Flow: For Love of Water (2008)

Jim Olson: Self - Environmental Attorney

Quotes 

• Jim Olson - Environmental Attorney : What we did was, we said let's go back in time and look at who owned the water 1000 years ago in Rome

  [sic] 

  Jim Olson - Environmental Attorney : and how has the civil law in Europe and other cultures handled this question of water ownership and use. And what we found was that water has always had a public aspect to it. Water has always been considered not owned by anybody. Today we think, well, isn't that profound. It's not profound at all. It's just common sense. You look at the sun; do you own the sun? Water is this transient gift on Earth for life, moving and flowing and inherent in its transient nature is the idea of commons. Things that are transient in nature, like this pen, you can pick up and own. Things that are transient, you don't own.