Such tactics could become the norm as the Golden State’s water supply dwindles due to climate change. A 2021
This kind of speculative trading has long been done for commodities, such as gold or oil, but not for a life-sustaining resource such as water.Its advocates claim that futures water trading could better align water supply and demand in the face of growing scarcity. For instance, University of California, Berkeley’s Ellen Bruno and North Carolina State’s Heidi Schweizer, both agricultural economists, say trading water futures is simply about the price of water.
What makes things even worse, says Sen, is that some of the people who profit from water scarcity are also profiting off of what's driving that scarcity to begin with. "Wall Street and its big financial institutions make loans to fossil fuel companies, or perform bond issuance to them or provide insurance underwriting," he says.