Natural? Disaters

Unprecedented drought in the southeast is leaving perhaps millions of people with a water supply that may run out in a matter of months. Tremendous fires in Southern California burn over half a million acres and leave over a thousand homeless. Whether or not it can be shown that both are driven by natural (albeit very significant in historic context) drought cycles or yet another symptom of global warming causing long term climate changes or local climatic extremes, both are examples of lack of proper respect for the environment catching up to us and biting us in the ?/*(!@&. At least in Atlanta, an extended period of tremendous population growth has been based on reliance on one relatively small river system, and the assumption that supplies of a critical natural resource such as water would always be adequate to irrigate ever increasing numbers of lawns and golf courses, wash ever increasing numbers of automobiles, and supply water for the myriad indoor uses that follow increasing population. It is amazing that even until the middle of this year the historic drought that the southeast now faces was hardly taken seriously, and no greater steps than limiting days for outdoor lawn watering were taken. Now leaders of metropolitan Atlanta communities struggle to place blame on neighboring states and The Endangered Species Act even as they approve rampant continued development projects.
In southern California development is continually allowed in canyon and mountain areas evolved over thousands of years to burn regularly. This scattered development makes controlled burning of these areas more difficult, and fire suppression allows extremely dense growth of this highly flammable vegetation. Add Santa Ana winds to another localized historic drought area and you get, surprise, a replay of something not seen since....... 2003. Again, predictable consequences of lack of respect for the environment ignored by society in denial, and exacerbated by climate change caused by a greater human caused environmental problem for which many are still in denial.