In a surprise move last night, Buffy joined the other 6 cats already on the bed by climbing onto my head. She then proceeded to do her “happy paws” on my scalp, which of course, woke me up. It didn’t awaken me because it was painful or uncomfortable but because it has been weeks since the vampire kitty has been able to “have the neck” –she is generally too frightened of the other cats to come near when they are about and, since they’ve learned how to open the bedroom door, they are always about. So after my initial “ah yay Buff Buff” thought, my thoughts turned to what everyone else thinks about when awoken at 4 a.m.: global water resources.
What? Doesn’t everyone else think about this issue in the wee hours of the morning?
For those of you who don’t know, our region is in the midst of a quite severe drought that has been going on for the past 4 years. We’ve had way less rainfall and snowfall than we generally get and far far less than we need in this arid desert region. For those who don’t know, right now the mid-west in the U.S. is getting far more rainfall and snowfall than they usually get and far far more than they need –in fact, they are being seriously flooded with lots of loss of life and damage to property and so forth occurring. The U.K. also got hit with severe flooding this year.
So my 4 a.m. thoughts ran something like this: Such a shame that those poor people are being flooded and us poor people are water-deprived. They’ve gotten more water in the last 2 weeks than we’ve gotten in a full year. All that lovely water is running amok in people’s houses and then will eventually drain out to the sea and become salty and even of less use than when it is destroying property and washing out roads. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way to move all that water from places it isn’t needed to places that it is? If our global warming trends and climate changes continue, at some point water will be worth more than oil and will go for a pretty penny. Then I fell back asleep.
This morning, however, the 4 a.m. thought was still with me. Why don’t we come up with ways of capturing water from places that are getting more than enough, thank you very much, and moving it to places that are parched? This would benefit both the “you will be flooded else” people and the people who are going to soon need to cut down on the number of showers they take else.
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I just shoveled 5 inches of snow off my driveway.
Where do you want me to send it?
Hi Jennifer, please send it to Wellington NZ, we have a drought too!
Lol yeah, yeah! No now seriously, imagine if like instead of sending out just plain snow plows they sent out plows that scooped up and deposited (or sucked up) snow from roads into nice big bins where it could then be transported to a ahem melting pot and then shipped in big containers across the country to droughty areas and across the oceans to places like us and New Zealand and so forth! Maybe have a water pipeline (like yo, we have oil pipelines why not ones for water long-distance?) Would this not be a more cost-effective measure than dealing with flooding after the snow melts, countries fighting each other over water rights, plague and starvation in places because of no water for crops and on and on!
yo baby, send us your snow!
Many years ago when I was living in Germany where it constantly rains I joked to my friends living in the Southwestern American desert that we could build a pipeline to get them the water.
Actually, I think some day there will be such pipelines. Now I am living in the Southwest desert and while there is no reason to panic, people should think about water issues. Sadly right now any attempts to store water by expanding artificial lakes are usually thwarted by so called environmentalists. Therefore lots of water gets drained uselessly into the sea even here where we need water.
Another big topic has to be a more intelligent use of the land. Contrary to what most people think it is not the population that is at issue. For example in Arizona over 70% of the water is used by agriculture for irrigation and not for drinking or filling pools. But it is very questionable to use so much precious water to grow thirsty plants in a desert soil where they normally never would grow. At the same time vast areas of agricultural land in the rainy midwest are not being cultivated at all. Or to say it in shorter words: we must stop growing rice in the desert. I don’t know if Israel has similar issues with its agriculture, but that is an area where much water waste can be avoided.
Actually, I’m in that rain hit belt you were talking about. We got 8″ a couple nights ago if that tells you something. While it has been a way lot all at once (although I confess I find it ironic that a town in MO named Pacific got flooded out) we actually needed it. The last couple years we’ve been in a drought as well. This is the first winter in 3 that we’ve had snow when that use to be a normal occurence. We also got a lot of ice storms this year which sucked. But the point is, the last 3-4 years our rainfall has been WAY below normal so while this seems overwhelming, I suspect the Earth beneath our feet is glad to receive it. It just isn’t the midwest-Ohio valley either. Atlanta came within 60 days last year of running totally dry and the Southeast has been in one of the worst droughts on record. So any rain they get also helps. So next time you wake at 4 a.m….don’t worry about us. We’re doing just fine.
actually, instead of building a transatlantic pipeline, how about take all that water, boil it into steam, condense the steam into a very small space, and mail the steam to israel, and then reconstitute it into water!
I actually have been making sure to reduce my time in the shower over here, not in the least because of water prices. Could you imagine a foot of water being dumped on the Negev with solid engineering techniques (whatever those may be) to make sure it went to good use? Get a forest growing in the Negev!
john — yeah agriculture sucks up tons of water. Here we require that most of the water used for agriculture be recycled waste-water and not drinking water. Most other countries in the world pour this waste-water (sewage basically) into the sea but we recycle ours and use it for our agriculture. In addition to treated wastewater researchers are also using saline water from an underground reservoir for crop irrigation - although high level salt content makes it useable only for certain crops and plants. Flood water, diverted via a unique system of pumping and canals, is also used to water trees in our desert forests. Currently we grow most of the food (veggies, fruits, etc) that is eaten here and we are the most water-efficient users in terms of agriculture in the world but as our population grows we will definitely have to rely on importing more because we won’t have the water resources to expand the agricultural sector. You are so right, we all need to be thinking more in terms of how we can conserve water!
jett — glad you have gotten much-needed rainfall!
By the time you guys get to flooding though, that means the ground has absorbed all it can and anything that falls after that point is wasted as it simply runs off and away to the sea rather than sticking around to do any good. It seems to me that it would be worthwhile for the U.S. and other places to put into place floodwater diverting systems like we have in use here for using that water in agriculture and parched areas.
Dave –lol!
Danny — Reducing shower time sounds like an awesome plan
hey you know we do have a forest in the Negev (actually several of them!). In fact, the Yatir Forest in the Negev is the biggest forest in the country! The forest is a world-admired (and being copied other places) forest of trees that can thrive in the desert on very little water and that also convert more carbon monoxide than average trees –it is expanding on its own into the desert and shrinking our Negev :). Aforestation of desert areas is actually incredibly important to keep the desert from spreading and to moderating the climate and converting greenhouse gases. Israel is the only country in the world in which our forested land has grown rather than shrunk in the past 100 years.
[...] In the Middle East, Tel Aviv-based Yael K was woken up (by her cats) in the middle of the night, only to find that her thoughts turned almost immediately to water: What? Doesn’t everyone else think about this issue in the wee hours of the morning? [...]
Yael: I wrote a book and would like very much to have it marketed in Israel. Would you help by sendind me some book store E- mails? I know this is not a normal request. I have tried other means to no avail. Most of the profits are to be used in Israel in a charitable way. Thank You for Your time. G-D Bless you and all that you love. Roger
Yael- good suggestion and I wish they would do that. But as you know, trying to get Americans to conserve anything is near impossible.
Yael-
In fact, I read recently in Haaretz that the last three winters have been some of the rainiest on record…! And that this winter is, obviously, going to be a drought.
The research that I read in fact stated that contrary to popular belief, climate change has not significantly affected the climate in our region, and that a drought like we are about to have is normal in a cyclical period.
What is worrisome is the consumption of water. The supply remains steady, but the demand keeps rising….
[...] Any amin'ny faritra Arabo indray, ny mpiblaogy Yael K izay monina any Tel Aviv izay nofohazin'ny sakany tamin'ny torimasony dia nahita fa nirona avy hatrany any amin'ny rano ny eritreriny : What? Doesn’t everyone else think about this issue in the wee hours of the morning? [...]