Buddy once lived six months off the grid. A 50-gallon water tank would last us for weeks.
WHO WILL WAGE WATER WARS?
There will be more fighting over water than other climate effects. After all, it’s more natural to squabble over something that’s in short supply, like water, than things we have too much of, like floods, heat, wildfires, and sea level rise.
Can we see ourselves being drawn into one of these conflicts?
Support our town’s lawsuit against neighboring towns pulling too much water from a shared source.
Protest in support of farmers or salmon fishermen. One group needs to draw down the San Joaquin River; the other needs the river level to stay up.
March against Nestle and other water bottling companies who pump water from under our town and sell it back to us at the grocery store.
Campaign to break our long-term contract with the private water utility to which we once gave authority over the town’s water and our water rates.
Push legislation against investment companies who buy up water rights, put them into a mutual fund, and invite us to buy shares. (There’s even an S&P Index for Water Investments!)
Support fighting for our state’s water claims, right up to the Supreme Court (as Georgia, Alabama and Florida did).
Join the fight for a local ordinance to protect the poor against unaffordable water bills. (The bottom fifth of the US economy spends 12.4% of their disposable income just on water and sewer services!)
More broadly, we might join the fundamental conflict: what should water be? Is it a product in a capitalist extractive system? Or is it a fundamental human right?
WHERE ARE THE CONFLICTS GROWING?
A “Drought” headline just refers to California, right? No. Drought’s coming to wherever we live. In 2012, drought placed 81% of the lower 48 states in “abnormally dry” conditions or worse. The DOA declared a natural disaster in 2,245 counties, probably including ours.
That’s 71% of the United States!
What’s with Vermont, of all places?! Hey, that’s the Green Mountain State! Since 2000, the longest duration of “Severe Drought” in that state lasted 71 weeks. In the most intense period, 29% of Vermont was affected.
In Minnesota, as I write, 18% of the state is in “Severe Drought,” meaning
“the ground is hard; seed corn is short; feed is expensive; and crop yields are low. Fire danger is high and burn permits are required. River flow is very low; snowpack is significantly lower; and well levels are decreased.”
That’s in winter in Minnesota, the Land Of 10,000 Lakes!
Like wildfires, discussed earlier this month, American drought is moving east. Let’s check where we live.
Seven western states get their water from the Colorado River. But warming has taken moisture out of those Pacific winds which drop precipitation onto the western slopes of the Sierra Nevaca and Rocky Mountains. Snowfields have been shrinking, and their meltwater provides fewer days’ supply every year. This week, a California emergency drought proclamation covers half of the state’s counties.
Parts of California’s Central Valley have been sinking about a foot a year, 28 feet in some places as the aquifer below is pumped out. The subsidence is putting cracks in homes, driveways and underground pipes.
Eight High Plains states take lots of water from the Ogallala Aquifer, using it on 25% of the nation’s irrigated land. 30% of the Kansas portion of the huge aquifer has been pumped out; another 39% will be gone by 2070. Climate change makes it even harder to replenish this disappearing reservoir.
The Mississippi/Missouri Basin, where 18 million people rely on those rivers for their water, faces the same problems. Climate change began reducing runoff from the mountains to the Upper Missouri in the 1950s.
How bad is it getting? Beginning this century, the Upper Missouri River Basin was the driest it’s been in 1,200 years, even more parched than during the disastrous Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
The Eastern Seaboard is not immune. In Florida, sea level rise is rendering local aquifers too salty to use. This week roughly 80% the Northeast is undergoing varying degrees of drought. The Early Warning System is pointing to pockets of “severe to extreme” drought in parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, western New York, and north central Pennsylvania. The Appalachians continue to see abnormally dry conditions and moderate drought.
OKAY, ENOUGH WITH THE STATISTICS
Most of us don’t visualize drought in numbers; we see it when it’s in front of our eyes. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of a water shortage is the dead grass on our city’s parks and recreation fields - including dog parks! Then there will be the signs.
Even if we stay out of the broader fights mentioned above, water use limits will cause local conflict. Will our neighbor call the cops when we wash our car one evening? Will we confront them over their lawn sprinkling? Will our golf club with its brown fairways return our dues? Will the town residents vote to keep our pool empty next summer? Will other dogs poach the water in Buddy’s bowl?
THE BIG HITS WILL BE ALMOST INVISIBLE
Here are a few of the expensive ones.
Taxes to fix municipal leaks, a huge problem across America. Some old pipes lose 10-40% of the water they carry.
Higher insurance premiums as wildfire risk grows.
Increased costs to businesses that require lots of water: hospitals, breweries, water-cooled utilities, inland water tourism, dog groomers, paper manufacturers - the list is long.
Hits to our energy grid. A lake in northern California is at 30% capacity and might soon close the nearby hydroelectric plant. Some fuel-fired plants can no longer reach enough cooling water.
Growing costs of textiles. Over 700 gallons of water is needed to create a single white cotton t-shirt.
Mental health costs of anxiety or depression from reduced incomes and job losses, especially in farm country.
THERE IS GOOD NEWS!
Unless miracles are coming (maybe from that new army of climate-activists I described last week), there’s no way water won’t slowly disappear over the coming decades. But there are ways we and our families can protect ourselves.
First of all, says Buddy, pet owners need much larger water bowls, safe from neighboring dogs.
Further down the priority list, let’s check to see if we’re in the wrong hometown, with a water supply that’s endangered and unlikely to be replenished. It can take only a news report or two to start home prices sliding. If we’re in danger, we should move now and avoid the rush. A lot of Californians may soon be competing with us to buy a home in Montana, New Hampshire, or other more climate-proof locations.
Wherever we are, we can adapt. We all use far more water than we need. Without feeling weird, we can cut our domestic water use in half by adjusting our lifestyle and habits: grow drought-tolerant plants and lawn cover or permeable pavers; install low-flush toilets; use rain barrels; stop hand-washing dishes or clothes; turn off the water during part of our shower; swap our central water heater for small heaters close to the kitchen and bathrooms. These changes may seem strange at first, but nowhere near the adaptations we’ll need to avoid wildfires, heat, sea level rise, and flooding..
We should check our city’s water policies and plans, and find good municipal managers who understand the city’s potential water pains and the right policies to prevent them. And, yes, we can read online guides about those policies too. Buddy and I will explore these in a future newsletter.
Hello. If you’ve read this far, Buddy and I need your feedback. Have our first ten ClimateDog articles, sniffing out hidden aspects of climate change, been
___ Useful?
___ Interesting but not useful?
___ Too much of a downer?
___ Could be less boring, dry?
___ Needs more Buddy, less David?
___ Something else?
We’d be grateful if you can put your suggestions in a Comment below, or reply to this email.
(I remember the least useful feedback I ever got on my school papers. The teacher wrote simply “C- This just doesn’t do it.” I hope you can be more helpful!)
LEARN, THINK, ACT
We can look up the current drought conditions in our county at the Drought Early Warning System or the US Drought Monitor. As for long-range predictions, the only ones I’ve seen were produced by the National Resources Defense Council several years ago and have disappeared. Individual water districts, however, are looking ahead, and we can ask at City Hall for any studies about future water supplies.
There are lots of articles online about specific areas of the country, like this one about the Midwest.
We can calculate our household water usage, and learn about actions to take, understand water bills, their affordability, and their contribution to poverty.
Is water a taxable city service or a human right?
Guide to best municipal practices.
And more than you want to know about Water Wars.
David, you are doing us all a great service by highlighting the ugliness that lies ahead regardless of whether we can unite around this common cause
Here in Australia they take water sources very seriously. Most houses in the eastern and southern states--Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australis (those that I have visited) are equipped with rain catchment systems. Water runoff from the roof is collected in huge tanks in the back yards. This water can be used for lawns and pools, and will filtering treatment systems, for drinking. If America needs technology and know-how to manage water at the local level, Australia is a good place to look.