Inconvenient Science, Politics, Economics and Time

 

It’s been a busy few weeks with an assassination attempt, an abdication, a national election victory of Crazy over Kumbaya, the collapse of the New York Yankees, huge hurricanes worldwide, a comet too close for comfort and Daylight Savings TIME.  Not only are the changes a surprise, but it’s the change in the changes that are unpredictable, the acceleration of change, with respect to TIME.  Where is the comfort in all of this, the convenience of truth and TIME.  

 

Science, engineering and hydrology are under attack these days with conspiracy theories and climate deniers because some of the mad men at the top are not very good at science or don’t believe in it.  Science is not a matter of faith but a matter of fact and is not open to debate.  Science is run by the unequivocal rules and laws of the universe that make the legal and political system seem whimsical and capricious.  Science is our best explanation of how things really work, at this point in TIME.   

I’m a water scientist, a civil engineer, a hydrologist, dam it.  I am a hobby economist, part TIME geologist and amateur cosmologist.  It’ who I am and what I do.  I consider it my obligation to share what I know and love with others, in a format that is fun and fathomable.  I believe we need science now more than ever, for us and for our children.  It’s about TIME and that is not a constant in this ever-changing world, but a commodity that cannot be bought or sold, and we are running out of it. 

Objective scientists like Hawking and Feynman say that our biggest issues today are that our population growth is unsustainable for food, water, natural resources and human industry – the basics of our market economy.  The Earth is already over capacity.  Our climate is on a downhill trend that could flip or accelerate and make the earth hotter than Venus (451° F).  Our technology is becoming so advanced that soon computers will be smarter than we are and may take over.  We can’t even turn off our Smart Phones let alone Artificial Intelligence.  The rich and smart guys are trying to find other planets and a way to relocate or TIME travel amongst our 11M dimensional universes.  That’s not a good sign. 

Water is a good, visible metaphor for our natural resources and how we conserve and distribute them or use them up until they are gone.  The Tragedy of the Commons and human nature dictate that we take more than our share, for fear of getting cheated. The devil may take the rest.  We divide and distribute our lakes and rivers perpetually on paper and wonder why there is no wet water remaining.  We pump our groundwater until it is gone and wonder why the aquifers collapse and the ground subsides.  Out of sight out of mind.  We subsidize waste and encourage overuse that does not support the general welfare and the public good.  This is not conservation or communism, but historic and accepted western water law and economics in practice.   Use it or lose it, waste it or taste it.  First in TIME, first in right, first at the bank.

There is our infinite thirst and exponential growth spurring boundless water demand, as opposed to our diminishing supply, exacerbated by climate change and long-term drought. Our answers are technologically bent, resorting to Apps and accounting, metering and monitoring, smoke and mirrors, deeper wells and longer diversions, water banks and bigger dams.  Or we look for other places to steal water from, like the oceans and icebergs, the Moon and Mars, exoplanets and an alternative universe.  The first thing we always look for is water, in the name of life, and in the name of TIME. 

But if something is free, like water and pollution, inner climate and outer space, free TIME or spare change, people will not value it.  Is it ironic to rely on the fair market to conserve water and clean air, save our climate and preserve outer space, or is it our last, best chance?  People don’t do anything without incentives or disincentives, the carrot and the stick, market forces.  So how do we make wasting water economically expensive, clean air truly valuable, climate and outer space the dominion and responsibility of the masses.  Ask a politician, a businessman, or an economist in these crazy TIMES where it is money that changes everything, and change is the only thing that matters.  Just don’t ask a scientist.  You might not like the inconvenient truth or urgent TIMING. 

A Walk in the Park - Kevin Fedarko

    When we last left Kevin Fedarko, he was describing the great Colorado River - Grand Canyon flood of 1983 in his best seller, award winning book “The Emerald Mile”.  With river runner Kenton Grua’s record run and the nervous Bureau of Reclamation putting plywood up in the spillway of the Glen Canyon Dam to save Lake Powell, it was a rollicking ride down the river.  In his latest effort “A Walk in the Park” Kevin takes us, with his friend – photographer Pete McBride, through a more focused, detailed and methodical exploration of the canyon on foot, with backpacks and boots, blood and blisters, heat and hieroglyphics, searing sunshine and epic storms.  (I would have loved to see more of McBride’s photo’s but they are for another book, I assume.)

    The only way to see big country is on foot, where you smell and taste, feel and hear every detail, including the distances and the silence.  The story is a combination of self-flagellation and hubris, as it arcs from the painful lessons of the Tenderfoot to the triumph of will and wisdom of experience, eventually finishing as a mindless march to an existential finish. 

    First let me say that I loved this book.  Some of the best parts are his descriptions of the geology and geomorphology of the canyon, from the multi-layer birthday cake litany of the aged aeolian stratigraphy to the alluvial formation of the fluted slot canyons and tributaries.  Details like the billon year gap in the Great Unconformity layer, to the oldest exposed rocks in the world.  This brings to light the relative newness of the canyon in the big picture of the earth at this location, with multiple mountains and seas, sand dunes and swamps occurring at this place.  There could have been 100 Grand Canyons before our time, maybe even a million, but we can only appreciate this one, this time. 

    Second, let me say that I love this hike but being unprepared does not make you an adventure writer, it makes you a rube.  I have been on extended backpack trips in the Canyons, with Ultra-Hiker John Demkowitz, and I realize the razor sharp risk assessment you make every day for sun, safety and shortcuts, water, direction and distance, calories expended and calories gained.  Kevin’s amateur antics on his first hike did not make me energized or empowered but enervated and exhausted, an accident waiting to happen.   As a hydrologist, I was equally unimpressed with the river descriptions in the “Emerald Mile” but disappointed in the sensationalism and melodrama.  It is great that he can tell these stories to the general public, in a palatable format, but does it have to be so slapdash?    I prefer a good didactic story, well told, without the window dressing and embellishment. 

    Fedarko is a great writer with a zinger on every page, incredible descriptions and metaphors, but does he have to use so many words.  There are only so many ways you can try to describe the Grand Canyon, your effort or misery, ambition and determination, and he tries everyone.  Just tell the story, in 100 pages, and be done with it.  Like his mentor and inspiration, Colin Flecher, “The Man who Walked Through Time,” the book does not have to be a slog that duplicates the hike.  Like his hero Grua’s subsequent through-walk, do it and be quite about it.  Be more, appear less.  Still, besides its pretentiousness, it is a fun and funny story, like a family hike or a fraternity road trip, complete with mishaps and miscalculations, tragedy and triumph and in the end, we do find meaning in the journey, if not the destination, in the coda of comfort and it’s completion.

    His unrivaled description of the Celestial Vault of their three-dimensional desert stargazing, solidifying their insignificance, is a powerful portion of the narrative as is the apparent movement of the Anthropomorphs painted on the rocks nearly 4000 years ago, where the canyon is alive and speaking to them.  In between is the sad story of the Havasupai and Hualapai tribe’s struggle for relevance and recognition with their familiar bargaining for ownership and development of their birthright natural resources.  The rampant Eco-tourism depicted by air traffic in Helicopter Alley and the Volun-tourism expressed by those who want to help the natives is clouded by the hikers self-absorption and importance.  This was an self-absorbed  search for meaning in their narcistic struggle for fulfillment in a brutal, living and moving natural environment that cares not for them, or their quest. 

    Wilderness is where man is just a visitor who leaves, where a tree that falls in the forest makes a noise, weather we are there to hear it or not. It is about exploration and enjoyment, not conquest and accounting for the record books.  The Wild reveals itself to us in its own time, to those who are curious and equipped, resilient and ready.  Despite his caution, Fedarko’s book will spur a new horde of cross-canyon adventurers, seeking out the inner canyons’ myths and legends, records and experiences.  They will flood the area with novice and expert hikers, all taking their little piece of heaven or hell with them.  In some cases, it is better to let the wilderness be.  Some things are better left unsaid.