The water shortage will make the oil shortage look like a picnic.

I was just going to post this very same article!
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174981

I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. --Mark Twain

Everyone "Oooohs and Ahhhhs" over the fancy development of Dubai...

But I look at the satellite views and all I can think of is Ozymandia's statue half buried in the sand dunes.

Dubai is a DESERT coastal area -- it has been desert for centuries. They may build islands and skyscrapers and fancy resorts, irrigated golf-courses, and even inside fake ski slopes... but 50 or 100 years from now possibly less) ... it will all be reclaimed by some combination of the ocean and/or the desert, and the population will dwindle to a small percentage of what is currently there... and they will live among the crumbling ruins. They can spend their oil money to import people, water and fancy technology, but eventually it will prove too expensive to maintain.

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actually rain barrels are a hot item and will probably get hotter

"The Only President to save my kids future"

In some states, it's illegal; in others, perfectly legal. Check your state and local restrictions.

There is life east of the Cascades... LOTS of desert life.
I love the way you Portland folks call Prineville "Eastern Oregon." (My kids were born in Enterprise.)

Whether because it has been poisoned with toxic chemicals or metals (nearly all of the wells in a few counties 100 miles north of me are undrinkable because so much water was pumped from the water table in recent decades that what is left has a significantly increased density of arsenic -- which leaches into it from the ground above {never a problem before development} ).

So, not everyone (nor everywhere) has a reliable Artesian water supply from a "clean" aquifer.

In addition, a LOT of areas of the country (Atlanta Georgia) have undergone massive increases in population in the past several years, and their aquifers and local reservoirs simply cannot handle the demands of their current population. The same is true (but worse) for many countries around the world (parts of Africa and Asia have had tenfold increases of population -- far beyond the capacity of the land and other resources to maintain them).

Seriously, its like any other population explosion in wildlife -- when the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the local resources, the animals either have to migrate or die in significant numbers until a sustainable population is reached.

In part, this is one of the major problems I have with the whole *aid* programs to the poor countries; they only exacerbate those countries problems... other than in the RARE instance of an aberration in crops, if you GIVE a bunch of food to a population that is increasing, then it is being done in a fashion beyond the resources (crops OR other trades) of the land, and it just exacerbates an unsustainable situation (I normally don't like to use "greenie" words like unsustainable, but in this case the use is apropriate and accurate). All that results is that the surviving families and their children have even MORE children... and unless dramatic LOCAL development occurs, then eventually there will be mass starvation, it is unavoidable... *aid* in such situations -- like the bailout -- can only delay and increase the SIZE of the calamity.

And 95% of that is locked up in glaciers.

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