post card Water I

Our trip continues. Today, we're in Roswell, NM (que eerie music). We drove through some pretty dry areas today. It seems that the rain has not blessed this part of the country. But here isn't the only place.

There are a number of places around the United States that are hurting for water. The middle of the country is of special concern to those of us who live there. Our aquifer is being drained about a hundred times faster than it recharges. There are already irritated noises coming from Kansas and Nebraska about a water agreement made years ago that is drying some farmers out of business.

The southeast US has had its own share of water shortages and upper Florida is worried about the Everglades drying out. One community in Arkansas, a well watered state, was down to about three weeks water supply before the last round of storms brought levels up. These are real problems. They won't just go away if we ignore them.

We are facing climate change. How serious and what effect it will have on us as individuals is an unknown. Oh yes, lots of people are willing to put their guesses up as fact. But none of us really knows how the changes will affect us.

Never-the-less, we can do something. I'm not talking about showering together or watering gardens on odd numbered days. We are going to need a national water policy and a group to oversee it. The Corps of Engineers won't do. It has its own agenda to look after. They do a fine job of flood control along rivers and building dams to make more lakes for recreation. That is their mind set and it just won't do for this problem.

I'm going to think about this and do more research. In the mean time, recommended reading is "The Cadillac Desert".