Drought Driven Catastrophe in Texas

Update on the Drought Driven Catastrophe in Texas

April 4, 2012

Which Way Do We Go?

In Texas, ironically an” energy state,”  has had a severe prolonged drought, for 6 years. There is no end in sight; and, when we run out of water, we can no longer generate electricity.  The standard steam turbine generator cannot operate without massive amounts of water.  Normally, 25% of our water is used in the generation of electricity.  But 25% of nothing is Zero.  So, as is predicted by everyone who studies weather ,Texas will run out of water sometime in 2012; suddenly leaving 25 million people without water and electricity.  There are no quick fixes for either shortage.  Texas is not connected to the national power grid, so massive power lines would have to be built for hundreds of miles: a 2 year project.  There is no water supply anywhere close to the state.  NO ONE has any idea how to solve that problem.  Therefore, our population density will have to decrease to something like New Mexico/Arizona, which in the most optimistic scenario, means 5 or 6 million people.  We have almost 26 million.  Those numbers don't match up, so about 20 million people will have to migrate out of Texas.  To make matters even worse, most will have to go by car; and, it is at least 1000 miles to regions that have the water and housing to accommodate any of them. This is a logistical nightmare.  If 20 million leave over a three year period, that adds 20,000 vehicles per DAY to our already congested interstates.  That means that all highways going north and east from Texas will resemble parking lots for >1000 miles and become useless to the people in other states that normally use them.  This will disrupt all shipping by trucks going east or north for the entire center of the country east and north of Texas.  Thus, this catastrophic drought will trigger the largest migration ever in the industrialized world .

End of the Road

The impact will be so massive that our respect for the coming era of more violent weather and climactic change the Weather Modelers and tree huggers have been screaming about for over two decades, will rise to an appropriate level.  All the corporate and Right Wing resistance to the ecological movement and the environmentalists will cease.  It will be crystal clear to everyone that we learn how to adapt to nature or we will perish.  There is no room for greed or any abuse of the environment in this necessary adaptation.  Finally, we are still the most wasteful nation in the world (we are 5% of the world's population and we still use 30% of the energy resources). This has gone unchanged in 20 years of public knowledge that this is the situation.  Lots of  talk and no improvement in 20 years is pathetic.  I believe there are several reasons for this disgusting failure.  We are inexplicabley attached to stupid, needless and useless aspects of our consumerism lifestyle, like big powerful cars and trucks (come on that's teenager stuff---you don't need 350 HP to drive to work or carry a couple of 4x8 pieces of plywood do you ???); lighting our homes and cities like it’s the middle of the day all night long ; insisting on a perfect 70 degree indoor climate 24/7 regardless of the outdoor conditions in our homes and work places (how about wearing a couple of sweaters or wear shorts and T-shirts ? Dress codes are idiotic. Open windows. Build facilities where the temperature can be controlled by simple mechanical means).  Then there is our obsession with lawns (we waste 25% of our water on grass; I think it comes from a fantasy about the British Aristocracy---those stunning estates with the wide perfect grass---but guess what, you don't need to water grass in that climate).  So let's give up all the childish obsessions, so we can survive.