Water weighs in politically

I remember spending hours on gray winter days looking out the window at raindrops splashing into mud puddles. The rain was icy cold yet when allowed I would put on my rubber boots and run through the pools leaving waves to slosh about. In childish exuberance I celebrated the water and my native climate. Sunny days can be wonderful but I did not worship them to exclusion. I understood at gut level water and rain are precious.

Conservation or natural condition
Everybody knows rain makes the grass grow; the rivers flow, and wash pollutants from the air. The local climate is why the local environment has been able to tolerate the punishment our community dishes out.

Out Pricing Portlanders
We continue to stretch the demands we put on our limited amount of fresh water. Increasing population growth through migration puts demands on many public infrastructures. In spite of the added load placed on current Portland residence the city continues to subsidize the developers building housing affordable mainly to upper class wage earners mostly from out of state. Sustainable development is merely a catch phrase batted around to sell ill-advised projects. Sustainability gives a false sense of security when the truth is we have diminishing resources.

These times are a changing
I remember the beautiful view of Mount Hood on hot lazy August afternoons. As a child I saw the bright white cap of glaciers, now I see the ghostly gray rock where glaciers once grew. Global Climate Warming will change the Oregon climate and ecology. California wants our water; the agri-business conglomerates want our water; and corporations want to buy the Bull Run reservoir. Big business like PGE/Ernon bemoan water run through dam spill gates that salmon species might survive. The broadcast news focuses on conservation by individuals, letting lawns turn brown, and ignores waste on corporate levels. We cannot keep siphoning off the pool of water and expect the resources to magically appear. The writing is on the wall but mainstream media calls it graffiti and scrubs it off.

Water, water everywhere but nary a drop to drink.
Two thirds of the earth is covered in water, and that will soon increase, but 97.5 % is salt water and unfit for human consumption. The majority of fresh water is frozen in the ice caps and destined to melt, raising sea levels and flooding viable agricultural land. We might try to bury our heads in the sandy beach, but rising sea levels will make that a short-term diversion. Our problems will still be here and so will a few million more Californians.
Spending water to fuel the growing bio-fuel movement is folly. The water would be better-spent growing food locally that way fuel wouldn’t be used to ship food from across the continent. It’s common sense, but big business knows if they spend the money they can out shout voices of logic and reason.

Tough decissions now or tougher choices later
Gold is the reason for the wars we wage. At least it used to be. Future wars may well be motivated by simple survival. Our world is facing dramatic changes; shrinking oil reserves, population explosions, emerging diseases, global warming, and a growing awareness that our best days are behind us.