Pacific Views

The Big Thirst - a Recommendation

An insightful body of analysis holds that sudden catastrophes, like earthquakes, fires and great storms, bring people together. They pitch in, cooperate, and ignore the economic and social divisions that previously held them apart. But drought is different. It is gradual and drawn out. An earthquake shudders and is over; a fire blazes and dies; a storm finally passes. But a drought creeps on. Drought doesn’t dissolve differences in the shock of thunderbolt change; it gives people plenty of time to erect defenses, pick sides, and meditate on the defects of their neighbors. Drought divides people, a fact that should remind us that solving the conundrum of water, growth, and hardened demand is work best done in the present, before the curve of rising need and the downshifting line of limits slam together.

Recently, Climate Progress reviewed Williams DeBuys' book, A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest which talks about the encroaching desertification of the Southwest and from which this frightening quote comes. Droughts provide a unique stress on human societies -- and with global warming we need to find ways to manage those stresses to avoid the worst outcomes.

One way to start to learn about our water challenges and possible solutions is to read Charles Fishman's The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.

Fishman has done an incredible job in describing the varied challenges we face with water including long-term drought and providing some truly inspiring vignettes about people on the leading edge of providing solutions.

In The Big Thirst, Fishman writes about Australia and the recent drought as a harbinger of what the Southwestern United States of American faces.

Australia is a country where the cities themselves have begun running out of water during the last ten years -- a place that has discovered how quickly an elaborate system for gathering and providing water can become inadequate, or even irrelevant. Australia is also living through something completely new -- the division and damage that sudden water scarcity can do to the shared sense of values, to the politics, of a community.

Back when the people of Toowoomba, in the state of Queensland, thought things were bad -- when it hadn't rained in five years, when the city's reservoirs were down to 34% full -- they came together in their desperation to try a drought-ending strategy people have tried for five thousand years.

They turned their eyes and their voices heavenward, and they prayed for rain.
...
The Reverend Edgar Mayer, of Living Grace Church, offered God a two-for-one deal, "If it is our sins that caused the drought," he prayed, "then please wash away our sins away with your rain."

That evening's prayers were not answered -- not then, not by the following April, or the next, or the next, not even four Aprils later, by April 2009. It was impossible to know on that Thursday night, but Toowoomba's water troubles hadn't even begun.

In 2011 as the drought encased Texas, Governor Rick Perry also called upon Texans to pray for rain. The results of their request was not answered in 2011. Today the drought continues. Who knows how long it will take before it will be answered? [NPR's State Impact site continues to track this story.]

But even more unsettling, when the rains finally come, they can be a curse and not a blessing -- because global warming makes the climate more extreme.

After a decade of drought in Australia, the rains finally came. In 2011 Queensland experienced floods described as biblical. One of the places the floods came was in Toowoomba where six inches of rain fell in 30 minutes.

What Fishman shows through the book is that with careful planning and ingenuity, humans can solve the problem of delivering clean water reliably to everyone if we really want to. But we need to spend enough on our water infrastructure, conserve the resources we have and plan for the future.

The Scientific American has a very good review of this book.

Miss America: Auditioning for Center Stage

... by Walter Brasch

Tucked between the New Hampshire primary and Ground Hog Day, and directly competing against an NFL playoff game, was Saturday's annual Miss America pageant.

Although the headquarters is still near Atlantic City, where it originated in 1921, the pageant-don't call it a beauty contest-has been a part of the Las Vegas entertainment scene for eight years. Apparently, the Las Vegas motto of "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" wrapped itself around the pageant as well, with TV viewership dropping lower almost every year.

ABC-TV divorced Miss America in 2004, claiming irreconcilable differences. Viewership had fallen from a peak of 26.7 million in 1991 to an all-time low of 9.8 million, barely enough to keep a prime-time show on the air. The pageant"s CEO, trying to preserve what dignity was left, stated "We needed to find a better partner, one that better understands our values."

Apparently better understanding Miss America's values was Country Music Television (CMT). However, that marriage didn't last, and Miss America then hooked up with the The Learning Channel (TLC). By 2007, only 2.4 million viewers tuned in to watch who would be the next beauty queen to want world peace, save the whales, and "do her country proud."

Treating its demotion to the minor leagues as a chance for rehabilitation, the pageant made a few cosmetic changes, began playing with new ways of scoring, including viewer participation, and slowly brought its ratings back to about 4.5 million in 2010.

That's when ABC-TV and Miss America, after a six-year divorce, fell in love again. Apparently, CMT and TLC "values" (and money) weren't as good as a major network's. Promising eternal faithfulness-as long as the ratings increased-the two lovebirds were seen by about 7.8 million.

Now, it may seem that only TV executives and advertisers should care about ratings, viewer demographics, and selling fluff. But the contestants are well-trained actors in the made-for-TV show, complete with celebrity judges, most of whom are there solely because they are-well-celebrities.

About one-third of all contestants say they want to go into communications. As in almost every pageant for the past four decades, several want to go into television. Miss Delaware and Miss Nevada both want to be talk show hosts. Miss Louisiana wants to anchor the "Today" show; to get to that lofty goal, she plans to first get a master's in health communication. None of the contestants wanting to go into journalism have expressed any interest in first covering city council meetings, the courts, police, or Little League games. They plan to take their beauty and pageant poise, make up their hair and face, and stand in front of a camera to emphasize the reality that broadcast journalism has diminished to the point of style over substance.

Miss New York wants to be the editor of a fashion magazine. Miss Idaho wants to write for a health and fitness magazine. Miss Hawaii wants to be a film director; to do that, she plans to first get an MBA. There is no evidence she plans first to be an actor, set designer, writer, cinematographer, or in any of several dozen crafts.

Miss Utah says she wants to be an interpersonal communications presenter (whatever that is) and also a college dance team coach. Miss New Hampshire, who probably dressed Barbie dolls in corporate suits, says she wants to "own a large and prestigious advertising firm." It's doubtful she'll want to modify the gibberish of the organization that, with all seriousness, says it "provides young women with a vehicle to further their personal and professional goals and instills a spirit of community service through a variety of unique nationwide community-based programs."

A few contestants say they want to be "event planners," as if there already aren't enough people wasting their own lives by planning the lives of others.

Not planning to go into communications is Miss California who is earning a degree in something called "social enterprise." That could be anything from learning how to use Facebook to mixing the drinks at upscale parties. Miss West Virginia says she wants to go into the military, and then become secretary of state. Perhaps one day she might work for the 2011 Miss America, whose goal is to become president.

Several contestants plan to get MBAs, but almost everyone wants to use that degree to go into-prepare yourself!-a non-profit social service agency. It sounds good, and maybe they all mean it. But, dangle a six-figure salary, stock options, extensive perks, and a "golden parachute," and most of them will run over the Red Cross so fast it'll need blood transfusions.

Mixed into the career goals are some contestants who plan to be physicians, pharmacists, speech therapists, physical therapists, and others in the caring professions.

Miss America doesn't have to worry about a job or college for a year. Along with a paid chaperone, she will tour the country to sign autographs and give inspirational speeches about whatever her platform is-and, of course, to promote the Miss America Organization.

From the "toddlers and tiaras" stage to the stage at the Planet Hollywood Casino, beauty contestants are told how to look, act, and talk, even what to say or not say. The Miss America Organization-which makes the Mafia look like a second rate fraternity-doesn't tell contestants they must attend college. But, every one of the state winners is planning to be a college graduate.

There is a definite bias against those who don't think attending college is important at this stage of their lives. And so, we don't see talented actors, singers, dancers, and musicians who are bypassing college to attend specialized non-degree-granting schools and enter their professions. We don't see contestants who, although beautiful and talented, are planning to be plumbers, electricians, or firefighter/paramedics. We don't see contestants who want to be gardeners, floral arrangers, or chefs. And, we most assuredly don't see women who are bypassing college to be part of major social movements.

[Walter Brasch, who attended several beauty pageants, although as a reporter and not as a contestant, is a social issues columnist and book author. His current book is Before the First Snow: Tales from the Revolution, available at www.amazon.com or www.greeleyandstone.com]