3 ms·

I feel like nearly every sentence in your comment grossly misses the point. Of course I expect agriculture to use more water, and it's a good thing that we all

I feel like nearly every sentence in your comment grossly misses the point. Of course I expect agriculture to use more water, and it's a good thing that we all have more than enough to eat. The issue is there are often no regulations put in place to incentivize agriculture to use water efficiently and economically. I mean, please point out to me "the average person" in California that desires to grow alfalfa so it can be shipped overseas to China and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile we're pretending making people ask for water at restaurants makes any difference at all when it comes to water savings. > There is no "us" and "them" for responsibility of these things. Baloney. Warren Buffet was right when he said "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." I'd have no problem supporting water restrictions locally if it wasn't just a total distraction, a "going through the motions" if you will, while the biggest users of water do nothing. Edit: coincidentally, I just saw this article on NYT just after posting this comment: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/climate/california-merced-river-dry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/climate/california-merced... . There should be no restrictions on local users of water until agriculture is addressed.

ianburrell 3y ago
When we try solve a problem by saying people should do something, we are solving it as a society. Which means we should solve it a societal level, not by making it responsibility of one part of society to do individually. In this case, it can’t be just city dwellers responsibility but farmers too. What individual resp in this case means that it is easier to persuade individual residents than individual farmers. Or that they don’t care about problem and dumping responsibility for it where nothing will happen.
the_gastropod 3y ago
I agree with the "class warfare" quote. But aren't "the rich" pretty much the ones pushing these anti-regulatory sentiments? I agree, these regulations you're pointing out aren't sufficient. But I maintain, I think the finger-pointing crap is a distraction. Nobody's going to do anything when they can point their finger at the bigger-offender, and feel vindicated in their own inaction. And since numbers are so easily fudgable, everyone feels this way (see: leading U.S. politicians blaming Africa for climate change [1], about as ridiculous a claim as is imaginable) [1] https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/house-speaker-mike-johnsons-climate-change-playbook-deny-the-science-take-the-funding/ https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/house-speaker-mike-j...

ianburrell 3y ago

When we try solve a problem by saying people should do something, we are solving it as a society. Which means we should solve it a societal level, not by making it responsibility of one part of society to do individually. In this case, it can’t be just city dwellers responsibility but farmers too. What individual resp in this case means that it is easier to persuade individual residents than individual farmers. Or that they don’t care about problem and dumping responsibility for it where nothing will happen.

the_gastropod 3y ago

I agree with the "class warfare" quote. But aren't "the rich" pretty much the ones pushing these anti-regulatory sentiments? I agree, these regulations you're pointing out aren't sufficient. But I maintain, I think the finger-pointing crap is a distraction. Nobody's going to do anything when they can point their finger at the bigger-offender, and feel vindicated in their own inaction. And since numbers are so easily fudgable, everyone feels this way (see: leading U.S. politicians blaming Africa for climate change [1], about as ridiculous a claim as is imaginable) [1] https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/house-speaker-mike-johnsons-climate-change-playbook-deny-the-science-take-the-funding/ https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/house-speaker-mike-j...