Before we excite too many people, for good or ill, let's put aside the debate about climate change for today. Just today. We can always pick it up tomorrow and begin arguing again.
A magazine conveniently called Nature Climate Change made news last week when it reported on research about how climate change might affect groundwater in the coming years. Now, any magazine called Nature Climate Change would seem to already have its mind made up about the topic, but there we go arguing again. That's for tomorrow.
What is certain, climate models or no climate models, is that people need water, at least every three days. (Our species needs it more often than others.) And not just to drink, but to water crops. A lot of that water comes from the ground, from underground lakes called aquifers. And those aquifers are diminishing fast. If Nature Climate Change's research is right, it might diminish faster in the future.
But even without global warming, mankind is making a mess of the underground. It's called the tragedy of the commons, a name we get from across the pond. If there's a common resource used by a lot of people, then we must make plans to share it. Else, if everybody just takes a bit more of it for himself, eventually the commons disappear and everybody loses. The classic example is of shepherds grazing their animals in the same meadow, but the lesson applies to water, too.
The government of the United States has been warning about falling levels in the aquifers since at least 1939. And the problem gets worse every year. Sure, rain and snow do their thing every year too, but Arkansas alone uses nearly 10 billion gallons of groundwater a day.
Not drinking, or washing. or watering isn't an option. So there must be others.
For a great example, we must look south.
The Texas Observer reports that El Paso, Texas, is drier than Windhoek, Namibia--"the capital of the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa"--and has no choice but to reuse as much water as possible, including treated sewage. It has gone through a decades-long educational effort to explain water conservation to the public.
Over the years, folks in El Paso drastically cut the amount of water they used, or rather misused. El Paso is still a thriving city, but folks aren't letting sprinklers pour water into the streets anymore.
There are other options, such as above-ground reservoirs. Arkansas already does a good job building those. Man-made lakes, conservation, education, breaking bad habits . . . . These are all musts if we don't want to live through a tragedy of our own commons.
Mankind has time. But not all the time in the world. In a few decades, something could go very wrong down below. And that is with or without global warming/climate change.
Things need to happen now. And, as a farmer might say, we need to hurry every chance we get.
Editorial on 01/28/2019