One of the two favorite subjects of this blog is conservation and water, so we get to do two for the price of one today. The drought in the southern United States is very bad these last few years (see the blog entry on Atlanta, Georgia), and it looks like it may be even worse in 2008, if something big in the precipitation department doesn’t come their way. Yes, for the skeptics, droughts do happen naturally, but, come on, it’s pretty much common knowledge that most Americans don’t conserve water, or energy for that matter. We embrace profligate waste, and the only time we begrudgingly consider being more modest with water and energy is if we are absolutely forced to do so. This usually means that the price goes up, and we try a little, but so most of us haven’t been really challenged with respect to our usage to the point where we radically change our lifestyle in order to get by. I believe most Americans simply do not want to contemplate the idea that our natural resources aren’t infinite, or that a very convenient technological fix won’t come along and give us everything we need, and fix all of our environmental damage as a side benefit. We want to believe in a miracle. Well, we shall see, but meanwhile, extinctions are happening, and they are significant, so that miracle has to come very, very soon.

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As a scientist, I have of course followed the evolution of global warming‘, or now, ‘climate change’ for many years. Before it became politicized, not many people even knew about it, or took it seriously. These days, many people have an opinion, and I can say for certain, that and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, most don’t bother to actually read any actual scientific journal articles to really back up their opinion, one way or the other, and instead base it on politics. You know the drill, those who don’t like Al Gore, don’t ‘believe’ in climate change. Well, I for one am tired of people saying they don’t ‘believe’ in climate change. It’s not a religion to be believed in, it’s science, and the only way to arrive at a conclusion worth anything is if you do your homework. That means reading papers and thinking, and then you are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn’t guarantee that you are correct.

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