February 2003
U.S. Water News Online
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Drought is speeding up depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer so much that a University of Kansas researcher calls the problem “as pressing or more pressing” than it ever has been before.
Eight university scientists recently spent a week in western Kansas to measure the water levels of 500 wells that draw water from the aquifer. They discovered the water level is dropping faster than it did in the last decade.
“What happens when it gets dry, people pump more, so they’re drawing on it more,” said Rex Buchanan, associate director of the Kansas Geological Survey. “These numbers clearly show the issue of depletion of the Ogallala is out there, and it’s as pressing or more pressing as it has been.”
The Ogallala stretches from northern Texas to South Dakota and is a major source of water on the High Plains. In addition to the university study, the state’s Division of Water Resources tested 700 other wells in the area, reaching similar findings. MORE
It goes back much further, and in 2001, CommonDreams.org published an informative article that our government is ignoring, scrambling to pick-up nickels while they step over dollars in a decision making process that defies common-sense! After you read U.S. Faces Day of Reckoning it’s more than obvious that our government is ignoring well-known issues that affect the very survival factor of millions of our citizens - all in the name of greed, fiscal mismanagement, and the corruption of the Bush administration. The aforementioned article has proven to be prophetic and is a stark reminder that we’re in a trend, not an abnormality of a couple of particularly dry years.
If you believe in national security, which most of us do and all of the Presidential candidates are emphasizing, and look closely at our economic woes, a major factor in the inflation of our core food costs are directly related to our government’s decision to use corn to produce ethanol; the cascade of higher beef, poultry, milk, and our core food supply costs as it relates to cereals, flour, bread, and other essentials to our survival is being threatened and mismanaged on a colossal scale with long-term effects to the environment and economy that must be addressed and discussed in the upcoming Presidential debates. We have ignored this issue for far too long, and protecting the nation’s breadbasket is as essential to our survival as maintaining an adequate military.
The recent politics of South and Central America have demonstrated that the world is becoming more volatile as each day passes. Skirmishes and political upheaval are occurring with a frequency that has been exacerbated by Bush’s poor diplomatic skills, or total lack thereof - and in an uncertain global environment, we believe that being able to sustain ourselves and grow our own food is a vital national security concern on several different levels, i.e., the safety of the food, the impact to America’s farming community, and most of all, our ability as a nation to stand on our own feet in the event of a national emergency, whether it be natural, man-made, or even engineered by a government that is bent on bringing America to its knees and knuckling-under to the whim of corporate America rather than what’s beneficial to the majority of America.
We need, and should demand that our national food stores be replenished. The old adage that “Charity begins at home” has become self-evident. I’m not advocating that we cut-off wheat sales to starving nations, however, I do believe in balancing our “giving” with a comprehensive program of building-up our own wheat stores, much as we have done with the Strategic Oil Reserve. Oil without food is worthless, a lesson our nation could learn the hard way. We were told that high oil prices were due to expanded consumption and the crisis in the Middle-East, but now that we know American consumption is decreasing and oil prices are still rising, another lie is bared for all to see. We’re already being gouged into poverty by the oil conglomerates - and if we allow the same thing to happen with our food, Americans will face the worst downward trend in personal wealth in this nation’s recent history - and it’s already well under way. We need to demand that more of our land is dedicated to wheat production and that our ethanol policy is re-visited and addressed with a solution based on our ecology as well as our economy, not tow the line of the greedy corporatism that is destroying our country.
William Cormier
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