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A Question No One Wants to Raise About Drought
Georgia's on my mind. Atlanta, Georgia. It's a city in trouble in a state in trouble in a region in trouble. Water trouble. Trouble big enough that the state government's moving fast. Just this week, backed up by a choir singing "Amazing Grace," accompanied by three protestant ministers, and 20 demonstrators from the Atlanta Freethought Society, Georgia's Baptist Governor Sonny Perdue led a crowd of hundreds in prayers for rain. "We've come together here," he said, "simply for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm." It seems, however, that the Almighty -- He "who can and will make a difference" -- was otherwise occupied and the regional drought continued to threaten Atlanta, a metropolis of 5 million people (and growing fast), with the possibility that it might run out of water in as little as 80 days or as much as a year, if the rains don't come.
Here's a little summary of the situation today:
Water rationing has hit the capital. Car washing and lawn watering are prohibited within city limits. Harvests in the region have dropped by 15-30%. By the end of summer, local reservoirs and dams were holding 5% of their capacity.
Oops, that's not Atlanta, or even the southeastern U.S. That's Ankara, Turkey, hit by a fierce drought and high temperatures that also have had southern and southwestern Europe in their grip.
Sorry, let's try that again. Imagine this scenario:
Over the last decade, 15-20% decreases in precipitation have been recorded. These water losses have been accompanied by record temperatures and increasing wildfires in areas where populations have been growing rapidly. A fierce drought has settled in -- of the hundred-year variety. Lawns can be watered but just for a few hours a day (and only by bucket); four-minute showers are the max allowed. Car washes are gone, though you can clean absolutely essential car windows and mirrors by hand.
Sound familiar? As it happens, that's not the American southeast either; that's a description of what's come to be called "The Big Dry" -- the unprecedented drought that has swept huge parts of Australia, the worst in at least a century on an already notoriously dry continent, but also part of the world's breadbasket, where crops are now failing regularly and farms closing down.
In fact, on my way along the parched path toward Atlanta, Georgia, I found myself taking any number of drought-stricken detours. There's Moldova. (If you're like me, odds are you don't even know where that small, former Soviet republic falls on a map.) Like much of southern Europe, it experienced baking temperatures this summer, exceptionally low precipitation, sometimes far less than 50% of expected rainfall, failing crops and farms, and spreading wildfires. (The same was true, to one degree or another, of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, and -- with its 100-year record scorching of Biblical proportions -- Greece which lost 10% of its forest cover in a month-long fiery apocalypse, leaving "large tracts of countryside.... at risk of depopulation.")
Or how about Morocco, across the Mediterranean, which experienced 50% less rainfall than normal? Or the Canary Islands, those Spanish vacation spots in the Atlantic Ocean known to millions of visitors for their year-around mild climate which, this summer, morphed into 104 degree days, strong winds, and fierce wildfires. Eighty-six thousand acres were burnt to a crisp, engulfing some of the islands in flames and smoke that drove out thousands of tourists?
Or what about Mexico's Tehuacán Valley, where, thousands of years ago, corn was first domesticated as an agricultural crop. Even today, asking for "un Tehuacán" in a restaurant in Mexico still means getting the best bottled mineral water in the country. Unfortunately, the area hasn't had a good rain since 2003, and the ensuing drought conditions have made subsistence farming next to impossible, sending desperate locals northwards and across the border as illegal immigrants -- some into southern California, itself just swept by monstrous Santa Ana-driven wildfires, fanned by prolonged drought conditions and fed tinder by new communities built deep into the wild lands where the fires gestate. And Tehuacán is but one disaster zone in a growing Mexican catastrophe. As Mike Davis has written, "Abandoned ranchitos and near-ghost towns throughout Coahuila, Chihuahua and Sonora testify to the relentless succession of dry years -- beginning in the 1980s but assuming truly catastrophic intensity in the late 1990s -- that has pushed hundreds of thousands of poor rural people toward the sweatshops of Ciudad Juárez and the barrios of Los Angeles."
According to the How Dry I Am Chart of "livability expert" Bert Sperling, four cities in Southern California, not parched Atlanta, top the national drought ratings: Los Angeles, San Diego, Oxnard, and Riverside. In addition, Pasadena has had the dubious honor, through September, of experiencing its driest year in history.
Resource Wars in the Homeland
"Resource wars" are things that happen elsewhere. We don't usually think of our country as water poor or imagine that "resource wars" might be applied as a description to various state and local governments in the southwest, southeast, or upper Midwest now fighting tooth and nail for previously shared water. And yet, "war" may not be a bad metaphor for what's on the horizon. According to the National Climate Data Center, federal officials have declared 43% of the contiguous U.S. to be in "moderate to extreme drought." Already, Sonny Perdue of Georgia is embroiled in an ever more bitter conflict -- a "water war," as the headlines say -- with the governors of Florida and Alabama, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, over the flow of water into and out of the Atlanta area.
He's hardly alone. After all, the Southwest is in the grips of what, according to Davis, some climatologists are terming a "'mega-drought,' even the 'worst in 500 years.'" More shockingly, he writes, such conditions may actually represent the region's new "normal weather." The upper Midwest is also in rainfall-shortage mode, with water levels at all the Great Lakes dropping unnervingly. The water level of Lake Superior, for instance, has fallen to the "lowest point on record for this time of year." (Notice, by the way, how many "records" are being set nationally and globally in these drought years; how many places are already beginning to push beyond history, which means beyond any reference point we have.)
And then there's the southeast, 26% of which, according to the National Weather Service, is in a state of "exceptional" drought, its most extreme category, and 78% of which is "drought-affected." We're talking here about a region normally considered rich in water resources setting a bevy of records for dryness. It has been the driest year on record for North Carolina and Tennessee, for instance, while 18 months of blue skies have led Georgia to break every historical record, whether measured by "the percentage of moisture in the soil, the flow rate of rivers, [or] inches of rain."
Atlanta is hardly the only city or town in the region with a dwindling water supply. According to David Bracken of Raleigh's News & Observer, "17 North Carolina water systems, including Raleigh and Durham, have 100 or fewer days of water supply remaining before they reach the dregs." Rock Spring, South Carolina, "has been without water for a month. Farmers are hauling water by pickup truck to keep their cattle alive." The same is true for the tiny town of Orme, Tennessee, where the mayor turns on the water for only three hours a day.
And then, there's Atlanta, its metropolitan area "watered" mainly by a 1950s man-made reservoir, Lake Lanier, which, in dramatic photos, is turning into baked mud. Already with a population of five million and known for its uncontrolled growth (as well as lack of water planning), the city is expected to house another two million inhabitants by 2030. And yet, depending on which article you read, Atlanta will essentially run out of water by New Year's eve, in 80 days, in 120 days, or, according to the Army Corps of Engineers -- which seems to find this reassuring -- in 375 days, if the drought continues (as it may well do).
Okay, so let's try again:
Across the region, fountains sit "bone dry"; in small towns, "full-soak" baptisms have been stopped; car washes and laundromats are cutting hours or shutting down. Golf courses have resorted to watering only tees and greens. Campfires, stoves, and grills are banned in some national parks. The boats have left Lake Lanier and the metal detectors have arrived.
This is the verdant southeastern United States, which, thanks in part to a developing La Nina effect in the Pacific Ocean, now faces the likelihood of a drier than ever winter. And, to put this in context, keep in mind that 2007 "to date has been the warmest on record for land [and]... the seventh warmest year so far over the oceans, working out to the fourth warmest overall worldwide." Oh, and up in the Arctic sea, the ice pack reached its lowest level this September since satellite measurements were begun in 1979.
And Then?
And then, there's that question which has been nagging at me ever since this story first caught my attention in early October as it headed out of the regional press and slowly made its way toward the top of the nightly TV news and the front-pages of national newspapers; it's the question I've been waiting patiently for some environmental reporter(s) somewhere in the mainstream media to address; the question that seems to me so obvious I find it hard to believe everyone isn't thinking about it; the one you would automatically want to have answered -- or at least gnawed on by thoughtful, expert reporters and knowledgeable pundits. Every day for the last month or more I've waited, as each piece on Atlanta ends at more or less the same point -- with the dire possibility that the city's water will soon be gone -- as though hitting a brick wall.
Not that there hasn't been some fine reportage -- on the extremity of the situation, the overbuilding and overpopulating of the metropolitan region, the utter heedlessness that went with it, and the resource wars that have since engulfed it. Still, I've Googled around, read scores of pieces on the subject, and they all -- even the one whose first paragraph asked, "What if Atlanta's faucets really do go dry?" -- seem to end just where my question begins. It's as if, in each piece, the reporter had reached the edge of some precipice down which no one cares to look, lest we all go over.
Based on the record of the last seven years, we can take it for granted that the Bush administration hasn't the slightest desire to glance down; that no one in FEMA who matters has given the situation the thought it deserves; and that, on this subject, as on so many others, top administration officials are just hoping to make it to January 2009 without too many more scar marks. But, if not the federal government, shouldn't somebody be asking? Shouldn't somebody check out what's actually down there?
So let me ask it this way: And then?
And then what exactly can we expect? If the southeastern drought is already off the charts in Georgia, then, whether it's 80 days or 800 days, isn't there a possibility that Atlanta may one day in the not-so-distant future be without water? And what then?
Okay, they're trucking water into waterless Orme, Tennessee, but the town's mayor, Tony Reames, put the matter well, worrying about Atlanta. "We can survive. We're 145 people but you've got 4.5 million there. What are they going to do?"
What indeed? Has water ever been trucked in to so many people before? And what about industry including, in the case of Atlanta, Coca Cola, which is, after all, a business based on water? What about restaurants that need to wash their plates or doctors in hospitals who need to wash their hands?
Let's face it, with water, you're down to the basics. And if, as some say, we've passed the point not of "peak oil," but of "peak water" (and cheap water) on significant parts of the planet... well, what then?
I mean, I'm hardly an expert on this, but what exactly are we talking about here? Someday in the reasonably near future could Atlanta, or Phoenix, which in winter 2005-2006, went 143 days without a bit of rain, or Las Vegas become a Katrina minus the storm? Are we talking here about a new trail of tears? What exactly would happen to the poor of Atlanta? To Atlanta itself?
Certainly, you've seen the articles about what global warming might do in the future to fragile or low-lying areas of the world. Such pieces usually mention the possibility of enormous migrations of the poor and desperate. But we don't usually think about that in the "homeland." Maybe we should.
Or maybe, for all I know, if the drought continues, parts of the region will burn to a frizzle first, àla parts of southern California, before they can even experience the complete loss of water? Will we have hundred-year fire records in the South, without a Santa Ana wind in sight? And what then?
Mass Migrations?
Okay, excuse a terrible, even tasteless, sports analogy, but think of this as a major bowl game, and they've sent one of the water boys -- me -- to man the press booth. I mean, please. Why am I the one asking this? Where's the media's first team?
In my own admittedly limited search of the mainstream, I found only one vivid, thoughtful recent piece on this subject: "The Future Is Drying Up," by Jon Gertner, written for the New York Times Magazine. It focused on the southwestern drought and began to explore some of the "and thens," as in this brief passage on Colorado in which Gertner quotes Roger Pulwarty, a "highly regarded climatologist" at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
"The worst outcome.... would be mass migrations out of the region, along with bitter interstate court battles over the dwindling water supplies. But well before that, if too much water is siphoned from agriculture, farm towns and ranch towns will wither. Meanwhile, Colorado's largest industry, tourism, might collapse if river flows became a trickle during summertime."
Mass migrations, exfiltrations.... Stop a sec and take in that possibility and what exactly it might mean. After all, we do have some small idea, having, in recent years, lost one American city, New Orleans, at least temporarily.
Or consider another "and then" prediction: What if the prolonged drought in the southwest turns out, as Mike Davis wrote in the Nation magazine, to be "on the scale of the medieval catastrophes that contributed to the notorious collapse of the complex Anasazi societies at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde during the twelfth century"?
What if, indeed.
I'm not simply being apocalyptic here. I'm just asking. It's not even that I expect answers. I'd just like to see a crew of folks with the necessary skills explore the "and then" question for the rest of us. Try to connect a few dots, or tell us if they don't connect, or just explain where the dots really are.
As the World Burns
Okay, since I'm griping on the subject, let me toss in another complaint. As this piece has indicated, the southeastern drought, unlike the famed cheese of childhood song, does not exactly stand alone. Such conditions, often involving record or near record temperatures, and record or near record wildfires, can be observed at numerous places across the planet. So why is it that, except at relatively obscure websites, you can hardly find a mainstream piece that mentions more than one drought at a time?
An honorable exception would be a recent Seattle Times column by Neal Peirce that brought together the southwestern and southeastern droughts, as well as the Western "flame zone," where "mega-fires" are increasingly the norm, in the context of global warming, in order to consider our seemingly willful "myopia about the future."
But you'd be hard-pressed to find many pieces in our major newspapers (or on the TV news) that put all (or even a number) of the extreme drought spots on the global map together in order to ask a simple question (even if its answer may prove complex indeed): Do they have anything in common? And if so, what? And if so, what then?
To find even tentative answers to such questions you have to leave the mainstream. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, for example, interviewed paleontologist and author of The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change, Tim Flannery recently on the topic of a "world on fire." Flannery offered the following observation:
"It's not just the Southeast of the United States. Europe has had its great droughts and water shortages. Australia is in the grip of a drought that's almost unbelievable in its ferocity. Again, this is a global picture. We're just getting much less usable water than we did a decade or two or three decades ago. It's a sort of thing again that the climate models are predicting. In terms of the floods, again we see the same thing. You know, a warmer atmosphere is just a more energetic atmosphere. So if you ask me about a single flood event or a single fire event, it's really hard to make the connection, but take the bigger picture and you can see very clearly what's happening."
I know answers to the "and then" question are not easy or necessarily simple. But if drought -- or call it "desertification" -- becomes more widespread, more common in heavily populated parts of the globe already bursting at the seams (and with more people arriving daily), if whole regions no longer have the necessary water, how many trails of tears, how many of those mass migrations or civilizational collapses are possible? How much burning and suffering and misery are we likely to experience? And what then?
These are questions I can't answer; that the Bush administration is guaranteed to be desperately unwilling and unprepared to face; and that, as yet, the media has largely refused to consider in a serious way. And if the media can't face this and begin to connect some dots, why shouldn't Americans be in denial, too?
It's not that no one is thinking about, or doing work on, drought. I know that scientists have been asking the "and then" questions (or perhaps far more relevant ones that I can't even formulate); that somewhere people have been exploring, studying, writing about them. But how am I to find out?
Of course, all of us can wander the Internet; we can visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has just set up a new website to help encourage drought coverage; we can drop in at blogs like RealClimate.org and ClimateProgress.org, which make a habit of keeping up with, or ahead of, such stories; or even, for instance, the Georgia Drought website of the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; or we can keep an eye on a new organization of journalists (well covered recently on the NPR show "On the Media"), Circle of Blue, who are planning to concentrate on water issues. But, believe me, even when you get to some of these sites, you may find yourself in an unknown landscape with no obvious water holes in view and no guides to lead you there.
In the meantime, there may be no trail of tears out of Atlanta; there may even be rain in the city's near future for all any of us know; but it's clear enough that, globally and possibly nationally, tragedy awaits. It's time to call in the first team to ask some questions.
Honestly, I don't demand answers. Just a little investigation, some thought, and a glimpse or two over that precipice as the world turns.... and bakes and burns.
Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. His book, The End of Victory Culture (University of Massachusetts Press), has just been thoroughly updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq.
Copyright 2007 Tom Engelhardt
64 Comments so far
Show AllSomeone mentioned the USA , courtesy of NAFTA , can take Canada's water ( and oil sands ) even if Canada needs them just as much .
Yes indeed , and , if you are Canadian , a good reason to resent the ( right wing , of course ) bunch ( Mulroney ) who sold out .
I live between Lakes Ontario and Erie . They won't last too long when the USA starts draining them in earnest . They are already receding - Erie particularly , as it is the shallower .If your lakefront property has title to the land 'to the water's edge ' you are now the proud owner of an additional useless 100 feet of baked clay .
I live in the country , recently had a 90 foot deep well drilled , but the aquifier is not reliable apparently , and local corn crops are this year not worth harvesting . Canada . as a resource may not be the salvation of the USA .
If the apocalyptic vision does materialise , the political sniping evident in the other posts will be meaningless - no authority , including socially responsible 'leftist' ones could cope with the scale of events .
My guess is we are in for a winnowing of the 'too many freaking people' , and that it will be a continual process of migration , and hunger punctuated by famines . War requires central authority and organization which may well cease to exist .
Atlanta's odd skyscrapers , gleaming dome , and SUV clogged highways are so real now that it feels hard to believe that say twenty years could change them to ghostly weedy concrete with bands of ribbed chest potbellied furtive shabby survivors , but ... it may be .
the republican crime organization is still trying to get votes (in case voting still continues) by "moral outrage" against abortion and homosexuals.
the votes they get that way seem based on animal instinct.
could it ever be that the common man could come to realize that those who don't breeding means a better quality of life for everyone else
could it ever be that common man would ever come to realize that bush and most pols lie lie lie and lie all in persuit of power and money.
Of course, the american electorate hated Carter, who tried to be ethical and to get people to prepare for the dangers of the future
Lies are easier, more comforting, and immensely more profitable
I would like to address one point made by lino. Sustainable rainwater harvesting does not take away water from anyone downstream. On the contrary, it increases the net water available to them. Once people start harvesting with small-scale earthen dams, swales, check dams, etc., it is often argued by those downstream that their water is being stolen. These arguments alway cease withing 5 years time when they find that their water tables and streams are recharging as a result of the harvesting. But it is important to make this harvesting in harmony with nature (i.e. proper technique, proper scale, proper place).
ezeflyer November 16th, 2007 3:14 pm
"Are there too many freaking people on the planet" or too many conservatives?
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You may have a point here, ezeflyer. Saturday, I was at a family gathering which included several super-conservatives. They clearly stated that global warming, extinction of species, and such have all happened before and will continue to happen no matter what we do (therefore, let's do nothing). Their attitude is, "Stop expecting government to fix everything!"
So, I've tried to figure out why these same people will turn around and insist upon expanding government power, spending billions of tax dollars and trampling on Constitutional rights to solve other "problems" that will never go away, either--everything from marijuana usage to Iraq. And I think I've found the explanation.
Political conservatives only see a need to fix something if it involves identifying "bad" people and oppressing/marginalizing/persecuting/punishing/torturing/killing them. That's why homosexuals, drug users, poor people, "tree-huggers", etc. are considered The Problem. So Atlanta is over-developed? It doesn't matter--you see, there's no "bad" people to blame. The righteous conservative developers are just doing the good capitalist thing. Nobody "forced" people to buy homes there, anyway. The capitalists can collect their money and walk away, while the people who can't flush their toilets or who lose their homes in wildfires can conveniently become the next marginalized group.
"Half of the water now being used in this country would be saved if we were a vegetarian nation."
I'm not sure about that, but I am sure that almost half of our water goes into landscaping--a complete, total waste of a natural resource to sustain exotic species that never should have been planted in the first place.
I also know this: ". . .corn requires from 1000 to 1800 liters of water per kilogram of grain produced." which suggests the looming water crisis will not be solved by vegetarianism alone.
I read (or heard?) a news article a few months ago that El Salvador had passed a Patriot like act shortly after we passed ours. Recently they have privatized the main sources of water to make huge profits for the elite owners. When concerned groups protested they got tried and jailed as "terrorists."
A quick glimpse of the future how anyone challenging the imperialist and corporate dominance will be branded a terrorists. The masses will be tuned in on themselves and the dump trucks will hall them away Solent Green style.
We need examples of people cooperating in living sustainable, ecological, organic and non competitive ways as a blueprint for the survial of the species.
The people in Atlanta can move where there is plenty of water, like New Orleans, or they can dig some deep wells, ___ very deep wells, because their wonderful aquifer is alredy polluted with atomic and chemical waste.
There is absolutely no reason our government cannot purify ocean water. It works perfectly on Naval ships, arcraft carriers with a crew of over 6,000 personnel. It may be expensive, but with an average water bill per family of say $40 a month, that should be ample. With a little sensible innovation, the power to purify and desalt sea water, could come from wind/solar at a very low cost, with no pollution to produce the electricity. The wind usually is active near any coastline. Or, we can piss and moan.
Hey KEN, we're just kiddin you. Hey bud, try this some day. Go to a fast food joint and order up a couple of Wat A Burgers and large fries. They come with veggies adn sause. Sit back and close your eyes and munch away, savoring the delilght of eating a big chunk of ground up beef, smothered in creamy, melted cheese. ___ You'll love it.
Zydeco,
The reason that Atlanta is required to release water from "lake" lanier is because they damned a river basin that used to be free flowing. Folks (and mussels) downstream have a legal right to the water they would have got, had Atlanta not damned the river in the first place.
One of the best things Atlanta could be doing with all the heavy equipment that is sitting idle as a result of the housing bust, is hire these folks to keyline the land to make sure the rain that does come soaks in and releases slowly into the rivers.
Moondoggy--great post and very practical advise except I fear it just isn't gonna catch on in the cities for awhile. But it's important that anyone who can and is willing to make the trip, to think about it. We could save alot even, pooping in water, if we used our bath, wash and kitchen water in a closed system to flush the indoor toilets, only when needed. It would be a compromise and a start.
KEM PATRICK---Did we miss the memo on vegetarianism being a pre-requisite to calling oneself a progressive?? Dear me, the gatekeepers of political correctness are on the loose. While it is clear that livestock use a great deal of water, I am not sure what we're supposed to do.... have a worldwide feast of MEAT of all kinds and wipe all four leggeds off the face of the earth? If it really gets bad, I think that may happen anyway.
YIKES, RON, lighten up. I hardly eat any meat---not as the result of any sort of dogma, but because I feel better and lighter keeping meat at a minimum. On your scorecard, does that count for anything? Or do only the vegans escape your wrath?
I know nobody's gonna read this but, have any of you gringos ever considered how much water is wasted when we shit in it? We built a simple composting outhouse in the summer of 2002 and have been using it ever since, even in our brutal Montana winters. Yes, it's true. And there's no flies and no bad smell.
How'd we do it? Welp, to summarize, I designed and built it in a way that allows maximum air flow all around. No closed in corners to trap insects. It has a nice view too. And I built it for almost nothing. I did splurge on nice oak toilet seats however. None of our house guests think we're weird either. At least they haven't told us to our face! They all tell us how cool it is, and that it's the cleanest outhouse they've ever used!
We poop in galvanized trash cans. I poked about 16 holes in the bottom of each one (it's a two seater). We put about 2 inches of saw dust on the bottom of each can. Then we keep a metal bucket inside filled with wood ash, and a plastic bucket with saw dust. Every time we crap, we sprinkle on about a cup of each wood ash and saw dust.
After about 4 months we rotate the cans out and replace with fresh cans. The half full cans get another layer of sawdust, then I top it off with horse manure and water it down, and leave it for another 4 months. Then after that 4 month rotation I dump the contents into a 4x4 compost bin made of logs stacked Lincoln Log style, with air spaces between the logs provided by the log layer below stacked perpendicular, if you catch my drift. Then I top that partially composted heap with more horse manure, and turn the whole works about twice a year. After a couple years I dismantle the log frame and turn the "soil" again. And build another bin from the logs.
There's no smell, only rich black humus! Funny, the word humus is so close to the word human. Eventually the humus goes back into the garden as all harmful pathogens have been killed off by the composting process, thus completing the cycle. Shitting in water creates a waste management problem, and pollutes perfectly good drinking water. Silly humans!
We believe we have discovered the proper way to shit, and the rest of the human race needs to catch up. If you want to read a comprehensive guide book on the subject, I highly recommend The Humanure Handbook, A Guide To Composting Human Manure by Joseph Jenkins, an award winning book that made Amazon's #1 best seller list. Check www.joseph-jenkins.com it's published by Chelsea Green Publishing.
Oh, I might also mention that our gray water, the water from our taps, our laundry, kitchen sink and shower are all diverted to watering the garden. We don't feel any urgent need to "save" water since we live on a glacier fed river. We just do it because it's more in harmony with nature. We all are beginning to realize that we can't sustain life on this planet unless we all learn how to live more in harmony with nature. I'm just glad that the rest of you gringos are finally waking up to that realization.
Peace! And happy pooping and saving water!
I only eat beef, pork and chicken with my stir fry veggies RON, so don't call me a HYpocrite. And true progressives aren't block heads either, so watch your tongue.
Half of the water now being used in this country would be saved if we were a vegetarian nation. There aren't too many people in the world; there are too many meat-eaters. The person ranting against big houses, etc. completely failed to rant against meat consumption. The person claiming to be down to 30 gallons a day uses way more than that if they eat meat. True progressives are vegetarians. The rest of you have bought into the corporate animal-slaughtering culture you love to condemn. Hypocrites!
Have we heard from the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce yet? Just askin? Surely the Chamber of Commerce, technological triumphalists, and governmental deciders have the answers in hand and are ready to lead us from evil. So stop worrying already !
The last resort would be trucking in water and survival rationing. Businesses might also have to shut down, so there would be no cash flow, leading to food and fuel rationing. Like Katrina relief, it might be a taste of the future for many parts of the US and around the world.
Overpopulation and "oversubscription(?)" of water supplies makes droughts worse and their effects more immediate. In recent years there have been drought watches almost every summer in the Philly/SE PA/South Jersey area, but the weather isn't drier than in the "old" days. We just use a lot more water.
Live like the Indians? We are on our way to half a billion Americans! We'll be living like the Calcutta Indians, not the Lenni Lenape!
starofthesea --
"just wondering how long this release of billions of gallons a day has been going on?" Surely if this were the real cause of drastically dropping lake levels, wouldn't someone have noticed before this year? Just asking………because I am assuming if your rainfall amounts were normal, any draining of the lake would be offset or replaced by fresh waters pouring in."
Good question. The protected mussels were declared endangered in 1998. The water releases have been going on since the late 1990's. You're right, it's not the real cause -- it is a major component (as I stated in my earlier post). Also, Atlanta is in a prolonged drought (also stated in my earlier post).
Yes, people have noticed before now. The governor has filed several suits against the Corps of Engineers over the past three years.
Your premise of normal rainfall is not quite correct. Rainfall has not been normal for quite some time. There have been some times of above average and others below but this year is at a 17 inch deficit. This is why draining the lake is so ridiculous. As I stated in my earlier post, this drainage schedule doesn't allow for the lake to recover (under current conditions) when there is rainfall. I totally agree with you that, if rainfall were normal, there would most likely be no problem. However, rainfall is not normal and there is a problem.
We have two choices:
1. Learn to live like indians as part of the natural world, stabilizing our population/resource levels by intertribal wars, infanticide, famine and disease.
2. Learn to live like indians as part of the natural world, but stabilizing population/resource levels with birth control, decentralization of power/wealth and using appropriate technology to avoid the downside of living like indians.
At home Americans use between 70 and 100 gallons a day, depending on the statistical souce. That is more than most other nations. We can use less. Much less. As a society we use 408 billion gallons per day. That is 1360 gallons per day per person. This includes industrial, commercial, and agricultural water in addition to residential use.
There is much we can do to waste less water. See:
http://www.h2ouse.org/
http://www.h2ouse.org/tour/index.cfm
http://www.drinktap.org/consumerdnn/Home/WaterInformation/Conservation/ConservationatHome/tabid/83/Def...
Perhaps people in Atlanta can lead the way in learning to use less water. Out of necessity they may have to.
I'm down to about 30 gallons a day. It was easy and cost nothing. It saves me money.
KEM and STAR of the SEA: Many thanks for the nod of confidence.
KERNEL says: "The sound of a faucet running for no good reason should be like an alarm going off." Amen to that brother. I have friends who leave water running while they dash around their kitchens and I get up and turn it off (when I am their guest). It pisses them off, but that leads me to the ecology lecture that WATER IS SACRED. Part of the whole capitalism-entrancement has been the false supposition that a thing's value is based on what we pay for it. All smoke and mirrors. I loved the concept of NATURAL CAPITALISM first shared in Mother Jones (two authors' names escape me) because it devised a structure by which to estimate nature's costs in any "business" enterprise. Take the masectomy underway as mountain top after mountain top is blasted away in West Va. There is a HOLOCAUST against the natural world going on where science and its efficient instruments of technological conquest act to compromise ecosystem after ecosystem. Those with the power to erect legislation do not understand the intricate strands that together sustain the WEB of life. Strand by strand it's being compromised, while the worst in people is lifted to celebrity status, all while senseless wars with trumped up causes are underway. If these triplicate sins were not a reason for Earth to cleanse herself, then the morality tale of the Bible's great flood, and/or that of a similar fate lent to Atlantis is lost on us, as has been decades of teaching the follies of history that the same ends might not recur.
These ARE tragic times, but we can choose to honor what is innately sacred, and water is one of those things. Because it tends to be the cheapest bill compared to rent/mortgage, electric or even cable TV, people treat it without due regard. The exigencies of the times will force new behaviors. Quite a different astrological template begins in 2008 and for those who are willing to put money into green tech, autumn is a great time to seize the day and put your money where your morality is.
The amount of fresh water is the same, it's just packaged differently. Instead of coming in light rains spread throughout the year, it shows up all at once in a big hurricane or typhoon. With mountains logged and flat lands paved over, any rain we do get runs straight to the ocean. So, no rain is retained to fill our aquifers and reservoirs.
Barnes and Kernel are right. Where I live, there is no natural source of water other than rainfall. A few years ago, we went one week without water because of post-typhoon repairs. That's when I realized that about 50% of the water we used in my house was going straight down the toilet. We started looking into composting and sawdust toilets. We also started exploring ways to reuse our water and collect and retain rainwater.
Zydeco--You must ask yourself the question Why is there an endangered species act, and then reflect upon why the massive water depletion in the Atlanta area? If you're honest, you will see they are connected, symbiotic in the most outrageous of manners. In other words, what looks like a natural disaster is actually caused by humans and was avoidable. It also seems that quite a lot of the water release goes to supply the cooling water for nearby nuclear power stations.
Kem--You are right that we'll get more salt water, but the corresponding increase in water vapor means those areas not in drought will generally recieve heavier percipitation than now. What I'm most curious about is how drastically weather patterns will change when no more ice floats on the arctic ocean for a great part of the year. I've read talk of a current reversal in the actic ocean that needs more investigation.
And here it continues to rain.
The water didn't disappear from the planet, evaporation makes clouds form and it is just raining much more in the oceans now instead of on land due to climate change caused by global warming. Global warming is not a myth and it is caused by humanity, a major portion of such who live here in the United States.
This home of humanity is a water planet, the only blue and white water planet known to exist to us in the entire universe. Over 80% of all the fresh water on Earth is locked up in the ice in Anarctica. that 50 billion years accumulation of ice is now melting and we are gonna get all of the water we'll ever hope for. ___ Salt water of course. This is just one of the works of Mother Nature, she's pissed and we are gonna pay for messing with her. As Siouxrose often states, Karma always shows up sooner or later. Siouxrose know the score and it would behove all to listen to her.
Some have written here the end is near, well it probaly is. And one asked if people will actually kill for water? Hell, there are gangs in the large metro areas who will kill people for the fun of it. Don't go into DC or Baltimore, Phila, etc, after dark, if you aren't sure of where you're going. When the depression hits we are going to see killing everyplace for food, water, fuel, gold, gems and for the hell of it. It will be Hell on Earth. ___ Be prepared.
What are the Yanks worrying about? They can always start another war somewhere for something or other and forget about their troubles at home. I wonder, would the trillion and a half dollars wasted in Iraq have helped the infrastucture of the U.S.?
I would say that praying for relief from the drought is sanctimonious at best. I mean, really, who could those scumbags really be praying to? Does anyone think that a deity would want such vile adherants as the scumbags which rule the U.S.? It would be more probable that the only being that would listen to the plaintive crys from the U.S. would be Satan, and if the real deity knew that the scumbags were posturing then that deity would only be more likely to intensify any punishment directed toward the worthless scumbags which make up the most evil society that the civilized world has ever known.
One thing is for certain, things may seem bad now but they can get a whole lot worse in a hurry, so anyone of a good nature should prepare themselves, and for anyone of a bad nature it doesn't matter, because no matter what precautions they take will not be enough when God comes to call them to account.
SIOUXROSE--As usual, loved your post---the connection between water shortages and denial of compassion is very apropos.
Zydeco---just wondering how long this release of billions of gallons a day has been going on? Surely if this were the real cause of drastically dropping lake levels, wouldn't someone have noticed before this year? Just asking.........because I am assuming if your rainfall amounts were normal, any draining of the lake would be offset or replaced by fresh waters pouring in.
And then--Tom says. Well for starters, lawns and golf courses do not have to be watered to survive, stools need not be flushed with every use, baths can be taken in 1 or 2 inches of water, showers are adequate with 2 or 3 gallons instead of 20 or 30. The sound of a faucet running for no good reason should be like an alarm going off. If millions of people would learn to conserve instead of waste our resources, who knows what a difference it could make? Irrigators are now being forced to conserve, and industry should do likewise, as we are all in this together and better wake up.
militantliberal
The water isn't going anywhere but it's salt water, not fresh water.
"Honestly, I don't demand answers. Just a little investigation, some thought, and a glimpse or two over that precipice as the world turns…. and bakes and burns."
Well how about a little investigation and thought from Mr. Englehardt. Why has he failed to mention one major component of Atlanta's drought -- THE RELEASE OF THREE BILLIONS OF GALLONS OF WATER PER DAY TO PROTECT THE HABITAT OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF MUSSEL AT THE GEORGIA FLORIDA BORDER.
I read that entire article waiting for him to address that issue but he never did. I can't speak for all the other areas he mentioned but he is completely missing the boat on Atlanta. Atlanta has been under water restrictions for several years and this didn't happen until the Fish and Wildlife Service, in accordance with the Endangered Species Act, began requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to release large amounts of water from Lake Lanier (Atlanta's water source) to protect mussels downstream. There is enough water released from Lake Lanier in 5 minutes to supply Atlanta with drinking water for a full day. Georgia's governor has brought suite against the Corps on numerous occasions over the past few years to get them to cut back on the release and they have always fought it. Last year for at least 3 months in a row the Corps "mistakingly" released 22 billions of gallons of water too much! They made the same "mistake" in July of this year. Yet, they never hold back on release to balance the overage of released water. All of the rain Atlanta has gotten this year has been immediately drained away and given to the purple bankclimber mussel. In the meantime over 15,000 people have lost jobs and companies are going bankrupt. In addition the residents of Atlanta are paying higher property taxes because they are committed to repairing their sewer system to end water waste. These are real people, not characters in some fictional global warming doomsday scenario.
No one would be able criticize Atlanta's growth as a negative impact on it's current situation if it wasn't for this idiotic adherence to the Endangered Species Act in the presence of a prolonged drought. Sure, I criticize Georgia's and Atlanta's failure to build reservoirs and expand water capacity, but to say that they should restrict their growth, disrupt livelihoods, and live under draconian water restrictions -- all for the sake of some mussels -- is silly at best.
Today, thankfully, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps of Engineers agreed to reduce the amount of water being released from Lake Lanier until June '08. That will extend the water supply and any rain will actually add to lake levels.
Clean clear Canadian water for sale!!! $10 a gallon...(thats $12 in US Pesos)
Good discussion, more wide-ranging than usual. The latest research in Australia suggests that, as feared, the El Nino- La Nina cycle is breaking down as the planet warms. A La Nina event began to develop after a recent long El Nino, and then it vanished and we were straight back into drought. Australia then looks like losing that cyclical recovery of good rains and going into permanent drought. So there is one of the world's most reliable bread baskets essentialy gone. It looks to me as if Australia in years to come is going to have trouble just feeding its own people, let alone exporting food as it has done for 200 years. For more of an Australian eye view of climate change see http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/Climate_change/
"golf courses have resorted to watering only tees and greens." really? what for? have those athletic studs whacking little white balls not heard the news? let the morons play golf in the dirt.
meanwhile, development rages on. naturally landscaped places, decades and generations and centuries in the making, are scraped to the bones. in their place? asphalt parking lots (acres and acres), ugly houses, seedling trees, and that great green lawn, thanks to st. augustine grass (let's water it so we can mow it so we can fertilize it so we can water it so we can mow it so we can fertilize it so...)
douglas barnes mentions rainwater collection systems. already there is a battle taking place, forces positioning themselves to outlaw this simple and effective method to sustain life. the reason? rainwater collection will reduce run-off which in turn reduces flooding which in turn reduces the amount of fresh water fed into coastal bay areas which in turn causes more salinity build-up which in turn isn't good for certain sea life. although this battle is currently being fought back stage, soon it will take center court. speaking of morons, they fail to mention that the logical solution would be mandatory rainwater collection: one square foot of poured concrete or layed asphalt = one square foot of rainwater collection. basic math.
while we're still speaking of morons and ugly energy inefficient homes and buildings, let's consider an alternative: straw bale buildings for those climates where they are practical. and certainly, the southwest would qualify.
at some point, maybe not in this lifetime, the choices humans make will come down to basics: food, water, shelter, survival. in the meantime, it would do us all good to start practicing now.
If the Southeast is losing so much water, where is it going? If the polar ice caps are melting, where is that water going? Unless the water is breaking down and the hydrogen and oxygen atoms fleeing Earth entirely, the missing water has to be around somewhere.
From the mystical point of view, there are four quintessential elements. Water signifies feelings and a capacity for empathy. It may seem like a stretch of poetic license to materialists, but the dearth of actual water seems to correspond with the missing compassion on the part of so many Americans not bothered by the slaughter of innocents in Iraq, or only faintly moved due to gas prices of the framing of actual events into simplistic cateogories of winning (efficient management of the world's largest killing machine) or losing.
DEANANDER: Great posting.
I would also like to add that I had the pleasure of seeing a film done by an outfit akin to National Geographic that focused on a remote tribe of Indigenous peoples who lived high in the rain forest of Columbia. Their ancestors fled there when the Spanish began their "conversions." The KOGI lived apart for centuries, as the canopy of hostile brush kept outsiders out. They developed a matriarchal connection with nature and saw themselves as protectors of the rain forest, keepers of the grand cycles of rain that began in the forest heights.
AS their own climate began to change and the rain dry up, they sent a scout down the mountain to do what he could in the way of language to explain the situation. The Kogi use the cocaine plant for rituals and their medicine people seem to own the power of astral-projection. With no access to media, they KNEW about the oil being drilled and that was the basis of their plea to us, the developed world in its profligate use of resources necessary to the web of life and its cohesion. They said, "You must stop drilling the mother! If the rains stop here, they will not flow anywhere." Indeed. I knew their words were prophetic and I watched this film about 7 years ago.
I bought a little property on the Suwanne River near one of Florida's major springs, it pumps over a million gallons of water out a day, and these come from ancient rivers that flow UNDER the state. The elderly people in my area, over 80, mow their own lawns and ride bikes. I like to think the water has medicinal properties. South Florida developers would like to siphon spring water and that is a battle. Usually greed wins... we shall see. The four elements are sacred, and should be treated as such. This takes us to the understanding of conservation, not a popular notion in a society that falsely worships more, bigger, faster, "better" to the point of mass suicide.
And the bees are disappearing. Can we, as a species, be far behind?
Its coming folks, pray for the children.
Oh, for heaven's sake, it's been covered long since. Not to worry. You own Canada's water now, thanks to the NAFTA.
http://www.farmertofarmer.ca/art.COG.Water.NAFTA.pdf
DaveEriqat wrote: On a lighter note, people should move to my area, western Kentucky. I think we've had rain every week since September 1, including nearly one solid week of rain. Although the entire state of Kentucky is shown as a drought region, it sure doesn't feel like it here.
Gee Dave, feel free to shove any or all of that eastward in my direction! The Bluegrass can use it!:-)
My Republican "friends" scoff at the mention of global warming. I don't wish misfortune on anyone to get the point that they will acknowledge that something serious is happening. They focus on killing the government and getting more tax cuts. Greed seems to be the underlying current. Nothing would suit me better than for global warming to be a "chicken little" story, but as a resident of Chattanooga, I can testify to the "exceptional" drought we are experiencing. However, we have the Tennessee River and have not had to ration water. Atlanta would love to buy water from the Tennessee River, but we haven't been willing to sell it to them. Many others downriver from us depend on it as well. One thing is for sure: when survival depends on very scarce resources, the basest characteristics of men will surface in a hurry.
Thanks PJD. When I was contemplating the region, Tennessee was being inundated and flooding almost everywhere was the norm. I think it key to read the transcript to the Goodman/Flannery interview at the DemNow link and to read his book The Weather Makers. The point being the global movement of the desert zones. US geography has done much to mitigate this movement in the SE for years, but the inertia present in the global climate system will eventually overcome the geograpical hindrance. A further problem in the SE is its soil and underlying geology; it's quite permeable and thus poorly holds water, a condition paving-over didn't help. A long time ago, I underwent Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, which is just outside Columbia, SC, and was amazed at the amount of sand and pine trees (at the time I'd lived almost exclusively in Northern California). I encountered lots of rain and about a foot of snow during my 6 months there.
Anyway, as any well versed student of the Depression will tell you, folks then held onto their property to the bitter end until forced to migrate. I expect a similar mindset to opperate today as folks pray for rain and for their house values to rise again. Along with Tom, I too wonder what will happen if the rains don't come in a timely manner. A lot of newbies there came from the Rustbelt; will they move back to an already economically depressed region they moved from for that very reason; will they repopulate Wyoming; will they attempt the 3,000 mile trek to the Pacific NW whose least exxpensive places to live (from a housing-cost POV) also have the least amounts of water? And if they held on till the bitter end, what monetary resources will finance the @ $1,000 it would take just for fuel and food (minimum) to get from there to here?
Some will be tempted, like COMarc, to call me a Doomer, when I'm a realist; like Tom, I realize we face some very tough problems and choices that are currently ignored by MSM and most politicos.
The U.S. is building a 'fence' along the border with Mexico. Most people assume that this fence is intended to keep illegals from entering the country. But the people with money have never seriously tried to keep out people who were willing to work for low wages and few benefits. So what might the fence be for? Perhaps it is intended to prevent a mass exodus FROM the U.S.A. by way of Mexico. After all, if the fence were intended to keep people out there would be no need for the large detention camps being built here in the U.S. which are already contracted ($385 million)to Halliburton. Great change is coming to Amerika!
This is not about "too many people" so much as it is about too many people who insist on certain lifestyle choices such as cutting down trees, overpaving, driving cars, consuming factory farmed produce, living in vastly oversized houses with air conditioning and energy guzzling appliances, etc.
And in turn many of their choices turn out to be limited by "company town" planning, zoning, and business policy that eliminates local producers, encourages monopoly and monopsony, encourages long haul trade and consolidation, etc.
The end result of all this exterminism -- extermination of all biota and cultural forms not deemed immediately useful to profit-taking -- is the devastation and maladaptation we see all around us. It can't be solved simply by having fewer people, so long as those fewer people still have an infinite appetite for consumerism. It can't be solved by containing consumerism, so long as the maldistribution of wealth and comfort remains so severe that billions are left wanting the most basic comforts. It can't be solved by any approach that insists on a single bandaid for a single symptom, because it's just that reductionist, isolating way of reasoning and thinking that got us painted into this industrial capitalist corner in the first place -- the idea that we could manipulate just one aspect of any process or situation (to maximise profit or "return") without consequences.
Barnes is right imho. Permaculture and more importantly the biomimicry and deep biotic intelligence required for permaculture, are the only way to rescue ourselves from the culture of contempt for the biotic realm, the machine cult of death, profit-taking, and "creative destruction". There is no free lunch, and all "profit" is taken out of someone's food chain somewhere. Now that the industrial cultures have ripped off just about every indigenous population, wrecked every biome within our fossil-enhanced reach, the profit is being taken out of our own food chain -- the process of enclosure and expropriation and "externalising" of costs has come home, as in the end it must.
Dealing with water scarcity is part of my job. Unfortunately, most of the people who come to me for assistance are in impoverished arid countries and are unable to pay even my transport costs to go and help them (otherwise I would waive my fee and go). The same problems are creeping in to North America, but they are not taken seriously by most here.
At any rate, there are simple solution: swales (water harvesting ditches dug on contour), keyline plowing (chisel plowing of land to assist in water infiltration, soil pitting and land imprinting to hold water and assist in plant growth, trees (nature's rain makers), water hierarchy strategies and greywater systems, constructed wetlands for waste treatment, small scale earthen dams and ponds, rainwater harvesting from rooftop and other hard surfaces. These solutions are out there and being put in use, they are cheap, they are sustainable, and they have ecosystem-enhancing qualities.
To read more of these and other sustainable solutions, I invite anyone and everyone to have a look at http://permaculturetokyo.blogspot.com/
Atlanta was the prettiest, most livable city in the US, if not the world, until the mad frenzy of the late 80s to develop EVERYTHING began.
I left my beautiful home town at that point for Charlotte, NC as I believed that Atlanta was going to be "destroyed", and backwoodsy Charlotte was a naturally attractive alternative.
I left Charlotte in 2002 for many of the same reasons that I left Atlanta nearly 20 years before and am hoping that the same fate does not happen to my new town.
My point is that Amerikkkan greed and hyper capitalism destroy EVERYTHING and need to be eliminated asap. "Freedom
isn't free", but apparently it is "DUMB" for all the psycho shrills that still proclaim our right to continue down this road to annihalation to the detriment of every body and everything on the face of the earth.
Absolutely SICKENING.
karlof1,
You should know that average rainfall in Atlanta is about 50 inches, Chattanooga it is about 55 inches, and Knoxville is nearly 60 inches. The nearby Smoky and Blue Redge Mts recieve about 90 inches per year. This is normally one of the wettest parts of the US. So, this isn't analogous to Phoenix or southern California. The stunning scale of the unsustainable suburban corporate-cultural-wasteland sprawl around Atlanta would keep me from ever wanting to live there either...
What about those suits they wear in _Dune_, has anyone considered that? Get Nike and the Gap going on the marketing and production - it could make this whole thing into a great boon for the economy.
Thank you, Tom.
Unfortunately, the fallacy of real estate laissez–faire and failing to integrate the environment into planning and public policy is coming to bite us like a great white shark. The land rights uber alles gang needs to be called on their destructiveness.
I have just started Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and had the opportunity to hear her speak.
It's not merely that the private sector is planning decades in advance. Examples of this are industries' understanding of peak oil, efforts to privatize water abroad and here, global warming and other megascale processes. The insurance industry understands global warming. They have for at least a dozen years, probably more. These industries have obstructed the public sector's knowledge and ability to respond. When one dollar=one vote, those with the most to gain by an ill-informed and misinformed public are winning out.
The crises which interact with each other have the very likely potential to bring about political, economic, social and military disruptions. The Pentagon report a few years ago acknowledged that if global warming were happening, the disruptions would be the greatest seen in several centuries. You didn't think that a report under the Bush Administration was going to acknowledge global warming, did you?
The level of fascistic efforts will increase under a gang that manufactures and utilizes crisis to grab power and further deteriorate the problems that we face rather than solve them.
Some of the challenges that we have are to challenge the information and lack of information we receive.
Based on the US Constitution and the intent of its authors, the failure of the media (then called free press) and that one of the government's duties is for the common welfare, the ability of mass media can be challenged in the courts. The consolidation of media is unconstitutional. We still have a Constitution, don't we?
Email this article to your friends. And Congress members. I had seen one Georgia Congress member criticizing the diversion of water under the Endangered Species Act as though the animal (fish, snail?) were a terrorist. He basically said, "You're either with the people needing water or you're with the (animal, terrorists).
Our lifestyle (Lord "Darth" Cheney) is changing. We can either have the information and insights into the upcoming and CURRENT problems or we can stay in the dark. If it's the latter, even heaven won't help us.
Dustinchicago, most desalination plants require lots of power and coins to run them. If Saudi Arabia can't afford to run enough of them to grow grain for themselves, do you really think that we can?
Atlanta's problem with water is going to be repeated throughout the entire South and Southwestern United States where untrammeled growth has created a situation which the local resources simply cannot support. Of course, complaining about allowing this insanity to continue is shouted down by "free market" advocates and deemed darn right unpatriotic. Well, they can keep waving the flag while they die of thirst.
We just need to start wearing Stilsuits.
Wow, nothing like listening to progressives hoping everyone dies.
I cannot help but take note of the symbiotic connection between our short-sided, squandering of two of Gaia's gifts---water and oil. We have acted as if neither would ever be in short supply, or their use/abuse would impact the other.
While most focus on oil and higher fuel prices, the growing phenomenon of drought has been largely ignored.
Gaia, like our own bodies, when we become dyhydrated, must allocate and ration the available water for her most critical systems. She must work with what is, and can only do so much to replace lost moisture. Earth is a complex and beautiful entity, and we are one small part of her "system." Like it our not, we are in no way critical to her survival--not at all.
She will prevail----despite the challenges we humans have thrown at her. She will neither reward nor punish based on individual behaviors----she will simply do what SHE needs to do to adjust and survive. She is already, if we look around.
The painful results of floods and fires are "our" perceived, and natural consequences. And it is thus our responsibility to work to alleviate the hardship and suffering that results. And to remember that the next fire or the next flood may hit our family or our community. What more perfect way could be devised to offer human being the lesson that we all are ONE? that we are all in this together?
If Americans aren't scared yet, they ought to be!
"Are there too many freaking people on the planet" or too many conservatives?
With no rain there will be no green lawns or trees or people.
Then there will be no need for coal fired power plants
and the entire world can breath again!
A single Southern Company plant in Juliette, Georgia already emits more carbon dioxide annually that Brazil's entire power sector. The company is in the top two of America's dirtiest utility polluters and sixth worst in the world.
About 2 inches of rain have fallen today where I live in Oregon. Water availabilty is one of my criteria for a sustainable bioregion in which to live, especially when factoring-in climate change. I once had a notion to move to the southeast, even looked at houses in greater Atlanta, but didn't for many reasons--all political. I wonder how depressed the housing market there will become as people try to unload their houses and escape? The same goes for the southewest, too. Some of the lucky ones will move to the northwest because it is the one region within the country predicted to stay moist.
Combine what's said in this article with the article describing the ties between dirty energy and BushCo and extend the drought until summer 2008 and look for a sea change from the media that Tom asks for.
"A Question No One Wants to Raise About Drought"
While reading this essay I kept hoping the question would be, "Are there too many freaking people on the planet?" Alas, I was disappointed. But I guess nature thinks the answer to my question is yes and is doing something about it.
On a lighter note, people should move to my area, western Kentucky. I think we've had rain every week since September 1, including nearly one solid week of rain. Although the entire state of Kentucky is shown as a drought region, it sure doesn't feel like it here. :-)
Dave
Tom Engelhardt has to be my favorite writer in "alternative-media"; I thank him for his curiosity, perspective and perseverance.
Is it time again to bring up desalinization technology to aid us? I know that technology is a false hope- and significant change must come from planning and conservation, a major and painful readjustment of American habits.
There seems still to be a disconnect between oil and price increases in just about everything. But water is so basic, so essential, that we might possibly be forced to see the problem. I know I can intellectually see a world without oil- but not water!
Please, Tom, continue your research. I would like to learn more.
Yo, Whittle, what're you doing about water?
I recall living in a forest lookout, my husband and I and consuming two milk cans full of water per week which had to be trucked to the lookout.
We did just fine. We took "sailors bath" which means a small pan of water and a washcloth and then use the water for washing socks afterwards.
We had an outhouse were we sprinkled some lime on it every once in a while.
It was a lot of fun for one summer at least.
We should develop methods to teach water conservation and think about it , there are things that can be done to conserve.
When (and if) the rains come to Georgia, they will come hard and fast and long. The dried out soil will not accept the water. Much of the water will make it into the reservoirs but much will simply flood the entire area. This will probably happen late next summer or fall as a tropical storm or hurricane from the Caribbean expends its strength and dumps its' water on the southeast U.S.
My in-laws live in Atlanta. The last time we were down there I was appalled at the totally uncontrolled sprawl and development. And they basically live in pine forests, like the coast of North Carolina where I grew up. Those things will go up like rockets if they get hot enough.
As for me, I have to be a better steward of my seven acres, which was way overgrazed this year. Half of my sheep, perhaps more, have to be sold or go into the freezer. And I am seriously looking into drilling a well. And putting in rain barrels. We've had some rain over the last few days and I was glad to see it, but things are really parched here and if this happens next year too, people are going to be in trouble. This is horse country, and if there is no pasture, you have to feed hay. Our hay crop was half of what it was supposed to be, and that was the first cutting in May. I've put my horses on pelleted feed because I didn't buy enough in May thinking I could get some later, and it's way expensive now-$10.00 a bale and climbing, because they're bringing it in from out West. My two pleasure horses eat one bale a day-multiply that by the hundreds of horses on just one of our local Thoroughbred farms.
So that's one economy that's going to be destroyed if this keeps up, and that's not even counting how we're supposed to grow food crops without water.
Leave it to Tom to look at the large view. We have been hearing about this or that region suffering a major drought forever, but I want to know has it ever been this extensive globally, but never addressed, or are we seeing something unprecedented.
I must take exception to the following comment he made: "...having, in recent years, lost one American city, New Orleans, at least temporarily." New Orleans is gone forever. What will arise in it's place will be a synthetic imitation without flavor. The people and their culture that made New Orleans what it was have been evicted. Money wins again.
A couple of years ago I met a woman from Australia who lived in an area of drought. She talked alot about their innovative solutions which included building homes that reused water in many ways; not a drop was wasted. We could learn alot from the Aussies, but I wonder if anyone is bothering.
Sad but important article. I too wonder what will happen as major American cities run out of water. Will there be panic and martial law? Is this what Bush is readying with his "national emergency" directives? Will people really shoot each other for water? Will roving bands of people make out for other parts of the country, guns in tow? Will squatters take to camping near lakes and rivers?
Ahhh the future - let's give more tax breaks to the ruling class. That's the ticket!
Sounds like a bad time to invest in Real Estate in Atlanta...
This article mentions conditions in a number of places which are located outside the USA.
Therefore, for most people within the USA, including so called progressives, they are of no interest whatsoever.
And the food value of corn is almost zero, especially when compared to all other types of grains, soybeans, other beans, vegetables, fruit and nuts. Corn is truly a wastful product, except to feed to cattle, hogs and chickens. Of course now it is grown to produce automotive fuel. ___ Humans are fools.