Ignorance is not bliss people!!

As most of you may or may not know, I am in school for environmental engineering. Not the gross waste water kind or the boring water treatment kind. I want to work with development companies on finding more environmentally friendly ways to put in developments. Well in order to do this I have to take this water resources policy class. Interesting class, but depressing, and I mean really depressing. well, maybe not so much depressing as FRUSTRATING, and i mean frustrating. I mean, can people really be this dumb, or is it ignorant. And i mean the dictionary meaning of ignorant, like, not knowing something cause you have never been taught. So, on with my story. I am reading a book called the Great Lakes Water Wars, by Annin, for this class, great book EVERYONE should read it, I'll tell you why in a minute. One line said, "people need to think about water when they are considering where to live." I mentioned that to a coworker cause I thought it was funny since Sean and I have been talking about moving back to Utah, and the other day I told him I think it might be a bad idea, since in twenty years they will be out of water. Another coworker said, "you actually believe that stuff?" I said, uh yeah, I'm a scientist, this is what I'm going to school for, YES i believe that stuff." His reply, "it's all overreacting, that stuff really isn't happening." I was floored, unbelievably flabbergasted. It's not happening? really? do you not watch the news? do you not read the papers? huh? I guess if that's true I'm getting my degree for nothing. I told this to my professor in class last night, since it was that class that the article related to and he said, well, you could get into dialog with the guy, or girl for that matter, whoever brings it up, and tell them about case studies. So I thought I'd vent on here and let you guys hear me from my soapbox and maybe someone will wake up and smell the blasted coffee, cause I know some pretty smart educated people and I hope that you won't blow me off thinking this "isnt' happening." First case study, the Aral Sea, anyone ever heard of it? It used to be the 4th largest inland sea in the WORLD. Yes USED to be, it no longer is, because Stalin in his genius phase decided that the rivers that fed the Sea needed to be diverted for agriculture. So now the sea is drying up, and there is nothing that can really be done, unless the 5 'Stans (uzbekastan, Kazacstan, Turkmenistan, you get the drift) agree that something needs to be done. Not only is the sea drying up, the type of irrigation they do makes the water more polluted, creating areas that are slowly becoming unfarmable. You think that oh, that's the other side of the world, it can't happen to me. Let me give you case number 2. Waukesha, Minnesota, a subrub of Minneapolis. This little town used to have springs that were fresh and world renowned, guess what, they don't anymore. They used to have no water regulations to speak of, and one of the cheapest prices for water in the whole state. They paved over their springs and covered them with parking lots and shopping malls. smart, i tell ya, smart. They have used so much of the water out of the aquifer that they are now pumping out radium and other salts and chemicals, making their water undrinkable. yeah, that's in Minnesota, were it rains and they don't really use water for irrigation. just think about it people. The amount of water used in that town is just for everyday stuff, washing the cloths, dishes, cars, watering the lawns. But obviously with very little regard to where the next drop was coming from. So now they are begging to get water from the Great Lakes, Michigan in particular. The commision of the great lakes has told them NO, because the town doesn't want to pay to return the treated water to the lakes. Do I see another Aral sea coming on? No, since the commision refuses to allow them to withdraw lake water unless they plan to return it. Now onto case number 3. The Ogallala aquifer, some of you have to have haerd about this one. it's the largest aquifer in the US and is underneath Nebraska, Texas, OK, South dakota, Kansas, and a few other states. It used to be fresh glacial water, over 200 feet deep, in the aquifer. not anymore. It is being pumped out so fast that no water is going back in. The area that uses the water does NOT get much rain, therefor they depend on that water for ALL their irrigation. The area is covered with large industrial farms, you know, the ones that are owned by big coperations. They could give a crap about what happens, as long as they get water for their plants that they can sell. The largest crop out there is corn, which is the most water thirsty crop you can grow, and the corn is grown for the feed lots. Feed lots are where your steak and hamburger come from if you go to wal mart, or any grocery store, for that matter. One way to fix that is to start buying local beef that wasn't grown on a feed lot, yeah it may cost a little more money, but hey, what's more important, the couple extra bucks you'll pay for steak now or the lack of water you will have later. Soon, as in, within 20 years parts of the Ogallala aquifer will be dry. You think, why the heck do I care, I'm never moving to Nebraska? It's too flat, dry, ugly, take your pick. Uh, yeah, were did I say your meat came from? Exactly people, exactly. And don't even get me started about the people that live in LA, Las Vegas or other places where there just shouldn't be people. Sorry Amy :) Do you know how far that water travels overland to get to them? And what it does to the ecosystem when it it removed from the river? Do ya care? okay, I'm done for now, I think I'm getting more irritated as I write this, instead of the other way around. So, just think about the water you are wasting when you do your dishes, or watering your grass, or brushing your teeth, there are LOTS of ways to conserve, you just have to give a crap!