No - It Isn't Rocket Science - It's Climate Science . . .

The Gadfly heaves a heavy sigh when he writes this, for he feels at times that he is conversing with a brick wall, but for the sake of actually giving a rat's sphincter about humanity's fate, he will state it again -- you all better start paying attention to this shit boys and girls:

HASKELL COUNTY, Kan. — Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

Last year, Mr. Yost was coaxing just 300 gallons from the earth, and pumping up sand in order to do it. By harvest time, the grit had robbed him of $20,000 worth of pumps and any hope of returning to the bumper harvests of years past.

“That’s prime land,” he said not long ago, gesturing from his pickup at the stubby remains of last year’s crop. “I’ve raised 294 bushels of corn an acre there before, with water and the Lord’s help.” Now, he said, “it’s over.”

The land, known as Section 35, sits atop the High Plains Aquifer, a waterlogged jumble of sand, clay and gravel that begins beneath Wyoming and South Dakota and stretches clear to the Texas Panhandle. The aquifer’s northern reaches still hold enough water in many places to last hundreds of years. But as one heads south, it is increasingly tapped out, drained by ever more intensive farming and, lately, by drought.

Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers.

And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/us/high-plains-aquifer-dwindles-hurting-farmers.html?pagewanted=all


The Gadfly acknowledges he is preaching to the choir for most of those who have taken the time to objectively study and educate themselves on the subject of global climate change.  The Gadfly is also quite cognizant of the fact that his words fall on purposefully closed minds and deaf ears for those who believe what Rush Limbaugh and Fox "News" tell them to believe in that climate change is just a big, liberal, hoax.  Therefore, this admonition is actually aimed at those fence sitters in the mushy middle, who either don't have the time or the inclination to educate themselves on the issue or who are just innately confused by the starkly contending viewpoints offered forth by those on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Here is how The Gadfly justifies his own faith in the scientists whose views are that climate change is real, and if nothing is done about it, the planet is in a world of shit.  Say for the sake of this conversation that The Gadfly went for a medical exam and was told by doctors that he had a brain tumor and he needed emergency brain surgery to remove it, otherwise he might die. A secondary exam by an accomplished neurosurgeon confirms the diagnosis and agrees to the recommended action.  Now - having received that information, would The Gadfly then delay his decision in order to seek out the opinion of his auto mechanic or his drinking buddies on the matter, and give their views equal weight and consideration as those of the medical professionals?  To put it bluntly - Fuck no.

Sadly - that is the mindset of the far right in this country.  Unable to process and deal with the reality that is staring them right in the face, they instead grasp on to that which is familiar and comforting to them - which for many is the political and ideological advice of their media heroes like Limbaugh, Hannity, Glenn Beck, and the rest of that ilk, or their religious deity whom they believe will just wave his magic wand and fix everything.

But like The Gadfly stated, he holds no illusions that his words are given so much as glancing, disdainful thought by these folks.  All that The Gadfly can do is simply to continue talking about this subject in a sane, logical and fact-based manner in the hope that eventually those who do see the light will constitute a large enough majority in the country where our collective influence carries enough clout that our weak-kneed, morally defunct political leaders have no choice but to seriously address our demands for action.

Do your part.


----TFG