Increasing droughts, floods, heat waves, infectious diseases, storm surges on coastlines, and water shortages are predicted for the US and Canada as a result of global warming. The most threatened areas in the US are the Southwest, California, Alaska, the Atlantic coast, and the Gulf Coast. That’s about half of the country geographically and way more than half in terms of population.
Plus, the changes are happening faster than anticipated and water could become scarce.
Also on Monday, 11 retired U.S. generals and admirals said that worldwide water shortages caused by global warming were a “serious threat to America’s national security” and might drag the U.S. into fights over shortages of natural resources.
Hmmm, the only place the US could get extra water from is Canada… Be scared Canada, be very scared. And tell me, why a water shortage elsewhere would “drag” the US into a fight is something explicable only to imperialists, but then, they’ve never needed much excuse to invade other countries anyway.
What happens when major US cities become seriously impacted by heat, drought, floods, and disease? It won’t be business as normal anymore. Nor will it be a short-term thing that will somehow reverse itself in a year or so. What will the impact be to Los Angeles or Houston when they have serious long-term water shortages?
Increased temperatures means more use of air conditioning, which in turn means that more electrical power is needed. In Los Angeles, the grid is already maxed out during summer heat waves. Captain,the engines canna take it much more.
Conservation on many levels is what’s needed. Smarter appliances that use less power. CFLs instead of incandescents. Mandated cutbacks on water use. No, you can’t have a gorgeous green grass lawn if you live in a semi-arid desert. Lawns are water pigs. Ditto for golf courses in deserts (and there are hundreds of them.) Shut them down. Low mpg gas hog passenger cars? Ban them.
Much of the coming needed changes will have to be government mandated because business and people won’t do it voluntarily. That’s just the reality of what’s coming.
What happens when major U.S. cities face water shortages? See NoNevadaWaterGrab.com. It’s already happening. Las Vegas also wants water from Southern Utah, and we don’t have that much. Ain’t that rich? The driest state grabbing water from the second-driest.
Lawns are for people who don’t know how to grow food.
Many of the animals in our neck of the woods (including our chickens) would disagree: lawns ARE food! But certainly not the best bang for your bucket.
To hell with invading Canada. Look at the pictures from yesterday about the nor’easter. I say let’s invade Connecticut! (This should surely appeal to southern Republicans.)
BTW, the California acqueduct, which supplies much of southern California’s water, only delivers about 15% of its water to the cities in southern California. The rest is devoted to flood irrigation and other wasteful practices in California’s central valley, raising low-value crops like rice and alfalpha. Years of wate have been subsidizes by absurdly-low prices set largely by the Feds to support agribusiness.
And before anybody says anything about how this is typical of capitalism and socialism would NEVER do such a thing, take a look at what is probably the biggest environmental disaster in history: the cotton fields in Central Asia, created by the diversion of the waters running into the Aral Sea, which has virtually disappeared. To make matters worse, the fertilizers and pesticides used to grow the cotton have been deposited into the Aral Sea through runoff, and as the sea shrinks, the pesticides and fertilizers are exposed to the winds and deposited all throughout Central Asia and breathed in by the residents. And this done under a socialist government. Man’s ability to do stupid environmental tricks, alas, transcends the economic system under which the society operates.
Those unique boundries that make Cascadia inevitable, The Rocky Mountains, The Alvord Desert and confluence of The Oregon Cascade and California Sierra, preclude the diversion of our waters anywhere,/i>. [giggle, snort]
I probably should have predicated the previous with g’da woulda’ said something about lawns being for people who don’t know how to grow food, which I find to be a valid socio/anthropological comment on american society today. The opulent pretense of a blood sucking lawn masks the subconscious horror that were offal to make contact with an oscillating unit the super markets would close. Very, very,/i> few had a gun at eight, a pony at ten, and learned to garden at their grandparents’ knees.
Opulent, and pretense, being the operative words.
“Very, very,/i> few had a gun at eight, a pony at ten, and learned to garden at their grandparents’ knees.”
True, but some of had eight guns and bad knees when we should have been grandparents. As to the pony, well, we’re not that hungry yet. 🙂
1) Should evildoers try to grab Connecticut water, we will smear our borders with maple syrup, and when they get stuck, we’ll toss them in a poison ivy patch. Bwa ha ha.
2) Don’t be too sure about Cascadia being safe. There’s actually been plans proposed to divert Canadian rivers to the US Southwest.
3)Yes, the Aral Sea is one of the worst environmental catastrophes on the planet.
But CT maple syrup isn’t real maple syrup! It may not even stick.
On a more serious note, yes changes will have to be mandated, probably through taxes and fines. Americans think with their wallets (when we think at all). Only when it becomes prohibitively expensive to park a Hummer on your perfect lawn after a long, hard 100 mile commute will behaviors change. And it’s going to hurt. Those of us who live 25 miles from town will pay the price just as much as the rich folks in the ‘burbs.
This is precisely what Clusterfuck Nation talks about, how the exburbs will get creamed come Peak Oil time.
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/
Note to Bob: when the southern Republicans come, I’m rooting for you guys! And if I’m wrong, at least we’ll get your water!
Now, to smear your borders means facing the Long Island Sound. A maple syrup slick? Makes oil on the water sound positively pallatable!
They can have my maple syrup when the scrape it from my cold, dead fingers.