NBC News.com - The Last Drop: America's Breadbasket Faces Dire Water Crisis
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/last-drop-americas-breadbasket-faces-dire-water-crisis-n146836.
Editor's note: This story is one in a series on a crisis in America's Breadbasket the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer and its effects on a region that helps feed the world.
VEGA, TexasWhile a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows hes staring into an abyss that many in Texasand across the worldmay be forced to contemplate.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)ya'd think there would be at least a little research on desalinization.
Sure, what we know how to do now is more expensive than drilling, but when there's nothing left to drill...
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)There is more than a little research on desalinization. But the real problem is lack of rain due to the changing climate.
Even if areas like West Texas and Oklahoma could get enough desalinated water via pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico for crops, it would have to be extremely pure to keep salt residue from building up in the soil. Rising temperatures in all likelihood would also restrict what types of crops could be effectively grown. The outlook for the region is bleak.
cerveza_gratis
(281 posts)From article: "Compounding the drawdown has been the nature of the Ogallala itself. Created 10 million years ago, this buried fossil water isin many placesnot recharged by precipitation or surface water. When its gone, its gone for centuries."
better to not have water intensive activities there.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)and we've had droughts in the past that we couldn't avoid-- the coming droughts we still won't be able to stop and they will be worse.
Big changes are ahead.
aquart
(69,014 posts)And a burst or leaking water pipe doesn't kill the land or the aquifer.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)Thanks for the thread, LIberalElite.
redruddyred
(1,615 posts)every single one of these articles cite "overpopulation", and yet the fundies still insist that we should not have access to contraception. this isn't a women's issue any longer, it's a global problem.
musiclawyer
(2,335 posts)Slowing down what was otherwise a relatively healthy economy. It will only get worse. So what you are seeing in Texas will happen in Ca ...