Posted on 10/26/2007 9:00:10 PM PDT by backtothestreets
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. Across America, the picture is critically clear — the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.
The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.
EXCERPT
Coastal states like Florida and California face a water crisis not only from increased demand, but also from rising temperatures that are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise. Higher temperatures mean more water lost to evaporation. And rising seas could push saltwater into underground sources of freshwater.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Let's be even more honest. As of 2003 Georgia had one hundred lakes in construction or awaiting approval. The problem is the Enviro whackos will block more lakes because of the destruction of a number of natural wildlife habitats. The very same excuse they have for not allowing us to keep the reservoir filled.
Lately there have been occurrences of the Corps of Engineers bulldozing private dams because they were said to block the natural runoff. Exactly the opposite of what you advocate by our Federal Government at work.
Have you ever visited Georgia or are you just assuming that we get water for millions of people from a garden hose on hillbilly creek?
Alabama does have those lakes. There is Lake Weiss (1961), Lake Logan Martin (1964), and Guntersville Lake, just off of the top of my head. West Point Lake (1974) starts in Georgia but extends into a large area of Alabama. There are several others
Alabama has 1500 square miles of man made lakes (Most in USA). That is 960,000 acres, more than twice what you suggested.
Meanwhile we’re getting two inches of rain this weekend in Pennsylvania.
It isn't so much the population boom as it is the uncontrolled building. Local governments are allowing new building without studying what additional infrastucture is needed. Water, roads, utilities, etc. are considered after the fact rather than before. Folks like me, who have lived here nearly our whole lives, have watched as one thing after another is reduced. We're down to watering our grass to once a week, while newly constructed areas can be watered whenever, for, I believe, up to 4 months.
Now, I'm not against growth or new construction, but we should put the horse before the cart rather than the other way around.
What we are starting to see is the result of decades of liberal environmental policy coming home to roost.
No new dams + no new highways + no new power plants + unbridled immigration -> a big mess.
bump to find later
The problems with many of the public schools across the nation are a prime example of exactly what’s wrong with the COE , EPA, etc. Too many liberals working in those agencies that are entrusted with doing ‘what’s best’. for the general population. However, it’s just a big smoke screen for liberal politics and forcing personal viewpoints (feelings) upon the general population to enslave the public into the liberal agenda.
At some point in time, someone has to accept the fact that the water supply is going to be a chronic problem for Georgia and the South Atlantic Division.
If and when that happens, a dual doctrine of riparian and prior appropriation rights will have to be adopted and will likely solve the problems.
States using the dual doctrine now are those that straddle the 98th meridian(TX, OK, KS, etc) and those that straddle the coastal mountains(CA, OR, WA)
The snowpack in portions of the Washington/Oregon Cascades has been good enough to support alpine skiing at the higher altitudes this year as late as August; in fact I’m not sure that they ever shut down at all. We’ve already had a few significant snows doen to the pass levels, with plenty more to follow as we get into November. Last winter was incredibly profitable for all of the ski resorts out here.
The benchmark for a good winter out here is usually that the ski resorts open by Thanksgiving. Any earlier is gravy...
AP should rename itself “The sky is falling!!!!”
Ten years ago Lake Superior was lapping over US41. The nut liberals blamed it on global warming. Now that the lake’s level has receded, the same liberal nuts blame it on - global warming.
When I remind these nature worship kooks that 12,000 years ago a glacier a mile or two thick sat here, they look dumb and stupid. When I insist that what melted the glacier were cavemen barbecuing mammoth, they don’t know what to say.
Some people are stupid by design. Liberals design stupid people.
The Bible was wrong. Money isn't the root of all evil. Environmentalists are.
Sadly all of Florida's glaciers have melted already.
One genius (really) said that the melting of the glaciers will cause billions to have no water. I defied him to name one major river system in the world that gets the majority of it's water from glacier melt.
When water does evaporates, the water molecules rise into the atmosphere, condense, form clouds, and return to earth as precipitation. It would stand to logic that more evaporation would mean more precipitation, not less, and there would be fewer areas of the world suffering drought.
Global warming theorists, by suggesting evaporation is a part of global warming, but lacking a significant increase in worldwide perception, are actually saying the water did not simply evaporate, but ceased to exist. At least that is my take on their global warming evaporation claims.
Yeah, rain even!
bump
I’ve no scientific proof, but am considering the erosion of polar ice and glaciers is caused by something quite the opposite of global warming. The lack of snowfall to replenish melting ice. For that I do depend upon scientific fact.
Folklore has it that sometimes it is too cold to snow. This particular bit of folklore is supported by science. The problem is not that it is too cold to snow. The problem is that the coldest weather is almost always associated with very high pressure and very dry air The driest place on earth is not some in some remote desert, but found in Antarctica. Typically, Alaska has less annual snowfall than cities like Chicago, Illinois and the Great Plains states.
Amid this phenomena are shrinking glaciers worldwide. It stands to reason that these glaciers would shrink if not receiving sufficient annual snowfall to replenish normal glacier melting.
Yes, poor government policies, not evaporation, is the cause of widespread water shortages.
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