GLOBAL WARMING, CLIMATE CHANGE, DROUGHT, INCREASING POPULATION, HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND A DWINDLING WATER SUPPLY

Last week, the cities of San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Dana Point joined with three water districts to tell us what we can do to conserve water.

If we are going to survive, we must not only conserve water, but drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. 

EVERY president since John F. Kennedy has sounded the global warming alarm, yet our government has done little. Instead, we have witnessed our capacity to solve public problems diminish. The power of financial institutions and corporations has eroded the power of our democratic government to govern.  

Since 1979, dozens of scientific conferences have explained that global warming and climate change are real and the future of humanity threatened. To continue our reliance on fossil fuels is not only downright dumb; it is suicidal.

Burning fossil fuels puts additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, resulting in a warming planet.  The proof is overwhelming, despite the outcry from the merchants of doubt who are funded by corporate interests.   And now we have to contend with the addition of hydraulic fracturing and the effects it will have on both our climate and our water.   

S.B. 1132, if passed, will place a moratorium until hydraulic fracturing can be deemed safe. Unfortunately as Louis Albstadt, retired executive vice president of Mobil has pointed out, “Making fracking safe is simply not possible . . .” He says “a fracked well can require between 50 and 100 times the water and chemicals compared to older wells.”  Credible sources claim that to be 3-to-5 million gallons of water per frack, and a well can be fracked 18 to 25 times.  Add in 1000 new wells, and water consumed equals 54 to 90 BILLION gallons. Texas is already turning into a dust bowl, with 30 towns on the verge of running out of water. Seventeen Northern California towns are in danger of running out of water in the next 60 to 120 days. Are we next?  

In addition to conserving water, every city needs to take a stand against fracking. Here is an example of a potential resolution: 

“It is hereby resolved that the people of  (city), California, have a right to clean air, pure water and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. (City’s) public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the City of (city) conserves and maintains them for the benefit of all the people. Therefore, it is resolved that the technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to recover oil and gas from shale formations, acidizing, as well as the use of injection wells for the storage of fracking waste water and fluids, are permanently banned within the city limits of (city) and adjacent ocean.” 

Put your city’s name in this and ask your city council to adopt it.