[kory]

> Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops.

Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes. Arizona is the second best residential water manager in the world behind Israel. Agriculture uses the lion's share of water and can be cut off when things get really tight.

> As inflation mounts and the national debt balloons, progressive politicians vote for ever more spending.

The US must continue printing debt (expanding money supply) to continue the dollar's status as the reserve currency. And not all spending as bad, much of it can be an investment expecting positive long term returns.

If you want to find bloat, look at our government-subsidized suburban lifestyle and the sheer cost of the massive amount of infrastructure required to maintain it.

> As the ice caps melt and record temperatures make the evening news, we figure that buying a Prius and recycling the boxes from our daily Amazon deliveries will suffice.

Yet again blaming individuals' choices when large corporations are by far the largest global polluters. As well, this applies to a thin slice of the global population. most people, even in the US, can't afford to think about climate change. For example, higher gas prices translate to questions on whether there will be enough food on the table, or whether it's even worth the time to go to work anymore.

> When TV news outlets broadcast video after video of people illegally crossing the nation’s southern border, many of us change the channel.

Illegal border crossings have been declining and were at the lowest point in the last 10 years before Biden. There has been a huge amount of discussion about this politically, a large amount of Americans do consider this a big problem.

[finfinfin]

> Residential water use has plummeted in the west. Some areas, like vegas, use less water than the 70s, not accounting for population changes.

What's the point of this argument? Vegas population has increased more than 10x since the 70s, why would we not account for population growth when discussing the usage of a limited resource?

[kory]

I think you misunderstood. Vegas uses less water in total than in the 70s, in spite of the population difference.

[noobermin]

Does this include the suburbs of Las Vegas? A quick google search gives a report that the whole state of Nevada as a whole has increased their water use (edit: at least for domestic usage). This is in line with most of the population moving out of city centers as people moved into the suburbs that has happened for the last few decades.[0]

Anyway, the fact that the water use of the state as a whole has increased throws out any suggestion that "here, this one segment of the state has decreased their usage" as if that is a serious argument against the rise of water consumption being an issue.

[0] It's a report with data until 1995 but lucky for us it compares levels with 1970 and it did increase significantly EDIT: sorry, figure 1-3

http://water.nv.gov/programs/planning/stateplan/documents/pt...

[TigeriusKirk]

Can't say about the 1970s, but there's a chart in this article showing that total water usage for southern Nevada has indeed decreased since 2002.

https://www.watereducation.org/western-water/climate-change-...

[finfinfin]

According to that graph 2020 usage is almost identical to 2003. So the only significant drop happened between 2002 and 2003. Not to nitpick, just to emphasize that the missing data from 1970 to 2002 could contain numerous large changes too.

[finfinfin]

I find this very hard to believe. Do you have any links to official state data?

[PaulDavisThe1st]

The drop comes from two critical changes:

1. improvements in domestic water usage arising from changes to in-home fixtures and appliances. Per capita use in cities across the US southwest has dropped by 30% or more over the last few decades.

2. switching over to grey/recycled water usage for a huge chunk of municipal water irrigation (eg. city parks, highway medians etc.). This uses a significant amount of water, and switching to water that has already been used once has a dramatic impact.

[Volundr]

> > As the ice caps melt and record temperatures make the evening news, we figure that buying a Prius and recycling the boxes from our daily Amazon deliveries will suffice.

> Yet again blaming individuals' choices when large corporations are by far the largest global polluters

That's not how I read this at all. Rather it's attacking the idea that a few individuals doing the "right thing" can make a difference, when really we need to tackle the larger problem such as corporations.

[ako]

Indirectly, corporations are doing what is being dictated by the individuals. They produce what we are willing to buy. If we only buy the cheapest stuff, ignore how it is made and its impact on the environment that is what corporation will make. Unless we vote for governments that will make laws that will force these corporations to not offer environmental unfriendly products.

In the end there's more responsibility to the individual that we are willing to admit.

[noobermin]

I do not think "agriculture[...] can be cut off when things get really tight." Everyone in the US has been bleeting about inflation for months, suppressing food production would make people slam their cars into buildings.

[kory]

Something tells me that residential water rationing will be less palatable to the West's population than "California Almonds will be significantly more expensive this season".

[Sharlin]

The most water-thirsty crops are luxury foods like almonds.

[Skunkleton]

> Yet again blaming individuals' choices when large corporations are by far the largest global polluters.

Corporations don’t exist. There are only individual people.

[Sharlin]

That argument would work much better if corporations weren't explicitly designated legal persons for various purposes related to contracts and liability.

[Skunkleton]

Don’t you think that law is a bit too convenient? Instead of individuals maintaining liability for their actions, now there is some legal entity to blame. It doesn’t matter what the law says. All of these amoral decisions are made by people.

[kory]

Take amazon, for example. Fine the corporation for using excessive packaging at scale. People don't have a choice of what packaging they receive.

[Skunkleton]

A person makes the decisions on what packaging Amazon uses. A person makes the decision to purchase goods from Amazon. A person makes the decision to not propose regulations.

Corporations are logical entities made up of individuals. Individuals still make the choices. Individuals must be accountable.

[ur-whale]

> The US must continue printing debt (expanding money supply)

Can't tell if serious, but if you are, holding that kind of short-sighted opinion, you can be sure to be in most excellent historical company.

I mean it's not like currency debasement causes the fall of empires or anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius

https://www.lietaer.com/2021/11/did-the-romans-debase-the-cu...

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-long-and-sordid-history-...

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato...

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/staff/butc...

https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-...

[kory]

I encourage you to read more on how the monetary system works. Debt = more currency for use around the world. We need to continuously increase money supply to keep the dollar from appreciating too much and causing a disastrous level of deflation.

Of course borrowing is not sustainable, but the alternative is not sustainable faster.