Big Dogs Weblog

The Next War

by Blake on May 6, 2009 at 12:58 Political

This is the second post I will have written today, concerning the environment and its related concerns, but I felt that, considering Barama likes to compare himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt, this subject has been overlooked amidst the concerns about the job market and “Global Whatever” the slogan du jour is today.

This subject is water- not the bottled kind that we pay outrageous prices for, but the substance without which nothing grows, or even lives.

The reason for my concern comes from reading an article penned by two people, Ron Sass, and Jim Blackburn- one a professor of Natural Sciences, and the other, an environmental attorney.

The article concerned the deaths of 23 Whooping cranes, an endangered bird that was brought from the edge of extinction at 16 birds in 1941, to 270 birds in the present day. The ostensible reason for the die- off was the drought in central Texas, which reduced the flow of several rivers, and increased the salinity in the bays where the cranes spend the winter in Texas. These men say that these crane’s main food, the blue crab, was notably absent, due to the high salinity of these bays.

What these men do not say, is where do the cranes spend the summers, and are there crabs there, or do they adapt and eat different foods? Mind you, I am not trying to be contentious here, or even criticize these men for their concern for these cranes- I have been a wildlife songbird rehabilitator for ten years, and I have great empathy for the birds.

But these men are also possibly part of the same environmental groups that have opposed the construction of lakes and dams in my state for years, all on the premise that one animal or another would be displaced from its native environment. Well, I have news for these enviro- nuts. Birds fly, and animals will move somewhere else if their present area floods. They have common sense, and an acute sense for survival.

And here is the crux of the matter- if people are forced through short supply to use all the water, then that is what will happen, and the animals will not matter. The only way we can work this undersupply of water, is to create more lakes for potential water supply. We cannot simply rely on the rain to fall where it will, we have to get ahead of the curve.

The Ogalalla aquifer runs from Canada in the north, south through the Dakotas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, a huge supply of underground water- but the level of this water supply has been falling 30 feet per year, and the rate is increasing, because the snowmelt is no longer adequate to recharge this aquifer. The demand is too great. The same can be said for the other aquifers under our lands. The demand simply exceeds the supply, because the human race has exceeded sustainability under existing conditions.

So now we must change the conditions, we must create and store more water, for without water life is sparse, to say the least. Everybody turns on the tap, or the shower, and simply expects that water will flow. There may come a time where that will not happen, unless action is taken now.

In Texas, we have a law, called the Law of Capture, meaning that you can drill a well, and suck as much water out of the well as you wish, even if it drains your neighbor’s water supply. You can sell this water, and that is what companies like Ozarka and Nestle do to the natural springs that, in many cases, are the principal water supply of many towns- well, under existing law, that’s just too bad- they have the right to do this. They can pump until there’s nothing left. This is a prime example of the difference between what is right, and what is legal, and this law should be changed.

But the big thing is the increase in construction of lakes and dams, a la Roosevelt era, because if we don’t get ahead of this problem, there will be severe consequences a a result of our lack of action. This is something that would be a positive use of all the “stimulus”, and would positively benefit the future of this country as little else I can think of. Lakes and dams take many years to create, and if you combine hydro- electric power plants with this existing need for water, you have a win- win situation.

If a president cares about his legacy, this would be a positive for any one, as this action would affect future generations in a positive way, and in the long run, also help many animals, who, trust me- will adapt.

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Tags: aquifers, power plants, water, whooping cranes