UPI recently reported that major cities around the world, including Mexico City and Los Angeles, are suffering from severe water crises. Nothing new here. What caught my attention is the one-liner: “Almost no one in the United States — or anywhere else in the industrialized world — takes the crisis seriously or realizes how directly it threatens them.” The article also notes that while Mexico City is about to embark on a 36-hour water cutoff, in Los Angeles, the City Council unanimously turned back a rationing plan Wednesday that had been put together by the city’s Department of Water and Power.
Why is that so? Why is the industrialized world so immune to the growing water problems developing both around the world and in our own communities? Has civilization and progress blinded us to the droughts and floods that have plagued the US, Australia, Europe, and other industrialized regions in recent years? Or, are we quick to dismiss such problems because the consequences were felt by only a minority of a minority? Are we such a reactive (as opposed to proactive) species that the degree of suffering has to overwhelm us before we are ready to take action?
As the UPI article warns in its closing paragraph: “The water shortages now hitting Los Angeles and Mexico City now “only” threaten around 40 million people. If the U.S. and Mexican governments don’t get their acts together, the problem will only get far worse.”