PRE-reading Top 3 Issues

I believe the top three natural resource issues facing us today are:

(Before the readings.)

1) Energy
2) Clean Water
3) Global Climate change

1) Energy: I grew up in the 60s and 70s. With the exception of the "Energy Crisis" of the Carter administration, my generation has thought nothing of digging up hydrocarbon fuels and burning them. The benefits have been enormous and the costs have been disastrous. Almost every "advancement" in civilization in the last 100 years can be attributed to the massive amounts of energy we have put to use from fossil fuels. It's been an amazing ride and it's been interesting to watch in my lifetime. But, the honeymoon is just about over and the costs, on every level, are getting higher. As such, we need to adapt. We need to be good examples of how to live smaller, not bigger. Use less, not more. Become creative with what we have, not throw-away.

2) Clean Water: I happen to live in one of the few places in the country with a wonderfully healthy aquifer that is not over-pumped. It's some of the best water imaginable (like the Crystal Geyser water from Owens Valley, but right from the well. After all, look at our watershed.) However, farms are being purchased in Northern New Mexico by the city of Albuquerque and Santa Fe for the water rights. Not so they can take THIS water, but so they can "legally" over pump their own aquifer. It's like a Ponzy scheme. Actually, it IS a Ponzy scheme. Eventually (probably sooner than later) their water will run out. Then what? Short sighted indeed. This is happening everywhere in our country and the world. Although water is "recyclable," it is not universally available. Throw in CONTAMINATION and it becomes unusable. To me, it's huge and will become the resource, even above energy, that the wealthy will control to kill off the poor. (Either consciously or unconsciously.)

3) Global Climate Change: See #1. We dug it up and burned it. At first, the smog was a problem (think Los Angeles circa 1970,) but we overcame that one with catalytic converters, using, um...platinum. But, in the end, it's the invisible, tasteless, odorless byproducts that are hurting us. And the truth is, we can't even IMAGINE the damage we have done. Waiting to see can not be an option. Tipping points do exist in natural systems and I would not like to see what happens when our natural systems "tip" to correct themselves by natural order. I believe that there is a natural order to our environment. Chaos does not reign supreme for any length of time. Like frequency resonance, at some point, all the dissonant harmonics will go away to return to order (resonance.) If humans are the dissonance, guess who is going away? It's time to live WITH our environment instead of in spite of it.