We Need Land and Water
By: John T Jones, Ph.D.
Water
My friend, J, here in Idaho works for the irrigation canal company. I asked him what the current water share was. He said that it was 3/4 inch per acre but because of demand and draught the allocation or share is now 5/8 inch per acre. For you nonmathematical geniuses, that is a reduction of 1/8 inch per acre or about 17%.
I think this means that a farmer who normally waters 10 times in a certain time period will only be able to water about 8 times. In a dry year, that could be a big reduction in production.
The farmer goes out into the field and squeezes the soil in his hand. He knows that the water content is low and that the plants will not have the ability to suck the water out of the soil because the lower the water content of the soil, the tighter it is held.
In other words, the soil and the plants try to obtain and retain water. Clay soils hold water tightly. Sandy soils do not. Plants can suck the water out of sandy soil easier than they can from clay soils. Knowing all this, the farmer can not water his fields until his irrigation schedule permits.
Weather extremes are a concern to many. Hot, dry weather means draught. In the 1500s many people had to flee large areas of the Southwest because of draught. Draught has caused more than one large population migration.
If you think that the government can stop a migration, think again. Starving people could care less about government when they see that the government is powerless to help them. Katrina victims still appear on television weeks after the hurricanes asking for help which they are slow to receive.
I thought it was ridiculous to fuss about people (who would never loot if they could buy) were criticized for going into a store that was not operating to pick up diapers and formula for their babies. What would you do?
If you had no drinking water, you would move to a place where there was some. If you couldn’t buy it, the crocodile within you would take it. Grrrrrrrrr!
Land
In China they are having riots. You may be thinking that the riots are university students who want more freedom. You may expect that it would be young men who can not find wives because of the shortage of young women due to the single child restriction (where females may be aborted).
The rioters are farmers!
Farmers are not prone to riot. They are in a calm environment that does not provoke such action. But the farmers are losing their land to urban expansion. This has and is occurring all over the world, but famine is not unusual in China and many lives will be lost if this process doesn’t stop.
Shortages of Land and Water
Do you know the problem of this type of article? It’s that those who care about a future scenario of draught and lack of arable land are too few.
The world population continues to grow. There are still those who say that there will always be sufficient food and water. Let me tell you a secret. There is not enough food and water distributed today to take care of the hungry and thirsty.
People are dying because of lack of food just as some are dying of AIDS.
Everybody Needs to Think about These Problems and Do Something about It
Over the years agronomist have increased grain production. They will continue to do this but grain needs land and water.
Scientists have been measuring global warming for some years now, but many industrialist and politician don’t believe them. Even now as penguins are dying because of the disruption of the ice shelves (with massive chunks of ice sliding into the sea) nobody is doing anything about it. The glaciers in Glacier National Park are about gone.
The causes of global warming may be complex and be related to that big star we have in our backyard, but we do know also that factory and vehicle emissions are not helping the situation.
Yet our government has acted as if everybody was just kidding about global warming.
President Bush has low ratings. The truth of the matter is that our government has the lowest ratings in my memory and I’m 73 years old. Bush is only part of the problem. It wouldn’t matter if he were Eisenhower; he still would have low ratings because our people do not trust our congress nor our courts.
You may have noted that the media has been highlighting families that are trying to help our environment.
What can you do?
The End
copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005
John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com)is a retired R&D engineer and VP of a Fortune 500 company. He is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering), poetry, etc. Former editor of international trade magazine. Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success. More info: http://www.tjbooks.com Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)