US 20 is classic American road that fills me with sighs. It showcases who we used to be, who we are and where we're headed. The news, dear reader, is not all good. But that's not the point of this rambling.
When you pass through the towns that dot the Erie shore, towns like Conneaut and Ashtabula and Geneva, one thing is obvious above all: it's about the lake and always has been. The lake is why these towns exist.
 |
| Geneva On The Lake |
For the curious, I am still drinking from my Cleveland tap without fear. But imagine, in a couple of days (weeks?), when Toledo city officials give the water the all-clear. If I lived in the Glass City, would I feel safe putting a newborn in a tub of that water, or letting a kindergartener drink from a fountain? Would you?
When the water from your tap turns to poison, it is a very bad thing. Just ask the folks in Charleston, West Virginia. Of course, that crisis centered around one chemical leak. Our crisis belongs to every Ohioan. It's borne from our filth and chemicals.
 |
| Toledo, Ohio |
Truth: Mother Nature will win this.
We either all turn into environmentalists or she will take us out. There is no debate or wiggle room. These are absolutes: life vs. death. Deny climate change. Relax environmental legislation under the guise of being "business friendly." Choose dollars over purity. It will all eventually culminate and kill us. She wins. We lose.
That's the endgame, folks.
I did not have my camera yesterday. A good thing, that. I wouldn't have gotten home until late into the night. Every mile of US 20 is worthy of my lens. Sooner rather than later, I intend to take a photo safari along it's entire length through Ohio and capture the heartbreaking small town ruins, the eerie Davis Besse cooling tower hovering over the cornfields, and the glimmers of hope.
Carry on, dear reader. Carry on.
 |
| Geneva, Ohio, near US 20 |
* * *
40 comments:
It's management by crisis for our leaders. So it goes...a few will die before it's a crisis.
Homo Sapiens is fucked. Have a nice day.
RJ
Your sick lake pales in comparison to the problems caused by climate change in New York.
New Yorkers are sad. Not enough warming
For your next trick, Bill, why not take a yardstick out to a nice flat surface (driveway, yard, playground) lay it down and start laughing at the preposterous idea that the earth is round.
Also, our "sick lake" and the four other bodies of water that make up HOMES contain 84 percent of North America's surface fresh water.
I had hoped you were going to post about this because you have a way of spelling these things out that really gets to the point...eloquently.
I'm sure you are also well aware of the drought here in CA. I wish more of the climate nay-sayers could see and experience these things themselves instead of hiding behind their air conditioned walled McMansions.
Every day, I look at the webcams on Lake Shasta and see the water level visibly drop. I have driven through there every year...and this year it is record low...almost dry. And that is the source of the majority of SoCal drinking water, among other things.
I wish the nay-sayers could drive down the Grapevine on a sunny day, see the black black cloud on horizon below, and dive down into the darkness that is the dustbowl of Central California. Often it is like driving at night there, the sun blacked out by the ever present dust clouds of dry farms and fields and valleys filled with sinking smog.
I know, you know. I just wish the nay-sayers could see it. Experience it.
I wonder if they argue just for the sake of arguing. But...once it is actually in their house...it will be too late.
And the ironic thing is that the people who have the money and power to change it before it's too late, have enough money to be able to ignore it and make it go away (in the sense that they don't have to be bothered by all this "nonsense.")
Bottled water anyone?
Argh.
(Erin, thank you for writing about these things. It is so important to keep on trying, and you do it so well.)
Sure. So maybe if we all talk about how worried we are and raise some money to send to the UN, we'll all feel better. What the hell are you going to do about the earth's climate changes? Got an idea on how to control the sun? Social media activism combined with higher taxes is really going to change the billions of years of huge climate changes the earth has experienced. Being self righteous and taking your own bags to the grocery store, may make you feel as though you're doing something but, you're not. As for living in CA in a drought; this isn't the first one we've had and won't be the last. a very small percentage of our water is from human consumption or even landscape watering. It's for farming. If we had a few more place to store water, we'd be fine. Just curious though. Which agency do you figure will be able to take on the sun and change our climate to something that is acceptable to the chicken little's? Clean air, clean water. This is in our control. That lake has too much phosphorus that enhances the growth of algae. A man made problem. The wind blows to long in the wrong direction moving the algae to the wrong place. Not a man made problem.
Thanks for the nice comment, DDP.
Bill, the way you illustrated DDP's point verges on being cartoonish--from the safe enclaves of your air-conditioned McMansion no less.
I saw Lake Erie get cleaned up once. They didn't do it by sending tax dollars to the UN. Try this: REGULATION
I've used my A/C twice this year, so far. What's a mc mansion? Is there an ideal size dwelling that meets the liberal seal of approval? Maybe we can use Al Gore, King of Climate Change Concern, as an example. Check this out:
Supporting Bill's argument but not cartoonish
Someone else take Bill. I'm tired.
Just some facts, kids. I don't expect you to stop wringing your hands but when confronted with facts like I just presented, doesn't it make you think about how ridiculous it is to pretend that you/we can have any significant impact on global climate? Now, if you want to talk about figuring out a way to blow up a meteor before it hits us, I'm all ears. That's a worthy cause. Talk about climate change!!
Bill, the article talks about previous droughts in CA. So what? No one's saying all climate and weather patterns are man made.
What the hell does a drought in the year 850 (yes, you read that right, I did not drop a 1) have to do with the smog in China and the algae in Lake Erie?
I just re read the ddp comment. Yep. That was about the drought in CA. And, you're making my point. A drought in 850 was not caused by man. We can, obviously do a better job of cleaning (and not polluting) our water and air and, in Los Angeles, the air is much cleaner than 20 years ago. As far as the smog in china goes. I just don't know. I do know that they all have reusable shopping bags. Lake Erie. Definitely solvable.
If a troll falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?
RJ
Ohioans, be warned: Once your Lakeside industrialists start researching how they can cultivate acres of barrel cacti on their estates, look out!
Senex AEgypti Parvi
"oh shit. Someone has a point of view that differs from mine and I can't find an opposing argument now matter how hard I google!!" Must be a troll. Hey ddp, here's something on Shasta that might make you less depressed.
A little fact check for ddp
Don't feed the trolls. And for heaven's sake, don't invite them to go swimming, they'll drink up all your water. Ha!
Wowee-kazowee.
Just when you think some people may be humorless they'll come up with a real howler. And characterizing the problems of the drought in California as "If we had a few more places to store water we'd be fine" is a real howler. It's akin to claiming that the only problem with the Emperor's new wardrobe is insufficient closet space.
There are plenty of places to store water. In the Colorado River watershed Lake Powell hasn't been full since 1999. Downstream, Lake Mead's problems are worse. Somewhat around 25% of the river's waters are allocated to California. The mighty Colorado, which once rolled to the Gulf of California, now devolves into salty marshes in Mexico, forty miles from the sea.
There's not enough water in the Southwest to allow tens of millions of people to live in desert areas like Phoenix, Vegas and LA.
I don't blame you for staying anonymous.
Yeah, that was me. If I ever post anonymously it's an oversight, not a dodge.
Pretty weak. If that's the best you can do you should remain anonymous.
BTW, the Colorado River improvements are a terrific example of socialism in action. People, from across seven states, joining together (as a nation) to do projects no set of persons or even individual states could accomplish on their own.
See you next time, Comrade.
MR
@MR
I thought the sentence
"If we had a few more places to store water we'd be fine"
Pretty much summed up the capitalist mindset as well. (Though I hesitate to credit the author with any contemplation of the matter beyond shit stirring) Get a bigger cistern, fill it up, problem solved. I've got mine now you get yours.
RJ
@RJ-I have no complaint with capitalism and/or the laws per se. But people are talking behind capitalism's back! Capitalism's pissed off, too. Last week I saw graffiti that read "I never said half that crap!" And it was signed by Ludwig Von Mises! How hardcore is that!? He came back from the grave!
Gotta go.
Did it again!
It was I, MR above.
@MR-
Hard to keep a good Austrian down.
RJ
@RJ-There was a book published in '82, maybe '83 called "With Enough Shovels", from journalist Robert Scheer. You might want to google it to see how eerily close it was in spirit to 'with enough reservoirs.'
Abbysinia...
Capturing and storing snow melt and rainwater is how we do it. Storing more is, what?. A bad idea? Selfish? We're in a drought. It would be good to have some bigger reserves.
Storing more is a bad idea.
Storing more is the approach that the Soviet's took to solving droughts in central Asia. They dug more reservoirs and in the process drained the Aral sea, transforming one of the world's largest lakes into a salt desert.
Regulation is a much better approach. You know who created the Environmental Protection Agency? Richard Nixon - a.k.a. Richard 'not a hippy commie' Nixon signed the EPA into existence.
So Bill, you can hang out with Uncle Joe and the communists and I'll be right over here with the President who brought capitalism to China.
But most importantly, Dudes, what about the Emperor's new closet space?
MR
It's great that you guys have the answers. We're still trying to figure it out here, on the west coast.
Store or conserve?
You've been on the west coast for too long buddy. I reckon all that sunshine has turned you pinko.
Since when did you want big government to solve your problems with their big engineering projects?
You've changed Bill.
Dude,MR,RJ, other doubters. CA passed the Water Bond Bill. R's and D's all agreed. A big part of it is more storage. Just saying. Didn't feel like linking to it but a search for "CA water bond" will work.
Is the California legislature also empowered to create the water to store when no water is available through more quotidian sources?
It's a 15-year drought. It's hammering people across parts of eleven states. There's no more water to store; as I mentioned previously the reservoirs in the Colorado River system haven't been full in decades. 1999 for Lake Powell. Somewhat around 40 million of our fellow Americans depend on the Colorado River for their drinking water.
I suspect the people behind your Water Bill ought to also be doing financial feasibility studies on desalinization. It's way more dependable than waiting for rain.
MR
Bill, good to hear you're backing the Democrat appointed water board. Now that you're a Clintpublican I trust you'll be voting for Hilary in 2016?
MR, I'm completely with you, the Aussies have had a decade long drought and are going for desalination. The solution is to expand the water supply.
OK kids. During the rainy season you collect and store 100 gallons of water. Let's say you use 1 gallon per day so the water lasts 100 days. Right? Next rainy season you double your collecting capacity. You store 200 gallons instead of letting that extra 100 gallons run off into the gutter. Your usage remains the same. Guess what? you have 200 days worth of water. I realize how complicated that is but...... You're welcome.
Are you wearing a hat Bill? If so then I suggest you hold on to it because this is gonna blow your mind clear out of your head - it turns out that when water runs off into the gutter it actually doesn't disappear forever into an endless void.
I realize this is hard to believe but things don't disappear when you can't see them anymore. In this case, the water goes somewhere else... maybe it will go into a lake, perhaps a river, a pond or a stream. Bill, now I don't want to alarm you, but there are even these things called aquifers.
Are you following me kiddo? When you hold rainwater, you take it away from somewhere else in the freshwater system. It's possible you may even take it away from your local reservoir.
I'm not going to address the previous comments. But I thought I should offer an "up to the minute" observation/update:
I just drove past "Lake Shasta" three hours ago. I put "Lake Shasta" in quotes because it was more like a river than a lake. It was shockingly close to bone dry with only a trickle left at the bottom of the red sandstone.
The Basshole, a bar/tackle shop that we usually stop at, appeared to be either closed or out of business...which was shocking , as they've held on through many many droughts. (We didn't stop in this time because we needed to keep driving.)(And don't you just love the name of the place?! I have a bumper sticker from there, and BASSHOLE is written out in the shape of a fish. Love it!)
ANYWAY...that's the state of the drought here. You can't look at that and not realize that something is wrong. My heart breaks. I have more to say, but I'll leave it at that.
Hey Captain Obvious (Dude). We're talking about collecting and storing water, more of it than we already do, in California. A bond measure has been overwhelmingly approved. Doesn't seem that difficult to understand. By the way, just received the new landscape watering restrictions. Pretty severe but, I'll follow to avoid pretty big fines.
So much for collecting and storing water in Lake Oroville reservoir.
The Fresno Bee has done some very balanced reporting on the whole California water issue. They mostly come down on the side of the conservationists but they try to cover both sides. It's not an exact science and the state is so big with the north having most of the water, the politics are fierce. Especially during a drought. To me, it's clear that we can and should capture and store more when it's abundant. A couple of very wet years will calm the rhetoric for a while. I'm waiting for someone to blame this morning's 6.0 earthquake, in Napa, on the water issue. Here's an example of some of the Bee's reporting.
Store or conserve?
"A couple of very wet years will calm the rhetoric for a while."
Bill, you crack me up. Just the fact that you pose, "store or conserve" is so telling. Even if you did store a shitload of water, you should conserve every drop you use. Everyone should conserve every resource all of the time--particularly Californians when it comes to water.
I love the fact that conservatives hate the concept of conservation.
Also, this: "By the way, just received the new landscape watering restrictions. Pretty severe but, I'll follow to avoid pretty big fines."
That's awful big of you, Bill. Others aren't quite so magnanimous.
And everyone will want to read that article.
As for the Bee article. Dig this: "Mostly, it's about river water allowed to reach the Pacific Ocean through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta."
Yup, go on and keep trying to muscle Mother Nature and decide what you will "allow" her to do. She will win eventually, which was the point of this whole post.
Post a Comment