Time to get smart(er)

"When the rains come (like this year in MN), the grass explodes in bright green, and the flowers and crops start to grow. However, when the rains don't come, we have big problems. Time to get smart folks. We need to tell our leaders to get smarter - and fast." 

Get Smart. Who could forget this wacky TV show starting Steve Carroll as Agent Smart, and Barb Feldon as the sexy (and very funny), Agent 99. But that was a TV show. A comedy. What I want to address this morning is anything but funny. For those who live in the desert southwest, this subject could be a game changer. And time is running out for them - fast.

The drought in the desert southwest is the worst in recorded history. In fact, this mega-drought (according to some geologists and hydrologists), could be the worst in the past 1,200 years. Let that sink in for a minute. If this assumption is even somewhere close to truth, the folks living in that rapidly developing area of the desert southwest could be in deep, deep trouble.

Is it too late to save the desert southwest? Maybe. Or, we could do a Manhattan Project type of effort to save the day. We have the technology, as do other arid countries, to turn deserts green. But the effort to do it will be massive - and expensive. To not do anything however, means ceding part of our country back to nature. Great venues to visit, but unlivable due to lack of water. 

We have many different ways to make fresh water. We can construct desalination plants. They are very expensive. And yes, there are externalities of production which make many of them qualify for NIMBY. But that being said, we can still improve on them. Make them less toxic for the ocean environment. But we need to hurry.

Runoff. It rained again this morning. We have way too much rain right now in Minnesota. What are we doing with all that extra water? Getting into the streams and tributaries as fast as possible, so it can get into the Mississippi and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Rather than trying to capture that excess water, we would rather dump it into the ocean, which is doing fine right now with water levels.

We also have machines right now which can extract water out of humid air. True, these are currently small scale. But to make these larger, where we can trap unwanted excess humidity, would be a boon for all of us. Again, we need to hurry. 

Our President always talks about improving our infrastructure, but the important things never seem to get done. Our electric grid is still a mess. Has been for decades. What has been done on our grid? Close to zip. Water is the same way. We need to treat water as a commodity. The days of free water might be coming to an end. We can make water, and then sell it. Water is now, and always has been, a precious resource. We need to treat it as such.

Get smart, get smarter. If we want to save the desert southwest, the time for action was yesterday. However, we can still try. I have lived through a major drought when I was overseas. I hated it. There was no plan "B" for more water. If it did not rain, and fill the reservoirs, you were in trouble. One minute showers every three days (in the tropics), and drinkable water only if you boiled it. Like I said - I hated it. 

When the rains come (like this year in MN), the grass explodes in bright green, and the flowers and crops start to grow. However, when the rains don't come, we have big problems. Time to get smart folks. We need to tell our leaders to get smarter - and fast.