Water shortage affects all, says commentary

From the North County Times, this commentary by Rick Mercurio:

North County is locked in a water shortage that affects nearly all of us. The crisis is real, and we need to find ways to cope. But we also have to grasp —- and even question —- some of the underlying assumptions about the way that we in the dry south have come to depend on water from elsewhere.

First, we ought to discard the political rhetoric.

In his Community Forum article of May 22 (“Where has all our water money gone?”), writer Paul Marx states he knows the real reason for our current water shortage: “left-leaning green politicians.” He goes on to write that in actual fact there is an abundance of water, and “we are being lied to.”

I see myself as both left-leaning and green, and I guess that makes those who believe as Marx does, right-leaning and brown. And wrong. Their premise seems to mock basic science, as well as a concern for our planet.

Marx wrote “water is by far the most abundant substance on the planet,” and that “the real truth is that we have plenty of water …” Water is plentiful, all right, if you are including the oceans and the ice caps. But fresh, usable water is becoming more and more precious and scarce as our population swells and Mother Nature withholds normal precipitation in our state and the Colorado River basin.

Read more of this commentary from the North County Times by clicking here.

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