The Earth Is Getting a Nasty, Sinking Feeling

Amanda Montañez; Source: “Rapid Ground Decline 

and Some Cases of Recovery in Aquifers Globally,” by Scott Jasedhko in Nature, January 24th.

The Earth began abusing its groundwater reserves in the first quarter of the 20th century as diesel fuel replaced wind power pumps to extract water. Now, alternative energy, while avoiding nasty diesel spills, is making groundwater extraction even more efficient. The above charts show the degree of groundwater loss in varying climate conditions around the world. Somewhere between 25% and 30% of mankind’s agricultural (2/3) and direct human consumption (1/3) water usage today is generated from underground sources. And even with recent ravages of flooding and areas of record precipitation, there is too much runoff and increasing impermeable surface soil (often dry, baked earth) to begin to make up for groundwater losses.

As underground water sources are depleted, the land above often contacts or collapses, yielding sinkage, sink holes and reduced capacity underground storage, often rendering future replenishment difficult or even impossible. The parallel growth over centuries of industrial waste – from fertilizer and pesticides to fracking chemicals – has added serious pollution risks to the groundwater that remains. But agriculture has far and away been the greatest source of groundwater depletion.

There are so many seriously impactful changes, many with synergistic and antagonistic qualities, from modern technological advancements. The “airplane” was invented a little over a century ago, and the proliferation of cars and trucks also shares most of that timeline. Nuclear weapons are about 80 years old. Resource and water extraction have tracked these changes, providing a running system of mutually interactive variables with monumental consequences. That interactivity, even with AI, is very difficult to track, often measured by different “experts.”

As the MAGA GOP, with lots of help from the newly reconfigured Supreme Court, is challenging the experts in federal regulatory agencies, we are increasingly relegated to industrial self-regulation and metrics generated by those being regulated or created long before contemporary realities were even known. Add the profit motive to this self-regulatory mix – both from rich legacy interests using their balance sheets to buy influence and the need to repress negative facts – and you much better understand why self-regulation almost never works.

Water just may be the big story as climate change; as profligate industrial practices fail to adjust for the consequences, we all lose. Writing for the January 26th Los Angeles Times, Ian James notes: “In many parts of the western United States, India, Chile, Spain, Mexico and other countries, groundwater levels have been rapidly declining as water is heavily pumped to irrigate farmlands, according to a new study analyzing measurements from 170,000 wells in more than 40 countries.

“The research, published this week in the journal Nature, reveals that overpumping is taking a widespread and worsening toll on aquifers that hold critical reserves as many regions face more intense bouts of dry conditions with climate change… The analysis shows that parts of California have some of the fastest-declining aquifer levels in the world… ‘Over and over again, we see places where groundwater is being depleted,’ said Debra Perrone, an associate professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara and one of the study’s lead authors. ‘Where we’re really seeing these trends is where we have arid climates.’

“Many dry regions depend more on groundwater than areas with wetter climates. And where water levels are dropping because of overpumping, the consequences can include dry wells, diminished streams and sinking ground, as well as the loss of precious water reserves that accumulated underground over centuries or thousands of years.” As we deplete water resources, we also underreport related environmental pollution by simply “looking the other way” (as many fracking chemicals are specifically exempted from EPA review, for example) or simply failing to measure the right chemical changes.

A January 6th report from the Yale University School of Engineering, looking simply at the massive oil sand reserves in Canada, has calculated, “Using state-of-the-art aircraft-based measurements and supporting laboratory experiments, a team of Yale and Canadian researchers found that many pollutants in the air related to Canadian oil sands greatly exceed the emissions that have been previously reported…

“While many reactive gases were underestimated, the compounds that comprised the majority of the emissions underestimates include intermediate- and semi-volatile organic compounds. These are larger molecules composed of mostly carbon and hydrogen, which impact downwind air quality, including through their chemical transformations… With detailed speciated measurements, the researchers were able to get a clear molecular picture of the emissions, including their relation to other combustion-related pollutants, like nitrogen oxides. Because the chemical makeup of the samples was consistent with that of extracted oil sands, the researchers are confident that these compounds weren’t coming from vehicle exhaust or other combustion-related sources.

“Particularly noteworthy was the magnitude of emissions detected. Depending on the specific facility, observed emissions were from 20 to over 64 times higher than what was reported to the emissions inventory for the various oil sands operations studied. Overall, the researchers said, that equates to the equivalent of emissions from all other human-related sources in Canada.” Simply put, the metrics for the relevant chemical drivers of pollution were either wrong or hopelessly out of date. The lesson in all this, one that serious determines the future of our quality of life, is that we have never needed federal oversight and consistent metrics more than today… just when a major political party is attempting to do away with it all.

I’m Peter Dekom, and under the guise of eliminating a “deep state,” the MAGA GOP is attempting to replace it with a “toxic and deceptive state.”