Wake up Arizona. You live in the desert

Ethan Miller / Getty Images file

I don't have very much commentary to add to this, but when will our leaders and the people living in Arizona start taking this seriously? Do we want to end up like Georgia where they have a couple of weeks of water left and their governor's answer is to pray for rain?

We need to make environmentalism and conservation part of our economic growth model. Arizona should become the world center for solar power generation and research as well as the center for water efficiency and reclamation technology.

Arizona's Weather and Baby Stuff Make Me Think

There was this article today about the record number 110+ degree days in Phoenix this year. I also read this interesting contrarian point of view on Global Warming today. I have also been reading Collapse which puts forth the idea that some societies choose to fail because of indifference or in some cases hubris.

The reason I bring all of this up is that I have been thinking more lately about how little we consider the impact of our lifestyle on ourselves and the environment. Now don't get me wrong, I like my air conditioning and my LCD TV as much as the next person, but I can't help but wonder about the long term cost of cheap and abundant consumer goods. I have been reading a lot lately about all of the toxic chemicals in nearly everything we use as my wife and I prepare a nursery. I found this site that analyses the toxicity of car seats, it is disturbing to say the least. Or how about the possibility of pytoestrogens in plastic that might be responsible all manner of reproductive problems including a long term drop in sperm counts.

The problem I see is that for the most part there are more questions than answers. It is nearly impossible with the information available to accurately predict the danger of many of these things. This is a topic that even the most open minded people do not want to talk about.

The simple fact is that we are running an unregulated experiment on ourselves. It is reminiscent of many of the societies cited in Collapse, who ignored the problems that conflicted with societal norms. What amount of information would lead us as a society to more closely examine the affects of our lifestyle? Will there ever be enough information or consensus to convince either side of the debate?

If temperatures continue to increase, will central and Southern Arizona be inhabitable in 50 years? 100? Will people that question the danger of Global Warming or unregulated use of chemicals ever be considered anything other than whiny alarmists? Will the alarmists ever concede that some of the things they rail against may be less dangerous (or perhaps not dangerous at all) when the facts come in? Will we ever have a rational conversation about the best way to deal with any of these issues?

Global Warming: Arizona Republic Style

It is amazing that we have come this far on Global Warming... Our local right-wing columnist at the Republic admits its existence here. What is funny is that he is reduced to nit-picking various facts from an Inconvenient Truth. I agree with his analysis for the most part, but not his characterization. He is critical of Gore for giving some worst case scenarios for the affects of Global Warming, but Gore does not claim inevitability. I find it interesting that we are all of the sudden worried about slight nuances in a documentary when we have things like Iraq and 1% doctrine from the Bush administration.

The 1% doctrine is Cheney's idea that if there is even a 1% chance of terrorists obtain WMDs that we should basically react as though they have them. Cheney described it as "low-probability, high-impact event". What would our reaction be if there was a 1% possibility of terrorists raising sea level by 20 feet and displacing millions of people?

I just think the juxtaposition is very interesting. I think it shows how the reaction to both issues are out of whack...