An unusual series of dust storms has blanketed parts of the Colorado Rockies.  Pristine snow capped peaks are now dirtied and pinked by the dust, which accelerates snowmelt.  Water supplies are becoming unpredictable and much is set to change in landscapes which we have all taken so long for granted.  Imagine the Rockies in 30 years time, bereft of Summer snows…

Photo courtesy of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies

There is news that the odds of severe climate change are to be much worse than had been predicted- perhaps twice as much.  According to the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change there is a 90% probability that Global Surface Temperatures will be 3.5 to 7.4 degrees higher by 2100.  Unless drastic action is taken at an International Level, before a series of climate change tipping points begin the process of inevitable catastrophe. 

By 2100 Much of South West America will become a dust bowl. 

But with 30% of Americans either doubtful, dismissive or disengaged about climate change what will it take for them to accept such facts? 

Future generations will look back on these current decades as a lost opportunity, but with the planet wrecked by 2100 who will care ? 

Of one thing we can be certain- all those stupid idiots who casually deny these global realities will be commemorated on a vast roll-call of shame:

Christopher Monckton, Sarah Palin, James Inhofe, Christopher Booker, David Bellamy, Melanie Phillips, Vaclav Klaus, Michele Backman, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Fox News, the vast majority of the Republican Mediocrity Party (aka the GOP) and, for that matter, the legions of fundamentalist American evangelicals who have buried their heads in the sand. 

The average UK resident uses a staggering 4650 litres of water a day! 
Now before you fall off your chair in disbelief, perhaps look at this fact for the truth of what it is. 

Writing in the UK’s Guardian, (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/20/water.food1) Felicity Lawrence cogently introduces us to the concept of ‘virtual water’ usage. 
Accepting that immediate water usage is in the region of about 150 litres per day per person, the other 4100 litres is accounted for in the supply chain of all that we consume: the production of food, textiles, goods and everything else we take for granted. 
You can imagine what the statistics for the USA might show. 

If we are to even begin to entertain the concept of sustainability of water resources, each and every one of us will need to wake up to our precious dependence on water. 

The warning signs are there for us to see and hear: shifting jetstream flows in the South West of America are irrevocably changing mountain snowpack in the Rockies and the Sierras; Spain risks becoming a partial desert and in India and China glaciers are disappearing fast so that water resources for billions are threatened; The Murray Darling river basin in Australia is headed for catastrophe…
This is climate change. 

Its not just peak oil we need be concerned with, but peak water. 
Unbridled thoughtless consumerism robs the future of hope. 
We are all standing at the edge of the labryinth, a descent into a darkness that could destroy civilization and end the lives of billions. 

Or, perhaps not.  Perhaps we can change.  Perhaps we can placate the monsters of consumerist demand before it is too late.  Perhaps the very soul of our existence as a race might be challenged to change…
Or, perhaps not.