20
Apr
What Drought?
Atlanta continues to suffer from a drought resulting in the Governor’s ban on outdoor water. This is a difficult situation, but it is being worsened by the lack of public response. I can understand people not understanding water table issues and questioning a lack of water when we have had so much recent rain, but surely this should serve to mitigate any need to use water outdoors? It does not seem to do so, though.
When I sit in the car pool line at my children’s school and realize not only that mine is the only car unstained by pollen, but that it is the only one without gleaming hubcaps, I wonder what is going on. When I walk in my neighborhood and see the proud owner of a newly constructed house hosing off his front door step, or running his newly installed underground sprinkler system in the middle of the day, I really stop and pause. The other day there were two separate sprinkler systems running on my block, and a third homeowner was washing his SUV with bucket and hose. That people could show such disregard for their fellow humans testifies to the loss of community we experience and to the tragedy of the commons that put us in this mess in the first place (we’ll get to that in a minute), but that they should so prominently display it bespeaks an arrogance and self-conceit that is most distressing. I asked someone I know in the county water system what would happen if they were reported, and was told they’ll get a ticket - like a speeding fine. So for folk with a little money this is simply an honor system, and more realistically an opportunity for many to show that they have no honor but an inflated sense of their importance over their fellow man.
It is this self-conceit that condemned us to the current and I believe ongoing water crisis; if everyone would recognize water as a scarce resource and ration its use, we would have no drought; it is the gross overuse by people who drive the social norm to two showers a day, to having immaculate cars and verdant lawns, and to being members of exclusive clubs with lush golf courses that is the problem. How many people do you know who have really changed their behavior or the consumption for which they are really responsible? And do you really need to use as much water yourself, or to watch the societies and communities you support pour it away as they do?
Current Affairs Uncategorized
April 26th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I suppose that I agree. But IMHO this is just the current symptom (added to many others) of a metro area bereft of adult supervision. More specifically, there’s little to no responsible planning in and around the city of Atlanta. Moreover, our idiout republican governor has seen fit to seal the the city’s doom by supporting the seccession of afflulent northern suburbs. Some other more enlightned cities/states (e.g.,jacksonville, Inadianapolis and An Antonio) have had the foresight to incorporate the entire metro area into a common government structure. Not only od they have the opportunity to address their regional issues but the imperative.
Anyway, Garth, please take a look at the new HiP forum in Ning
http://healthoverip.ning.com/forum
May 17th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Gareth, I am delighted to report to you that I have written about water conservation in my gardening column in the Georgia Asian Times several times, and that I am also working with companies in the “green industry”, to help them survive the drought, gain greater visibility for their products and services and once again become profitable. Some are, unfortunately, not optimistic; last year alone, the industry lost 35,000 jobs in Georgia. On the positive side: the rain gods have been good to us so far this year.