Letters to the Editor
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Leadership drought
What's truly terrifying about all this is that unlike energy, water is beyond our control. We can create alternative fuel sources, bike to work and turn fry oil into biodiesel, but we can't make water. I suppose in coastal areas we can with expensive desalination plants, but what about everywhere else? We are dependent on the vagaries of rainfall and climatic patterns, and if those shift for the foreseeable future, there's not a lot we can do about it.
We need leadership that's willing to declare a jihad on climate change, for the planet's sake. It's not just a vacuum of responsible decision making in the U.S., though we're deservedly the whipping boy because our government has become so comically incompetent that we're now compared to Rome in its last days. But there's also a refusal to deal in places like India and China, not to mention the Middle East. If we don't pool our global resources to launch a three-pronged attack on climate change--emissions reduction, adaptation and increased carbon absorption--we could be facing a collapse of the global food supply. And that would be a true catastrophe.
By the way, has anyone noticed that it's largely the Mediterranean-like climate zones (California, South Africa, etc.) that are in drought? Seems like a permanent climate shift to me. I live in Southern California, and my wife and I are already planning our move out.