NBC News.com - The Last Drop: America's Breadbasket Faces Dire Water Crisis

[LiberalElite]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/last-drop-americas-breadbasket-faces-dire-water-crisis-n146836

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Editor's note: This story is one in a series on a crisis in America's Breadbasket –the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer and its effects on a region that helps feed the world.

VEGA, Texas–While a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows he’s staring into an abyss that many in Texas—and across the world—may be forced to contemplate.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Ya know, on a planet that's 3/4 water...

ya'd think there would be at least a little research on desalinization.

Sure, what we know how to do now is more expensive than drilling, but when there's nothing left to drill...

[BillZBubb]

2. You want to treat the symptom but not the problem.

There is more than a little research on desalinization. But the real problem is lack of rain due to the changing climate.

Even if areas like West Texas and Oklahoma could get enough desalinated water via pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico for crops, it would have to be extremely pure to keep salt residue from building up in the soil. Rising temperatures in all likelihood would also restrict what types of crops could be effectively grown. The outlook for the region is bleak.

[cerveza_gratis]

3. problem is overuse

From article: "Compounding the drawdown has been the nature of the Ogallala itself. Created 10 million years ago, this buried fossil water is–in many places—not recharged by precipitation or surface water. When it’s gone, it’s gone for centuries."

better to not have water intensive activities there.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. The problem is no water...

and we've had droughts in the past that we couldn't avoid-- the coming droughts we still won't be able to stop and they will be worse.

Big changes are ahead.

[aquart]

6. Pipe the excess water from the east. Ease their flooding. Ease our drought.

And a burst or leaking water pipe doesn't kill the land or the aquifer.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, LIberalElite.

[redruddyred]

7. it seems that every day we're hearing more news of resources nearing depletion.

every single one of these articles cite "overpopulation", and yet the fundies still insist that we should not have access to contraception. this isn't a women's issue any longer, it's a global problem.

[musiclawyer]

8. Huge swaths of the Ca Central Valley are fallow

Slowing down what was otherwise a relatively healthy economy. It will only get worse. So what you are seeing in Texas will happen in Ca ...