"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Discovery of Massive Amounts of Freshwater Under Africa Slays Another Environmentalist Apocalyptic Fantasy

Back in December of 2009, I predicted "The Next Environmental Crisis That Threatens Life on Earth" would be a trumped up Peak Water.

Yes folks, the environmentalists will try to convince us we are running out of water, just as they have tried to convince us we would run out of oil, and of decent weather.

Environmentalists have never met an Apocalyptic scenario which did not work like Viagra on their shriveled selves.

Indeed, in May of 2011, Environmentalists thought they had found the Holy Grail proof that the world was ending as a result of massive dehydration:
In some agricultural areas of California, the ground level has dropped 30 feet from excessive draining of aquifers. 
The Colorado River no longer empties into the Gulf of California (Mexico) as all of its water has been taken by irrigation. 
Decades from now, when there will be little snow pack in the Northwestern states, some large western rivers will have even less flow, and large U.S. hydroelectric facilities in the West will no longer supply much of their current electric power.


Yemen’s aquifers around some of its cities are nearly gone. 
Saudi Arabia is phasing out its wheat crop as its large aquifer will be nearly exhausted in a decade.
In upper China, the large fossil aquifer (which is not easily recharged) is being drawn down several meters a year. 
Near Beijing, water wells go down a kilometer (0.6 mile) to get water for the city’s inhabitants.
It is even worse in India as many wells have gone dry and in some regions, half of the electricity is being used to pull up water for people and crops.
With news like this, we might as well all put a gun to our heads before Obama bans them, right? (Though, if we used guns primarily for suicide, rather than for protection against the encroaching tyranny of our government, Obama would likely be all for them.)

Thing is, as with any "Peak Theory", it's all crap. We live on a tremendously abundant Earth, and man's mind is infinite in it's creative capacity to find new ways to use the resources provided by this bountiful Earth that God gave us.

Deep beneath Africa, under some of the hottest and driest places on earth, lie vast reservoirs of fresh water. According to geologists, these “aquifers are some 410,000 cubic miles thick and contain 100 times the freshwater that exists on the continent’s surface.” Tapping that water could transform dry and barren land in places like the Sahel into wet and fertile oases.
In fact, with:


Slowing population growth. The restoration of massive swaths of farmland to nature. Increasing world food supplies. Lower food prices for billions of people. Massive water supplies beneath the driest deserts. Abundant oil and gas. The 21st century is looking like it will be a very different kind of place than the greens and Malthusians have warned us about.
Malthusianism is a psychological disposition more than an intellectual conclusion, and we have no doubt that the alarmists among us will find new looming catastrophic shortages to warn us about. But it’s striking nevertheless that centuries of failed predictions haven’t dented the confidence so many people have in what is so clearly a wrong-headed approach to world affairs.

Every new generation falls prey to the Maulthusian scare stories. Young people are particularly vulnerable to these frightening tales whispered around the campfire, because they have yet to have watched as the Malthusian fantasies are proven wrong by the turns of time.

When I was a kid, my supposedly wise elders filled my head with Apocalyptic nightmares of a worldwide Ice Age brought on by man's abuse of the Earth. Because these stories frightened me so much, and because over time it became obvious they were nothing but lies, I have not fallen prey to the pure insanity of the Global Warming myth.

One must wonder what is going to happen to the Environmentalist hegemony as medicine helps us attain longer, healthier lives, wherein we can store up the wisdom of our own generations of personal experience. Who will they fool when there is no one left to fool?

Will Peak Environmentalism become the first Peak Theory fantasy to actually come true?

We can only hope.

No comments: