Human Decency vs The Single Greatest Threat To AmericaWhen
measuring the many challenges being thrust at all civilized nations, few
rational minds would dispute this document's demonstration of the single
greatest threat to America. After
reading the words, “our water supply,” most people make the mistake of deducing
a reference to terrorist attack. Such a horrid thing will hopefully never come
to pass, if Americans remain alert; although there’ve been royal Queens who
knew the valuelessness of the word “if.” Of
measurably greater threat to all humans who live within the continental United
States is the rapidly approaching exhaustion of the water supply. The
hue and cry about Earth running out of oil may be why we have the word
‘risible,’ although it’s true the world is running out of oil. Inducing bemused laughter is the comparison
of urgency allotted to oil versus the more-vital water. Note that ‘vital’ does
mean “life-giving.” Compare how much oil and water is available, and how much
we use. By a margin so wide it’s only jjust measurable, we have a larger pool
of oil available than we do clean water. Americans currently use hundreds of
billions of gallons of water per day. Someone’s not paying attention. Not
one American in a hundred thousand realizes we are rapidly running out of
water. Something so delicious, so vital to life, which we take for granted, is
going to alter life in America more than any other one factor of the next
several decades, outside of the catastrophes that occur once or twice each
century. Sadly, from a statistical coign of vantage, it’s probable that the
world’s water supply will fit this category. The
threat from terrorism is secondary. Although we appear to have misdirected some
of our resources, confusing broad and raw power with properly focused energy,
crisis is not inevitable, as long as action is taken this year or next.
Focusing on anything less than our most crucial of resources leaves Americans
more vulnerable. It’s mere math; you cannot divide one hundred percent of
something into itself infinitely. We need to prioritize our defined resources,
with assignment and deployment equal to their criticality. We all agree on
this; but not on precisely what American resources should be focused upon. If
the Iraqi deployment was vital to American national security, it is now vital to deploy troops to stand
guard around all primary water supply sources in the U.S. The reservoirs are so
large that only a major military force is capable of sustaining adequate
security. Failure to do so compromises security on an immediate basis, placing
Americans at equally, so sorry, terminally huge vulnerability. That fact in
itself may bring down the forty-fifth or forty-sixth President, if not before
then. Water
is critical to life. We take it for granted. If you haven’t lived in a
situation with low or nonexistent water supplies, you by definition have
limited ability to understand how profoundly it affects your life. Security issues are resolvable with less
effort than the problem of excess consumption. Whereas this or the next U.S.
Administration will most likely take action to safeguard our water supplies, it
will be only from the secondary threat. |
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When each person reduces their current water consumption ten percent, the U.S. would
have enough water until the next century, by which time desalinization will be affordable for all nations. At current usage, water will most likely cost over one hundred dollars per gallon by 2020. The only ones laughing at that are limited in their ability to subtract the current
rate of use from the known supply.Although already 2003, we hear no major public outcries to repair a life-threatening problem which will carry a price tag greater than money. What words or pictures might competently impel action on the part of all Americans
to pull together now, in the interests of protecting those who are alive today, and the next generations as well? With the internationally undiminished polluting of sizable bodies of water, there
are, believe it or not, no more large sources of clean water. We’re on the planet’s last one, and it’s heavily polluted on a daily basis. When Americans deal with no more running water, with rare supplies selling for hundreds of dollars per gallon, they are sure to ask how we could have been so greedy. If you can do your math, you see it will occur before your grandchildren have grandchildren of their own. Each and every one of us who turns on the tap, hose, pump, must monitor ourselves, because at the end of it all, you cannot legislate human decency. History will record that terrorist attacks, by and large, have finite numbers of
victims per event. Catastrophic levels of water loss is finite only insofar as you count a nation’s total population, rather than the generally local effect of an event. Our water supply is no longer measured in centuries or scores; not even measured in decades, so it’s time to pay attention. The rare bet I’d take is that we are in the last full decade of unchecked water
usage. Splurge and enjoy to your heart’s content, or think of tomorrow, because after all is said and done, you cannot legislate human decency. |