iraq from their main sources of water on a whim. The lakes around Mexico City have dried, and like many places around the globe, they are experiencing "desertization," where once fertile land dries into a dustbowl.

Another threat to international stability is the bottled water industry. The bottled water industry has grown at astronomic rates in recent years as people all over the world seek safe drinking water. Even in modern countries such as America and Europe, people are choosing to drink bottled water over the perfectly safe water coming out of the tap. The rich people in impoverished countries with poor sanitation have chosen to purchase bottled water instead of investing in the infrastructure of their countries to ensure clean drinking water for all. The rich go about their happy lives while the poor, who cannot afford to purchase bottled water, are left scrounging for water in filthy ditches and rivers, or walking miles to wells.

As "third world" nations become more reliant on bottled water for survival, their continued existence becomes more and more dependent on capitalism, as bottled water companies are out to make money. Imagine a world where you have to purchase water to live! Those people without money will be left to desperate measures when the only water available must be purchased. Should the people of a country not be able to create a profit for the bottled water companies, the companies will go elsewhere, creating a water crisis of untold proportions.

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