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Name: Playful Walrus
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On the Environment

Posted by Playful Walrus on Monday, November 17, 2008 6:53:43 PM
I believe in sensible conservation, not dire alarmist warnings.  I'm convinced that more and stronger private property ownership can promote good conservation.  I do not believe that our environment is fragile.  We can thank God that we have an environment that in many ways cleans itself up and balances itself.

I also believe that we have every reason to believe that our universe had a beginning and that it will have an end.  Things wear out and wear down.  Things die.  There’s only so much we can do about that.  Someday, this will all be replaced.

It is not wrong for us to manipulate our environment for safety, agriculture, shelter, energy, and so forth.  The Left likes to use environmental issues to promote larger government and socialism, and we shouldn’t let them do that.  Animals manipulate the environment, and they use other animals as well.  Some animals eat other animals and each other.  So how can it be immoral for us to do so?

We're nowhere near exhausting our natural resources.

Here are some of my previous entries on environmental issues:

Global Warming?  We’re Listening.

Tell Alarmists to Put Their Money or Status Where Their Mouth Is

Is Global Warming a Moral Issue?

Global Warming Will Save Us
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Would Someone Please Think of the Ducklings!

Posted by Playful Walrus on Monday, July 28, 2008 6:08:08 PM
The animals-before-people crowd continues to attack.  Now they are complaining because County of Los Angeles engineers operate the flood control and water conservation system in a way that focuses on conserving water instead of providing habitat for ducklings.

So far, it is just a story in the Los Angeles Times.  But southern California is already having to deal with less water because of a judge’s orders to protect a fish in northern California, thereby making an expensive and long-used water conveyance system that delivers water to southern California less effective...by court order.  If local water conservation efforts are thwarted to help ducks, it will be even worse.

Without the flood control and water conservation system, there would be no “rivers” in the Los Angeles area.  Streams used to flow quickly along the short distance from the mountains to the ocean along frequently-changing courses – this would be during the infrequent rainy days.  The rest of the time, there wouldn't be any streams.  During unusual downpours, floodwaters would rip through the area, because there were no established deep rivers to channel the waters.  Either way, it wasn’t like there was ever a steady, navigable river with enduring habitat.  Building the flood control and water conservation system (including major dams and the Los Angeles and the San Gabriel “rivers”) allowed safe development of the area - which we all know the envirowhackos hate.  Manipulating stormwater and reclaimed water so that it soaks back into the groundwater table is needed now more than ever.  The ducks will just have to deal.

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We Can’t Run Out of Water

Posted by Playful Walrus on Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:21:46 PM
How many times have we heard it?  Three quarters of Earth’s surface is covered in water.

The bottom line is – it is impossible to run out of water.  As quickly as we drink it, we release it back into the system through perspiration, exhaling, urination, etc.  The sooner wastewater makes it out the ocean, the sooner nature can turn it back into drinkable water.

Now, to be sure, the easiest and most inexpensive way to get water would be to divert it from a river and use mostly gravity to get it to where it is needed with minimal pumping.  Wells are right behind that.  Then comes things like aqueducts (usually requiring much pumping), reclamation, and desalinization.

People freak out about reclamation as “toilet to tap”, but I wonder what these people think is going on in rivers, with all of the dirt and animals.  Nobody is stopping bears from crapping in our rivers.  Modern and complete reclamation puts water through the steps nature does (through evaporation and precipitation), only faster and within our possession.  But it does take energy.

In the greater Los Angles area, we are constantly told to conserve water, and that we need to find ways to cut back on water usage.  We’re constantly reminded that we “live in a desert”.  Yes, we know.  That’s why people paid big bucks to build aqueducts from northern California, from the Colorado River, etc.  We don’t just sit around and dehydrate and come up with a "cap and trade" system (like the socialists do) – we move water from one place to another for our convenience.

Ah, but we can create shortages for ourselves.  For example, a judge ruled that we couldn’t get as much of our water from northern California because it was, according to someone, hurting a fish.  Neglecting to build or maintain waterworks systems will also result in shortages, especially if we allow unregulated hordes of illegal aliens into the area.

But nothing has changed in nature.  Nature is still cleaning water.  It’s not disappearing into a wormhole, as far as we know.  It is up to get the water and use it.  We can't run out of water.  We can only fail to drink it.

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