Water water, nowhere and not a drop to drink

The glimpse is this: Colorado Ski season off to a slow start.  The bigger picture, however, shows that many places around the world are facing severe droughts: Australia, Atlanta, Ankara, Moldova, Morocco, Mexico's Tehuacán Valley, and the Southern California region all faces water shortages.  Atlanta, for instance, has been well documented in the media for the problems it current faces in light of what is turning into the most severe drought in their history.

Colorado's slow start to the winter is ominous.  The Colorado Rockies' spring melt feeds the Colorado River and fills various reservoirs downstream, including Lake Mead and Lake Powell.  Major metropolitan areas depend on that water, such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California.  What contigency plans are there if rain and snow doesn't come this winter?

Back in Colorado,

...it is even warmer and some major resorts weren't open for Thanksgiving, usually the first big revenue producer of the season. Telluride and Steamboat still aren't open. Money invested in snowmaking technology has made it possible for some resorts to open, but if they use the water now they might not have it if they need it later in the year.

Granted, I don't particularly shed a tear for the recreational skiers out there.  I grew up in the rural mountains of Colorado and saw more snow than any kid really should.  Let's just say I have about as much use for "fun" in the snow as Hillary Clinton does for another harsh critic.  The AP article goes on to discuss the variety of ski areas in western North America, pointing out:

The long-range forecast for much of the Rockies is for dry weather, possibly leading to drought in some areas next year. The Pacific Northwest, home to Whistler, is expected to be wetter than normal.

Trust me, Whistler should be fine this year.  I should know, after a pretty hairy drive from Whistler to Vancouver yesterday afternoon.  But the Pacific Northwest (or southwest, as they call it in Canada) generally doesn't suffer from a lack of moisture.  However, for other areas, longterm forecasts aren't very encouraging.   The Alternet article informs us:

the Southwest is in the grips of what, according to Davis, some climatologists are terming a "'mega-drought,' even the 'worst in 500 years.' " More shockingly, he writes, such conditions may actually represent the region's new "normal weather."

The upper Midwest is also in rainfall-shortage mode, with water levels at all the Great Lakes dropping unnervingly. The water level of Lake Superior, for instance, has fallen to the "lowest point on record for this time of year." (Notice, by the way, how many "records" are being set nationally and globally in these drought years; how many places are already beginning to push beyond history, which means beyond any reference point we have.)

And then there's the Southeast, 26 percent of which, according to the National Weather Service, is in a state of "exceptional" drought, its most extreme category, and 78 percent of which is "drought-affected." We're talking here about a region normally considered rich in water resources setting a bevy of records for dryness. It has been the driest year on record for North Carolina and Tennessee, for instance, while eighteen months of blue skies have led Georgia to break every historical record, whether measured by "the percentage of moisture in the soil, the flow rate of rivers, [or] inches of rain."

The above article goes on to inform us of Atlanta's near-term situation:

And then, there's Atlanta, its metropolitan area "watered" mainly by a 1950s man-made reservoir, Lake Lanier, which, in dramatic photos, is turning into baked mud. Already with a population of five million and known for its uncontrolled growth (as well as lack of water planning), the city is expected to house another two million inhabitants by 2030. And yet, depending on which article you read, Atlanta will essentially run out of water by New Year's eve, in eighty days, in 120 days, or, according to the Army Corps of Engineers -- which seems to find this reassuring -- in 375 days, if the drought continues (as it may well do).

The article goes on to point out very few journalists who are covering this story have ventured far into the speculation of what may happen if, in a few weeks or months, residents of the city turn on their faucets to find nothing coming out.  Perhaps the city government or even state of Georgia has some plans in mind, but trying to provide enough water for a city of millions would be a logistical nightmare.

This is the verdant Southeastern United States, which, thanks in part to a developing La Niña effect in the Pacific Ocean, now faces the likelihood of a drier than ever winter. And, to put this in context, keep in mind that 2007 "to date has been the warmest on record for land [and]... the seventh warmest year so far over the oceans, working out to the fourth warmest overall worldwide." Oh, and up in the Arctic sea, the ice pack reached its lowest level this September since satellite measurements were begun in 1979.

That's quite encouraging stuff, wouldn't you say?  Back in the American southwest, it should be noted that entire civilizations disappeared into the shadows of history when perhaps mega-droughts set in.  While we may fancy ourselves as highly modern, sophisticated people, our needs are still the same.  You can't grow crops, provide drinking water and run industry (such as the Coca-Cola plant in Atlanta) with Nintendo Wiis.  Politicians, such as Colorado's retired governor Bill Owens, will often turned to the tried-and-true method of enriching contractors: build more dams.  However, it doesn't matter how much storage capacity they may have if the rain and snow isn't falling.  Moreover, dams often cause more harm to ecosystems than they're worth as well as political boondoggles (for reference on this subject, I recommend Mark Reisner's Cadillac Desert).

These articles are more examples of the bigger picture: humans are going to be facing severe shortages of vital resources.  While we may bemoan Peak Oil and dwindling energy resources, the reality is we don't actually need oil to survive.  Humans were around for something like 100,000 years before folks in Pennsylvania started digging holes in the ground.  We do need fresh water.  So do plants and animals.  We've altered the climate and now face the consequences.  This is just yet another issue that Democrats, particularly at the Federal level (after all, the Federal government will be having to deal with the various disasters the couple themselves with droughts), must face head on.