Some Red States Are Already Running Out Of Water

[MindMover]

Our national intelligence experts report that several states are already high and dry. Thanks to the GOP, they're also in complete denial about it.

April 3, 2012

Today is World Water Day and a U.S. report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence marks the day by predicting wars over water. With the world expected to add another two billion people by 2030, the report says that global water demand is likely to outstrip current sustainable supplies by 40 percent by then. Climate change will, of course, have an accelerating impact throughout the century.

The report also claims that the U.S. will have a new avenue for global leadership in helping to mitigate the problem worldwide, as it has expertise in water management in both the public and private sectors. If that's so, the D.N.I. has to explain why American towns are running out of water as global warming bites, sending the entire SouthWest into years of drought.

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154839/some_red_states_are_already_running_out_of_water?

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Someone like a leader has to start the ball rolling and we have to hit a strike.......

[NYC_SKP]

1. The good days are over. People need to get ready for water wars and food riots.

The GOP thinks we can drill, spend, and borrow our way into keeping up a fossil fuel based lifestyle like we had from the 1950's through the 1970's, but that would be a big fat lie, and one that far too many people don't challenge.

[shawn703]

2. They'll probably try to pipe water down from the Great Lakes

That comes up every so often. The Great Lake states have been pretty good about rejecting it so far.

[MichiganVote]

5. Not for sale. These states have invested nothing / h20 preservation.

[Voice for Peace]

11. there are human beings living in these dry states.

[shawn703]

12. And they have alternatives to taking water from a fragile ecosystem

Spending a little more time worrying about how to conserve water and less time on Obama's birth certificate is a good start. And if they don't have elected officials in office with the right priorities, they can exercise their right to vote to change them.

[Voice for Peace]

15. I'm saying there are human beings who will be thirsty

and water does not understand state lines, nor does thirst, and thinking along those lines isn't going to get us anywhere.

[MichiganVote]

20. Thinking people are going to dump the Great Lakes shipping,

convince Canada and several other bordering states b/c of thirst is not going to get anyone anywhere either.

Like I said, now is the time to start conservation efforts in the more arid areas of the country.

[shawn703]

22. I hope you're right

But all it will take is a few 1%ers pulling the right strings and that water will get shipped off before you know it. The politicians will sell it as the creation of thousands of jobs figuring out how to ship it out. If water is going to be a hot commodity in a few years you know those greedy fucks will figure out how to make a quick buck at the expense of everyone else.

[MichiganVote]

23. Anything's possible. People in southern/western states think that the Great Lakes

are a source of water that is inexhaustable. Not. Studies have already shown that even IF, and its a very big IF, there were conditions that necessitated transporting large quantities of water for people's "thirst", it would only be viable for between 1-3 years. And that's if the 1% wants to quench the thirst of the lowly 99%.

There are 100's of treaties surrounding the Great Lakes. This issue comes up all the time. The fact the matter is, if or when you buy bottled water, you are already quenching your thirst via Michigan water. Companies large and small make a lot of money off the water here and in the surrounding states.

Its just going to cost more, a lot more.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

28. There's more than one reason I don't live in red states.

[MichiganVote]

18. Then they better stop watering the golf courses/lawns

[Voice for Peace]

21. I have a hard time understanding how this thinking

is different than blaming the country's vulnerable for not being more together & successful.. for example, regarding health care, homelessness, poverty, racial oppression, addictions...

one day there will be human beings who need water, period, no matter how they've voted. And those of us living in dry states, who work to elect more sane people, will be thirsty too, whether we succeed or fail. I don't even have a lawn to water.

If pipelines can be built to carry oil, then there must be ways that the water resources of this country can be shared. Or federally, managed in such a way that new resources can be tapped, is it possible? I have friends who are building boreholes in Niger so the people there can have water. There must be a way. But to negate the people of a state, on account of the political culture, is not going to help.

[MichiganVote]

24. People in Michigan have very, very serious problems with

"health care, homelessness, poverty, racial oppression, addictions..."

Exactly what has your state given to the residents of Michigan?

Michigan, surrounding states and Canada already do "share" the Great Lakes water. You buy it when you purchase bottled water. Water is a commodity. So is wheat, apples and every other sustainable substance that humans need. You pay for those and states in dry areas will pay for water, provided the treaties are re negotiated. There are many, many treaties.

[Voice for Peace]

26. "Exactly what has your state given to the residents of Michigan? "

hmm

What I am saying is that when you talk about water
as if some will deserve it and some won't, it doesn't
sit well.

I could never have made it this far without the
kindness generosity and compassion of others.
If we don't cultivate those qualities more successfully
as human beings, then it may get ugly. It doesn't
have to.

[MichiganVote]

29. I have re read my posts and in no way do I infer or suggest that "some

will deserve it and some won't".

That is a complete distortion of what I wrote. What I did say is that Southern states/Western states have done -0-to deal with their h20 conservation needs. And in other responses I have highlighted the Great Lakes shipping, treaties and so on.

Please do not distort my posts in future.

[Voice for Peace]

31. In no way do I wish to distort your posts, please don't accuse me of that.

What I was originally responding to were comments
upthread that made me uncomfortable.

You are speaking practically about Great Lakes
water resources, and I know nothing about that.

I'm responding more philosophically & emotionally,
about how we're all in this together.

I sensed an attitude in some of the posts which sounded
to me like this: it's too bad for the states that are running
out of water, but it's their own fault because they haven't
managed their resources well, and no way are they going
to get our water. This is what I was inferring from posts to
which I responded.

If that's not at all what you or others intended to say, I'm
very sorry for misunderstanding. Genuinely!

We are all in this together. When the desperate times come,
the ones who look out for each other have the best survival
chances.

I have no wish, ever, to generate misunderstanding, distort
others' words or demean others' points of view.

[Voice for Peace]

27. ps, please be assured I'm not saying Michigan, or any other particular state, should

give up their water. But we keep seeing the crazy weather --
WAY too much water in some places, and not enough in others.
It doesn't seem impossible to find a way to make this work.

[raccoon]

14. I don't blame them. Remember, Great Lakes states residents, you can always secede.

(Feel I must add) Lol. Well, sort of.

[bongbong]

17. low levels

The Great Lakes have suffered from low levels for a few years now. I don't know what the current season is like, though.

[MichiganVote]

19. Continuing low.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

3. Don't worry,jeez,rick perry got it handled,

“I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God, and say, ‘God: You’re going to have to fix this,’” he said in a speech in May, explaining how some of the nation’s most serious problems could be solved.

[mainer]

4. God's will. 'cause you were sinners. No government help. Etc, etc.

All the usual red state slogans should apply to red states.

[RC]

6. And still very few have figured out that there are way too many people for this world to support.

The root cause are too many people. From global warming, to water shortages, to wars, to entire species going extinct almost every day.

[markpkessinger]

7. And the GOP response will be ...

... something along the lines of, "Periodic drought cycles are naturally occurring events, the precise cause of which may never be fully known or understood." They will then go on to assert that there is "no proof" that global warming is even occurring, or if it is, that human activity contributes to it. And they will conclude by saying that, likely as not, "global warming" is a "sham concocted by greedy, well-connected university scientists in search of grant money."

Mark my words. And sadly, America's burgeoning idiot class will buy it, hook, line and sinker.

[Domingo Tavella]

8. The red states secret weapon...

The red states believe they have a secret weapon for battling weather-related issues: The power of prayer. Not long ago, the Governor of Georgia called on the people in his state to pray for rain to come, and a few months later the Governor of Texas - the ever so intellectually enlightened Mr. Rick Perry - did the same thing. I don't know if their prayers were heard up above, but tens of millions of evangelical folks praying vehemently together might have had some effect on the laws of Physics. Based on this experience, the entire South should consider joining in an effort to use their secret weapon to replenish their aquifers, all the while still maintaining, appropriately, that climate change is a liberal hoax. Of course, in the exceedingly unlikely event that Frothy Santorum were to win the nomination, prayers to affect the course of natural or man-made events could be elevated to the national level. Such efforts would not be limited to the weather, but they would also address the deficit and other economic ills. In a paradoxical way, this water issue in the South might be a blessing in disguise by making people aware that there are ways far more effective and less expensive than science to change the physical world.
PS: I am new to DU - came here after being repeatedly censored by the NY Times comment monitors.

[MindMover]

9. Welcome and rest assured you will be watched and .....

[Esse Quam Videri]

13. Welcome to DU

[yortsed snacilbuper]

10. Texas Town to Recycle Urine!

The drought in Texas has gotten so severe municipal water managers have turned to a once untenable idea: recycling sewage water.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/urine-sewage-water-supply-recycling-drought-110805.html

[MelissaB]

16. Here in San Angelo, we're building a pipeline that contains water contaminated with radium.

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/feb/26/racing-with-the-clock/

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/jun/03/brady-residents-discuss-water-fears/?print=1

I wish we could get the heck out of here.

[Danascot]

25. Here's a hint

A scarce resource becomes easier to monetize. It's not a problem, it's an opportunity (for those with power).

[MichiganVote]

30. Water has always been monitized.