One day, in the not so distant future, we may be fighting wars over water! War with other countries is bad enough, but the future water wars may pit state against state, or one water rich area of the country against the drought stricken.
The average person is unaware of the numerous droughts going on in the USA today. From California to Florida, to Alabama and Minnesota, many areas in America are suffering under drought conditions. Lakes are drying up with the lowest levels on record. Crops are failing, and in some areas it is so dry that nothing grows at all! In the hot, dry southwestern states drought conditions are now considered the new norm in many areas!
If you are a well owner, the day may soon come when you will have to dig a new, deeper, well. As water tables get lower and lower all over the country, rural home owners are faced with the ongoing hunt for elusive, fresh, pure water supplies. Every area is different, but now most wells are over 200 feet deep, and within a few years that depth may no longer be adequate.
Farmers are pumping water out of deep aquifers faster than nature can replace it. America feeds the world, and this is part of the price we are paying for it. Our huge, vast, underground stores of fresh water are being used up, and once it is gone, it's gone for good! It took many millions of years for nature to create these natural resources and now, it takes man only a few hundred years to deplete it.
So what is going to happen out west when they can no longer rely on irrigation, when the snow pack off the mountains is no longer large enough to provide water to a thirsty population? One solution is the Great Lakes. One of the largest fresh water sources in the world, the Great Lakes is a vast supply of fresh water that seems inexhaustible. If those dry southwestern states wanted to establish a pipeline from the Great Lakes across the country to California, what do you think is going to happen?
I can tell you, a pipeline of this sort may well provoke a civil war. The states around the Great Lakes have their own problems with ever decreasing water tables. Many communities have water conservation in practice during summer months, and just about every rural citizen is aware that their well could go dry at any time, and they will have to dig a new, deeper, more expensive well. Just about everyone is aware that water may become as precious as gold in the future.
Adding to all of this is the way other areas of the country perceive the water problems of the southwest. People in the Midwest states see the big cities of California, and other places in the southwest as being water wasteful, and they would be hard pressed to give up their back up water supply which is the Great Lakes, to a state they feel squandered their water supplies foolishly away. It makes little sense to the Midwest farmer to plant crops in areas that need constant irrigation from iffy water supplies, a farming practice that is prevalent in California. With Northern Minnesota having a severe drought of it's own, it would be unlikely that they would approve of a water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the states out west, or anywhere else for that matter.
The Colorado River supplies water to 30 million people in seven western states and Mexico. Right now, the reservoirs it runs into are only half full, with little hope of improvement in the future. Midwesterns would tell those people in southwestern states to relocate to a place that has a more stable water supply. Obviously the southwest is now under almost constant drought conditions. Why would anyone want to continue to live in such an ecologically fragile area? It is time to face the facts that the southwest cannot and should not support large populations. There simply is not enough water in that area, and there probably will not be enough in the future either.
The drought in the southeast is another matter. Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas and Mississippi are all suffering from drought conditions with failing crops and lower lake levels and lower water tables. Unlike the southwest, these states are not chronically dry. It makes more sense to want to help out these states, because drought is not a permanent part of the climate, as it has come to be in the southwest. It is reasonable to expect this area to make a full recovery, and probably not suffer drought again in the near future. However, if these areas became chronically dry, then it would be time for some of the people to relocate to an area with stable water supplies.
It all comes down to common sense. People cannot expect to live in a dry, water deprived area and have water pumped into that area from other parts of the country, especially if dry conditions have become the new norm in that region. It is simply not economically feasible. Don't plant crops in a desert area which needs to be forever irrigated from dwindling supplies of water. Just because we can do something does not mean that we should!
Lack of water brought down the great Mayan civilization which was around for a very long time compared to us. Technology might be able to solve the oil problems of the future, but it cannot save us from drought. There is no substitute for rain. It will be up to each one of us not to waste the fresh water that we do have, and to move to a different location if there is prolonged drought where one is living. It will come down to relocation or war, the choice I hope, will be relocation.
If we have to, we can live without oil, even if it means living like the Amish. People will find it hard to adapt to a simple lifestyle, but in the end they would do it. Water, on the other hand is not an option. If you don't have fresh water supplies, you simply die. I would think the water issue would be of the utmost importance to national security. And, if we do have to fight other countries, or even other states over water supplies, pray to God that you are on the winning side!