The Value of Water

While some companies and governments are keeping their heads in the sand about global warming, other are placing bets on the prospect that it is happening now and are making huge gains. Investors such as T. Boone Pickens say that water is the commodity that will appreciate most in the coming decades, according to a Bloomberg News report. Dwindling fresh water supplies (not the salty stuff in the oceans) combined with rising populations, particularly in China, have led the value of water to rise faster than many other commodities including oil, gas, and basic materials such as steel, copper, and paper. Bloomberg News reports that the Bloomberg World Water index of utilities has returned 35 percent annually since 2003, compared with 29 percent for oil and gas stocks, 27 percent for basic materials such as copper, paper, and steel, and 10 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Global warming is expected to decrease the supply of fresh water as the water locked in mountain top glaciers is lost, such as in the Tibetan Plateau, from which an estimated 300 million Chinese receive their water.