Feb

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Is the Joke on Us?

Written by S. Beaumont and filed under Editorial 

70 or so days ago, when it was reported that we were going to run out of water in that amount of time, I started a countdown timer on the site to track our aquatic demise and to encourage people to conserve their water. The timer has recently expired– and while we still have water, the drought is far from behind us.

Along those lines, there was a short but thought-provoking note in today’s N&O Editorial section. It caught my eye and is listed below.

The Jokes on Us

Yet another drought story Jan. 30: “As lake dries, Raleigh drinks more.” I just realized this whole drought thing is nothing more than a scam. We aren’t in any danger of running out of water. If we were, certainly the City Council would have acted responsibly by now.

- Diane Hamilton, Raleigh

Maybe it’s just a slam on the Council, but I also think it’s a (possibly tongue in cheek) thought process that I think a lot of other people share. One that has us trained to believe that our leaders will protect us from ourselves, and that our personal responsibilities take a back seat to regulation and enforcement.

Food for thought, not to be washed down with Raleigh’s H20.

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4 Responses to “Is the Joke on Us?”

  1. Dana on February 1st, 2008 3:41 pm

    Now, it HAS rained in the past 70 days. As of yesterday, we were 8.0″ behind (in a 365 day period); a level we’ve kept for many weeks, so the rainfall has actually been close to normal during this period.

    I don’t understand why so many people think that the government should be more restrictive of personal behavior when the trend is NOT toward despair.

    http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/global_monitoring/precipitation/sn72306_1yr.gif

  2. rt on February 7th, 2008 4:52 pm

    Below the Beltline has some interesting analysis on this issue.

    After crunching the rainfall numbers, they conclude that this drought is not a result of historically low rainfall, but rather historically high demand for water fueled by the region’s growth.

    http://www.belowthebeltline.org/frames-lane/lane.htm

    Quoting -

    ” Now it is clear as day – if we had this rainfall deficit in 1987 or even 1997 rather than 2007, we wouldn’t be in exceptional drought, because ten and twenty years ago we had nowhere near as many folks trying to pull water out of Falls Lake. ”

    ” Three things are now indisputable:

    1. New development accounts for 100% of the increase in our water use, not 1%.

    2. Our current water crisis is 100% attributable to poor planning and zero political will, not natural causes.

    3. “Growth Pays For Itself” is the biggest lie in the history of Earth.
    “

  3. 150 on February 14th, 2008 3:34 pm

    Dana, you need to do some more homework on what constitutes a drought. It’s a lot more than just looking at that same plot that you repeatedly quote. I wonder why you (and others like Diane Hamilton) are so quick to dismiss the reports by the scientists and experts whose job it is to make these determinations. It’s quite arrogant. It’s also the reason why our government “should be more restrictive of personal behavior”. People who are mostly ignorant of the situation, who often are only concerned about their personal situation, tend to abuse the resources until they find themselves with a real problem.

    I’d suggest getting in touch with Ryan Boyles, who is the Director and State Climatologist of the State Climate Office of North Carolina (ryan_boyles@ncsu.edu). There is a lot you can learn from him, and I’m sure you’ll alter your stance a bit.

  4. 150 on February 14th, 2008 3:44 pm

    A good read from the State Climate Office for those who need some supporting evidence for a drought:

    http://nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/nws.nc.drought.update.20071107.pdf

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