Perfect Drought

By Bill Manson
San Diego Reader
October 18, 2007.

"It's catastrophic!"...

...The past two years have been the driest since record-keeping started back in 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was president," he says. "The Sierra Nevada snow is at 30 percent, and the Colorado River is into the eighth year of its drought."...

"What we have done with our lands, says Patzert, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has exacerbated the problem. We have paved riverbeds with concrete; we have paved over much of the land. Rain can't soak in and make its way down into aquifers. Cars and gas stations contribute oil derivatives that spoil the purity of aquifer water. Dams keep rivers from depositing sand for our beaches. Coastlines recede. Nature's cycle is interrupted....

In fact, globally, Patzert, who looks at the Earth daily through his satellite cameras, feels gloomy. "It's the three P's," he says. "Population, pollution, poverty. But the single most critical element is population. Already China's, India's, Africa's lands are too degraded. Globally, it's the Grim Reaper. Locally, it's just a question of how much we can slow the degradation down."

Rickie Lee Jones - Flying Cowboys ...because it's a desert