WATER WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK

 

 

Yesterday I read the BLOGFODDRE post Remembering the Farm: Water, Wells and Dugouts.   He wrote of the difficulty of obtaining water on his family’s farm in Saskatchewan, Canada.

 

His post brought to mind my memories of water in the small delta town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi during the 1950’s.   I was always told that Rolling Fork got its water from an artesian well – I know absolutely nothing of the source.   I do remember when I took a bath, the water in the tub was piss yellow.  There was a swimming pool in town and the pool water looked like tea.  The deep end of the pool was eight feet and the water was so dark you could not see the bottom at that depth.  We drank that water and never thought anything about it.

 

Of course, the world population in 1950 is estimated at 2.5 billion, now we are approaching a world population of eight billion.  Water consumption, water waste and water pollution are exponentially greater than the mid twentieth century.

 

If anyone had considered selling a bottle of water back then, they would have been laughed at.  Water was free: it came from the sky, and rivers and lakes were full of it, you could dig a well and hit water.

 

That was then, this is now.  Water is now a critical commodity.  Cities have been built in the deserts, people water their lawns, mega-farms irrigate crops; costal marshes have been decimated, rivers are running low, lakes are drying up.   Humans have squandered water sources thinking the supply unlimited.  

 

California is now in the process of converting sewer water into drinking water.   There are many areas in the United States where water conservation is a pressing issue, and repurposing sewerage may become an accepted solution.

 

Climate change will acerbate this problem, and it is quite feasible that in the not-too-distant future wars could be fought over water sources.

 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

 

GMO: GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM

Liberal environmentalist (of which I am one) seem to have a knee jerk reaction to anything that changes the environment.   We often focus on some perceived violation blinding ourselves to the overall picture – I hate to use this phrase: the greater good. 

Genetically modified organisms carry a sinister connotation.   It brings to mind some Frankenstein plant that will come up from the laboratory and kill us all: a time for us to break out the torches and pitch forks and storm the castle and dispatch the monster – preferably on a dark and stormy night.

We have been doing genetic modification for centuries.   Hybrid tomato plants: those perfect tomatoes we buy at the supermarket have been genetically modified through selective breeding; all the beef we buy at the supermarket has been cross bred (genetically modified) to improve beef production.   Nature has genetically modified all of creation through evolution.   Now we have the ability to do the same thing through manipulation of DNA strands.

Genetically modified corn uses less water, is more disease and insect resistant and produces a higher yield.   Genetically modified crops require less pesticides than regular crops.

A farmer I knew in Kentucky nearly doubled his corn yield by switching to genetically modified corn and planting with Round UP.   Before we get all huffy and puffy – everything we buy at the supermarket that is not organic has been sprayed with pesticides and chemicals of some type. 

Don’t get me wrong – Monsanto is in it for the profit; but, it requires science and somebody has to do it. 

The necessity to genetically modify our food supply is to insure it survive and thrive in an environment changed by global warming, allowing us to increase production to feed the ever expanding human population on the earth.

The biggest environmental problem that exist – the core cause of all polluting and climate change is over population.   The earth now has topped seven billion humans and is projected to reach ten billion by 2050 (a nearly fifty percent increase.)  We are using up natural resources at an alarming rate and creating proportional increases in pollution.  

Over population is the elephant in the room and we are ignoring it: people having more than two natural children are being environmentally irresponsible.    The days of having six to a dozen children to work the farm in the 1920 when the world population was one billion perhaps suited that time; but that time has passed. 

My wife and I try to eat organic food – we belong to a farm coop.   However, small farming is not sustainable for unchecked world population growth. 

The world water supply is dwindling and farmlands are becoming arid, resulting in famine and a related increases in diseases.

 If we are to meet the needs of a fifty percent population growth by 2050 it must be done through drought, disease and insect resistant plants genetically modified to increased yield.   It is not the ideal solution but is a realistic, logical solution for the coming decades.

Let’s not forget that stem cell research allowing for genetic modification in human beings is the future for curing such diseases as Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – soon we will all be genetically modified organisms - GMOs.

THIS IS NOT SCIENCE - THIS IS NOT ACCURATE.

the Ol'Buzzard