Caught between the twin inevitabilities of drought and rising population, the Desert Southwest is looking down the barrel of severe water shortage. It's been coming for some time now, and, like Capetown, South Africa, we are drawing down reservoirs on the Colorado River to a dangerous low, a Day Zero, when no one will be getting the allotment they are entitled to (on paper, anyway). Groundwater wells, the old Plan B, have to be drilled so deep it's too expensive to pump the water up and out. All of this is exacerbated by the swings of climate change and all that CO2 belched out by your cherished chariots. What does this have to do with me you might ask. Well, dear pilgrim, it means that the constant growth you so dearly depend on cannot be sustained. It's time to learn to get creative, to do more with less. That, or carry on with denial, the belief that the dots mean nothing, that you can do more of what you've always done, hoping that nature really doesn't matter as you move into your virtual horn of plenty.
Interviewer: What's the most important meditation we can do now?
Dalai Lama: Critical thinking, followed by action. Discern what your world is. Know the plot, the scenario of this human drama. And then figure out where your talents might fit in to make a better world.
The Colorado River doesn’t reach the Gulf of California. This is a continuing crime.
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