by Gloria Allen

Created on: October 30, 2007

Govt. should ration energy. Rationing energy means adjusting to the ever-present reality that the world is consuming its' natural resources faster than those resources can renew themselves - this is essentially the dilemma outlined in UCLA professor Jared Diamond's recent brilliantly riveting book, Collapse. On one hand, people need natural resources to survive, yet on the other, they will no longer continue to survive if they overuse these resources. His book focuses on how a myriad of distant civilizations for the past several thousand years, up until the present have been chopping down too many trees - for houses; for fuel; for furniture and for paper. Many trees are also lost to forest fires. Rivers, lakes and streams disappear with no trees to bring shade and prevent evaporation. Cattle overgrazing, also leaves topsoil vulnerable to erosion, potentially causing landslides. Eventually, all that's left is a hot parched earth, with no ground cover. A desert where water evaporates quickly. That's where we are headed. Who is big enough to step up and put the breaks on mankind's selfishness, lack of foresight, lack of vision? Or will the inhabitants of planet earth all be forced to live in something comparable to a giant microwave oven?

The most-pressing issue that the world is faced with now - even more so than the most popular topic in liberal/left-wing discussions of wanting or needing solar energy, is water. Water is the most critical issue when we recognize that there is only 1% of clean drinking water left in the whole world, (Popular Science, August 2007 issue, "Engineering a Better Earth" page 50). It is the most important issue, more so than fuel consumption or needing more hybrid cars. And while yes, consuming less fuel and using clean solar energy, along with other renewables is definitely what the environment needs - still water is the most critical issue that our planet will need to confront immediately. This alarming fact, mandates that the heads of each national government worldwide assume firm measures to provide a safety net for their countries, or millions of people could likely die of thirst.

Federal governments worldwide should start contemplating some solutions to the water scarcity that is upon us, almost smack in our faces and yet, we are too blind to see it. They should immediately begin to:
1) Begin rationing efforts until
2) The solution is in place and even then
3) Re-think water usage and plan water conservation so as not to continue to

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