now on, those who need extra water for cultivation and supply will be able to invest in future contracts and guarantee the resource during periods of drought A sign of how climate change can change our lives is the appreciation of water, a product so precious that, like oil, gold and wheat, it starts to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Almost all over the planet, water is considered a public domain good and has never been commercialized as it will be now on in the so-called future market. Until today, the purchase and sale of rights that allow pumping water the soil or reservoirs only happened in a distant scenario. However, in the drought years, when more water is needed for cultivation and supply, buyers faced high prices and a lot of uncertainty about whether water would be available. Now, the new market for the resource could end this instability. Those who need extra water in a drier year will be able to invest in future contracts, to offset higher prices. The United States is the second largest consumer of water in the world and only California, which suffers constant droughts, consumes almost 10% of the water in the entire country daily.
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