SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
CONNECTING THE DOTS
We stand toenail deep in water trouble: a future without a future
By Frosty Wooldridge
Re: “U.S. water supply is running out”/Glennon/Denver Post/ 8/30/09
In a special edition to the Washington Post, Robert Glennon warned about America’s looming water crises in all parts of the country. Stunning reporting! But he failed to connect and solve the question of overpopulation causing the problem in the first place. He offered 20th century solutions certain to fail in the 21st century.
When we run out of oil, we walk! When we run out of electricity, we hit the sack early. When we run out of water, we don’t eat and we cannot survive.
Why would you talk about the U.S. water crisis, but you avoid talking its source? Why do educated minds in the halls of newspapers everywhere report on environmental problems, but they refuse to connect them to the core reasons? What collective denial runs through the minds of citizens and leaders alike that allows them to disregard, deny, sidestep and dance around America’s looming and multiple environmental dilemmas?
Beats me! You see our water problems growing exponentially as our population grows in commensurate fashion. Every problem we face accelerates as we add sheer numbers.
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases of population, locally, nationally, or globally.” Dr. Albert Bartlett, CU professor
The United States, via immigration, adds 9,100 people daily, net gain to our population. That adds up to 3.4 million annually. That equals 100 million more people in 26 years!
Glennon said, “We should be paying more attention to another limited natural resource: water. A water crisis is threatening many parts of the country. In 2008, metro Atlanta came within 90 days of seeing its principle water supply, Lake Lanier, dry up. Lake Superior is too shallow to float loaded freighters. The Ipswich River near Boston has gone dry in five of the past eight years. In Florida, excessive ground water pumping has dried up scores of lakes.”
California faces a nightmarish future with water rationing and scarcities beyond solving. Thankfully, Glennon said, “The real problem isn’t shrinking water levels, but population growth. The U.S. expects to add 120 million people in four decades.”
Yet, we persist in ignoring the cause. Not one U.S. senator, governor, rep or the president speaks up, but in fact, hides from the discussion. Every major paper publisher in the U.S. avoids the population issue at all costs. TV networks dance a jig around the equation!
When we look to alternative energy, we fail to realize that it takes four gallons of water to refine one gallon of bio-fuel. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to grow enough corn to make one gallon of ethanol.
As I have suggested a “U.S. Sustainable Population Policy” to solve our escalating consumption problems; I encourage a “U.S. Water Usage Policy” that addresses future availability in conjunction with carrying capacity. We need a “U.S. Environmental Impact Policy for Humans” and finally, “U.S. Carrying Capacity Policy”.
As with any finite landmass such as North America, limits must be observed or Mother Nature enforces those limits with her own methods. No one escapes her rules and she always bats last.
Glennon suggested charging for water use. He suggested we conserve. He suggested de-salinization.
None of his ideas can or will work with continued population growth.
Therefore, let’s get down to brass tacks! Let’s engage population stability for the United States. Let’s inspire and educate the rest of the world. Let’s take action!
“Water is essential for all dimensions of life. Over the past few decades, use of water has increased, and in many places water availability is falling to crisis levels. More than eighty countries, with forty percent of the world’s population, are already facing water shortages, while by year 2020 the world’s population will double. The costs of water infrastructure have risen dramatically. The quality of water in rivers and underground has deteriorated, due to pollution by waste and contaminants from cities, industry and agriculture. Ecosystems are being destroyed, sometimes permanently. Over one billion people lack safe water, and three billion lack sanitation; eighty per cent of infectious diseases are waterborne, killing millions of children each year.” World Bank Institute
JIM WRIGHT, U.S. Representative, The Coming Water Famine, said, “The crisis of our diminishing water resources is just as severe (if less obviously immediate) as any wartime crisis we have ever faced. Our survival is just as much at stake as it was at the time of Pearl Harbor, or the Argonne, or Gettysburg, or Saratoga.”
It’s up to American and world citizens to push this issue to the forefront. Write to the papers below and other media outlets to bring the population issue to the media to make them deal with it. Can you imagine the following addresses receiving 10,000 emails tomorrow and another 5,000 this week! Let’s get busy!
Template letter: (make it your own)
Dear Mr. or Ms. Editor or Producer:
The United States continues as the third fastest growing country in the world as it accelerates toward adding 100 million by 2035. With our water, energy and resources depleting to dangerous levels in 2009, we cannot hope to solve our problems by adding 100 million more people. Will you set your writers, journalists and idea people to work to address this population crisis, and then, suggest new ideas on how to solve it such as a “US Sustainable Population Policy”; “US Water Usage Policy” and “US Conservation of Energy Policy”? Interview top experts across the country in politics, environment and population. We need to bequeath to our children a viable and sustainable future. Stabilizing population remains the key.
Sincerely,
John/Mary Q. Public
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