Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Ogallala Aquifer Is Running Dry

Oh Lord, just saw this article. This spells very, very bad news for the MidWest, which is the breadbasket of America. This is the beginning of the 21st Century, folks. Water scarcity that defies our collective imagination. Whole continents will run dry, as the underground aquifers that have sustained them for the last century run out, never to be replenished. Case in point: One hundred years ago, India's water table was 6 feet below the surface. Buckets could be dropped into wells and pulled up by hand. Now India's water table is ONE THOUSAND FEET BELOW THE SURFACE, due to the effect of millions of wells and electric pumps sucking the continent dry for a century.

I can only recommend that you think about the future and what it holds. If you build a new building, consider building rain water catchment and a cistern into the project. Consider retrofitting existing buildings to do the same thing. Consider ways to reduce water consumption long term, and implement them. Try to put used water back into the water table, not into the storm drain system, which runs to the sea.

And actively vote against legislation which limits the people's access to water, to rain water catchment, to gray water use, etc. It's up to us to reign in the power of the multinationals and to keep them from using water as an economic weapon.

No comments:

Post a Comment