Saturday, October 20, 2012

Teach your children well...

 This is a photo from our trip to the Southwest US in 2007, somewhere in California, I believe.
 This photo was from the same 2007 trip at a rest stop not far from Los Banos, California.  The water hydrant appeared to be out of order, or not in use.  The grass at the rest stop looks lush and green.  In the washrooms there were signs about using as little water as possible.  Perhaps they had a system where the gray water was recycled for the upkeep of the grounds.
 This is the Santa Fe River in downtown (old town) Santa Fe, N.M.  There is very little water in the River and it has ice on it.  Since taking this photo I have read that there is a project underway for the  reclamation of this river.  I cannot easily find photos of this spot of the River to show how the restoration project has worked out for the area. 
 This photo shows the area of California food production system fed by the Dos Amicos pumping Plant into the canals.
 here is a closer look at one of the canals.. photos from 2011.
 This is a 2011 photo of the once mighty Rio Grande River
 Another photo from the same time.  I could have waded across this Grande River.
And the sign at the side of the highway explaining what has happened to the Rio Grande.

This post has nothing to do with home gardening, but everything to do with global gardening and management of our resources... not just in the US, but world wide.

I recently started to re-read Gwynne Dyer's book "Climate Wars" that I read a couple of years ago.  It was a scary book then and it has become even more so as time goes on. 

Quote from Gwynne Dyer's book, Climate Wars, page 23: Climate Wars Review

:: Leon Fuerth, professor international affairs, George Washington University, one of the lead authors of The Age of Consequences, in an interview with the author, February 5, 2008:

"GD:  What you're saying, essentially, is that we're looking at potential system collapse, politically as well as physically.
LEON FUERTH:  This whole thing is an interaction between human beings as a highly organized industrial civilization, and the world's physics and chemistry and so on, and the consequences of things that we already have done, and set in motion, before we were smart enough to recognize the patterns."

     Among the non-linear political events Fuerth forsees in the event of severe climate change are class warfare "as the wealthiest members of every society pull away from the rest of the population;" an end to globalization and the onset of rapid economic decline owing to the collapse of financial and production systems that depend on integrated worldwide systems; and the collapse of alliance systems and multilateral institutions, including the United Nations.  He suggests that massive social upheavals will be accompanied by intense religious and ideological turmoil, in which the principal winners will be authoritarian ideologies and brands of religion that reject scientific rationalism.  Even more disturbing (and persuasive) is his observation that "governments with resources will be forced to engage in long, nightmarish episodes of triage:  deciding what and who can be salvaged from engulfment by a disordered environment. The choices will need to be made primarily among the poorest, not just abroad but at home.  We have already previewed the images, in the course of the organizational and spiritual unravelling that was Hurrican Katrina
.--- end of quote.

Some of the things I have read about before page 23 are the depletion of our sources of water, the rise of the ocean levels due to glacier melt from the increase of the earth temperature, the over heating and desertification of much of the equatorial countries, and much more.  It is all happening, as we can see by the violent storms, and the political situations that are reported daily in the news, as well as the many people world wide going without enough food, from the climate changes.
3 days ago I downloaded the movie 2012.   Compared to that movie this scientific prognosis for our future is by far a more long drawn out horrifying life for our children.  Teach your children well!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your quote from the book sounds right on the nose. I wonder if all the politicians who are catering to the wealthiest know that when push comes to shove, they will be dumped with no more coattails to ride?

Maggie said...

I suppose, who ever has the biggest stick will be in charge.. no doubt some authoritarian military 'government'. If this whole scenario works out as in the book the are around the poles, should be the most habitable; that is, according to one projected scenario. The book is based on scientific studies that were commented on by retired, high ranking military men, (Dyer names them) to produce a very persuasive argument about the reality of the future. The report was done to get around the Bush administration of denial of any of these 'climate changes' happening. Another must read book!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.

Maggie said...

thanks for the compliments Anony Mous.
I am using blogger.. just click on the blogger button below and follow the instructions for setting up your blog. It takes as much time and work that you care to put into it.
The photos are what takes me the most time. But blogging, in the beginning, was not about pictures it was purely text and exchange of primarily technical ideas. Now, blogs are as common as grains of sand on the beach.
As you may have noticed I would appreciate communicating with people who might have a name... one that I might be persuaded belongs to a real person.