Yes, two-headed sharks are real. You can read about the problem here. Meanwhile, we’re staying away from the beach.
The United States has grown too accustomed to a constant source of clean drinking water that is no longer sustainable
Ah, coffee. While I can imagine a morning without it, such a tragedy does occasionally happen, I don’t want to even think about such a horrible state. That hot water and a crushed bean could bring so much life and happiness to people is simply amazing. While I’ll admit to being a coffee fanatic, I’m by no means as obsessive about it as some I’ve seen. I like mine black, moderately strong, but not to the point that the acidity upsets my stomach. No sugar. No cream. No foam. Just pure, simple coffee. Those of you who get all upset about half-this, whipped-that are just crazy.
Now, imagine a world without coffee. As horrible a condition as that sounds, it could happen, and it may happen much sooner than anyone would like. Even without any external events involved, the sheer number of people on the planet, well over seven billion now, is beyond the level of sustainability. We’re going to run out of clean water. We’re going to run out of coffee.
The country has been relatively transfixed on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan this past week. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has, justifiably, been on the hot seat and universal condemnation of the city’s poisoned water supply has been laid on his doorstep. And while there is plenty of blame to be spread not only among the Governor’s office but other agencies as well, finding a solution to the problem is much more challenging than first thought. People of Flint are having to deal with the reality of not having a ready supply of clean drinking water, and that reality is quite frightening.
As much as I am sympathetic toward the plight of those stuck living in Flint, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the crisis there might, possibly, be a good thing for the rest of the country. Why? Because the whole reason this issue has gotten national attention is that every city in the country is just as vulnerable as Flint was. What happened there could happen here and the odds of such tragedy are increasing on a daily basis. The situation is not new. We’ve been on the precipice of disaster for several years. The tragedy in Flint, though, has awakened our senses to the issue of clean water like nothing else could.
We’ve had water disasters before. Just this past year, an oil spill into the Yellowstone River threatened drinking water. We, as a nation, yawned. The Environmental Protection Agency, the very people who are supposed to help us keep water clean, took responsibility for a giant waste water dump at Gold King Mine, near Silverton, Colorado. An oil spill along the coastline at Santa Barbara, California affected cities and beaches and even roadways all along the coast. Manure spills put the Green Bay water supply at risk. An ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to pollute waters there will little being done to remedy the problem. All of those things happened, received attention from the press, and the US population, as a whole ignored them.
Those are just the most recent tragedies in an ongoing global crisis that is just now beginning to impact our privileged society. We’ve known about the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa for decades, but because it’s not right here in our back door we’ve turned a blind eye to the millions of people who lack proper sanitation and clean drinking water. Some might occasionally cut a check to NGOs such as The Water Project, but once the check is in the mail we don’t give the matter a second thought. We think we’ve done our part. We don’t realize the extent to which it is our own overuse, our own over-industrialization, our own lack of careful water use that has contributed to the larger global crisis.
Just how bad is the situation? Consider these facts:
We haven’t given much thought to the water crisis until now because it has always been “somewhere else.” We’ve been more than content with letting other countries deal with their own problems. The crisis is coming home to roost, though.  Last April, California Governor Jerry Brown placed restrictions on water consumption across the entire state. Many complained that the restrictions were too severe, but as the state faces a continuing drought conservationists are concerned that current restrictions may not be enough.
Here’s the thing: our very lifestyles contribute to the severity of the water shortage. Americans waste more clean water every time we flush a toilet than many people see in a month. Our national lack of industrial oversight pollutes our water supply on an ongoing basis and we get extremely upset with any effort to curb such industrial use. States such as Indiana have even fought back against restrictions in the Clean Water Act because “they would prove too expensive to implement.”
Maybe, just maybe, the water crisis in Flint is a good thing. Maybe seeing people there struggle will be the wake-up call we need to realize that our current water habits are killing our water supply.
Imagine life without coffee. If we don’t push for dramatic change, and quickly, that is exactly what is going to happen. Flint is just the beginning.
An Early Morning
[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Pollution is an interesting topic, don’t you think? With all the environmental talk these days having turned to the matter of global warming, we have to wonder whether anyone is paying attention to actual pollution anymore. What tops that, though, at least in my heavily weighted opinion, is that we tend to think of pollution as an outdoor thing when indoor pollution is every bit as deadly. No, I’m not kidding. Your gas is shortening people’s lives, man. You need to lay off the burritos.
According to figures released by The Lancet, a respected medical journal, indoor pollution is just as much a contributor to death, 2.9 million people, as is outdoor pollution. Put the two together, and pollution suddenly jumps up to the second leading cause of death in the world, even more than smoking. No matter where we turn, there is so very little fresh air left on the planet it’s a wonder we are still breathing at all. The oxygen we need to survive is running preciously thin and every time you open your mouth you are putting someone else in danger. There, how does that make you feel? Not good, huh?
And just why do we have so much indoor pollution? Someone forgot to crack a window. Seriously. Inadequate ventilation is responsible for 53% of indoor pollution. I know researchers will try to say that it is poor ventilation in factories that are the most threatening to the greatest number of people, especially in developing nations where workplace regulations about air quality are non-existent. But something tells me those researchers would have a different opinion if they’ve ever been hotboxed in a car with three teenage boys who just stopped at Taco Bell®™. Noxious fumes capable of peeling paint come out of the human posterior. Don’t try telling me that stuff isn’t shortening all our lives.[/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]In  an ultimate display of human stupidity, we have chosen for years to completely ignore the matter of pollution. We know it’s there. We know we’re causing it. But the people who control the money are afraid if we do things to clean up this incredible mess we’ve created that it might eat into their over-inflated bottom line. The late (thankfully) President Ronald Reagan tried blaming nature itself for causing the majority of air contaminants. While technically that charge is true, there is one big difference between natural contaminants and manufactured contaminants: nature cleans up its own damn mess, humans don’t.
Yeah, that’s right; the rebellious act of not wanting to clean our rooms as children has spread to the whole damn planet. Wherever we go, we make a mess and we don’t want to clean it up. In a way, the fact that our pollution is killing us is probably just reward for being the colossal brats that we are. One might even go so far as to say that choking on our over-industrialization is nature’s way of attempting to eliminate the problem. We ruin the air we breathe, we die, the air becomes clean again. Isn’t that the way nature works?
Of course, it’s the poor who are most likely to die from the effects of pollution, and the poor don’t have a voice in the political decisions that have turned our planet, indoors and out, into a giant cesspool of stinking corporate flatulence. Those who have the money for expensive air purification systems don’t worry about the health of those who don’t. The same jackasses who won’t roll down a window in the car are laughing about hotboxing the entire planet.
So here’s a message from the planet to humanity: Hey people, you stink. Clean up your shit or leave. And cut back on the burritos. Enjoy the picture. Thanks, Earth. [/one_half_last]
Unintended Consequences From Reduced Pollution
The world, especially the northern hemisphere, has been consumed with reducing pollution for over 50 years. Compare the skylines of major cities today with those of 50 years ago and you’ll see a startling difference. A lot of effort has been put into reducing the smog and belching smoke that covered our skies as the post-WWII industrial boom built an economy on manufacturing. Now, our manufacturing is cleaner, and our skies are bluer. You might think that this is a good thing.
Not so fast there, slim. A study published this last Wednesday (April 3), tells us that those cleaner skies contribute to global warming. The multi-authored paper, “Recent reductions in aerosol emissions have increased Earth’s energy imbalance, “calculates that cleaner air could account for 40% of the increased energy warming the planet between 2001 and 2019.” Stop and think about that: FORTY PERCENT. That almost sounds like something we might expect from a conspiracy theory nut. Nope. This is 100% science.
To some extent, this isn’t new news. We’ve known for a while that less pollution has an impact on warming. Pollutants reflect more light into space and increase the number of droplets in clouds, causing them to grow brighter or last longer. That has the net effect of keeping solar energy out of the atmosphere. Kill the pollutants and the solar energy increases. What this new study shows, however, is a significant impact much larger than scientists had expected.
Falling pollution levels aren’t the only factor, though. Pollution has fallen primarily in the northern hemisphere because, duh, that’s where the majority of manufacturing takes place. However, the increase in warming is the same across the planet, including the southern hemisphere where there never was a severe pollution problem. How do we explain this?
The answer reveals a cause-and-effect type of situation. As the planet has grown warmer, snow and ice have melted leaving dark land masses in their place that absorb more light. At the same time, warming also causes low clouds over large bodies of water to dissipate. That blue ocean is a dark blue that, you guessed it, absorbs more heat. This is why we’ve been seeing more active hurricane activity in recent years.
How do we solve this problem? The paper doesn’t say. What it does say is that it takes a long time to see the effect of pollution reduction, decades in fact. We may not yet realize the full impact. Making matters more challenging is that some of the tools used to measure the aerosols are going offline before new ones are in place. There will be years where no one has a clue how much change is taking place, only the knowledge that it’s happening.
No, this isn’t going to cause the world to end any fast. You still have roughly five billion years for that, give or take a century. However, you might want to check the SPF on your sunscreen going forward.
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