Dealing with the Water Crisis

Here’s a fabulous episode of the widely syndicated radio show Fresh Air, featuring ProPublica investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten discussing the crisis of water shortages in the American west.

Climate change has brought about severe and apparently unending droughts here.  We all hope for a year of heavy rains that fill up some of our depleted waterways and reservoirs, but after these many years, there have been nothing but disappointments.

The drought has had extremely visible effects, some of which receive a decent amount of news coverage, for instance the drying up of Lake Mead due to the shrinkage of the Colorado River.

I found many interesting potential solutions to the problem.  For example, if we tear down the Glen Canyon Dam, and let the water that is currently in Lake Powell run down into Lake Mead, we will have greatly reduced the rate of water loss to both evaporation and leakage back down into the Earth’s crust.  This will result in a 10% increase in available water from the river that serves much of the southwestern part of the country.

While 10% is a huge amount, it’s clearly not a long-term fix for an effect of global warming that will only grow worse.

What I find most frightening is that there is very public awareness of how catastrophic conditions could become, particularly for the farmers who grow our food.  And there is virtually no willingness of the part of the public to participate activities aimed at ameliorating the situation – like cutting back on meat.

Lustgarten  was asked what he thought it would take to change this and engage the public meaningfully, to which he replied: empty shelves.  “As long as food is universally available, very few people will get involved.  When we go to the grocery store to buy carrots, we always find carrots. Until that’s no longer the case, don’t look for anything to change.”