‘Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic’
‘Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic’
The long read: While the world becomes drier, profit and pollution are draining our resources. We have to change our approach
sigh... a drought can't be a pandemic because it's not a disease. ffs, is there nobody literate in journalism anymore?
if drought is on the verge of becoming widespread and devastating, just say that.
Ok, Mr. Literal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_and_figurative_language
Words should matter though. The guy you responded too is correct. There is a very big difference in responses to pandemics vs drought. Both can cause upheaval, but that's about where the similarities end.
even used figuratively, it's bad writing for the reason i explained. this isn't some high school essay; it's a headline in a well-regarded, internationally-recognized newspaper. this should never have passed editorial muster. it's sloppy.
I think Water Wars are also a concern.
I think better management and recharge of groundwater is the only way to weather the unpredictability climate change brings to precipitation. During winter floods it will be necessary to divert flows to areas where it can soak in to recharge aquifers and make it through the dry times. There simply isn’t enough space for surface storage to fill the gaps.
I think it's important to note how much hardscape and channelling has been done to prevent widespread and sheet style flooding, and how they contribute to this problem of ground water recharge.
Most places that are flat enough to build are flat enough to build because of thousands of millenia of flooding, especially sheet flooding, laying down sediment and making them flat. Then humans get annoyed because the flat low places floos, so they build flood control.
There is a post further down about how Muni water really isn't an issue and I agree with this. I've put up a couple posts explaining this on Reddit and hacker news. I could rehash it if some one was interested.
I don’t think this is actually as bad as people say.
It’s not that we won’t have drinking water. Municipal water use is tiny! And provided with enough incentives (higher costs) people will use less water. And this can be done in very reasonable ways by issuing water tiered rates.
Agricultural water use, is a whole different topic. However, until we can incentives better water management on our massive agricultural lands, it’s only going to get worse.