You will do your work on water
An' you'll lick the bloody boots a
'im that's got it
Far more foreboding than peak oil crisis is the fresh water crisis. And while wars will continue to be fought to control who gets the last drops of oil that can be pumped out of the ground, the BIG problem for humans (and all other living things) will be access to sufficient quantities of potable water. This Elizabeth de la Vega article on U.S. water policy (fractured, ad hoc, haphazard mish-mash) comes to Common Dreams via Tom Dispatch -- a must read. I hope the Obama team has a plan. De la Vega's article concludes:
The lives of approximately 11 million people in ten Midwestern states have been upended and — in far too many instances — devastated by this year’s wave of Mississippi River floods. The damage and the pain are immediate and ongoing. In California, too, the nightmare continues for the thousands of people who lost their homes and loved ones. Since May, there have been 1,700 wildfires sparked by lightning here; more than 300 are still raging, and 752,000 acres have been scorched. The fire “season” in the West is now year-round; reservoirs in the southeast are still depleted; fish are dying in the Great Lakes; our water is medicated with pharmaceuticals; the lost wetlands have not miraculously reappeared; and the hurricane season looms for at least three months to come.
One could argue that a fractured, ad hoc, haphazard mish-mash of random, inconsistent, and stove-piped projects, administered by a hodge-podge of 36 congressional committees and more than 20 agencies in accordance with outdated and inadequate laws constitutes a national water policy. A de facto one. But with so many ignored aha moments followed by ever-more-frequent and disastrous uh-oh moments, it seems we could use a policy that’s not quite so dependent upon sandbags and fire hoses.
