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.
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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.
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