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Especially with the latest US Supreme Court Rulings, the agencies cannot do anything, it is up to just Kansas or Congress. And without a National Commitment, K

by jmclnx 2y ago

Especially with the latest US Supreme Court Rulings, the agencies cannot do anything, it is up to just Kansas or Congress. And without a National Commitment, Kansas alone will be unable to do much.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Not a bad thing. The aquifer will be depleted, existing use cases will die, and solving this can be revisited decades or centuries from now after the electorate and representatives have turned over. The outcome is based on choices made. Sibling comment mentions returning the land to nature; new expanded national lands would be great. If anything, efforts to accelerate the depletion should be undertaken to speedrun the outcome. This avoids the slow decline of unnecessary intensive farming of the land, and pushes the system to failure more rapidly.
- kibwen 2y ago
  You can't fix a depleted aquifer on human timescales. The ground settles and loses the ability to hold water.
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    Even better, thanks for the context.
    - kibwen 2y ago
      For an even more urgent example of this in action right now, see how Mexico City is currently sinking at an incredible rate: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/04/mexico-city-sinking-water-crisis/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/0... "Some areas in Mexico City are slipping as fast as 20 inches a year in recent decades, according to researchers. Overall, the clay layers under the soil have compressed by 17 percent in the last century. A culprit for the uneven sinking in Mexico City, researchers say, is pumping water from underground. The water extraction enables the porous soil to compact and depress. Because more than half of the city’s water supply comes from underground aquifers, its leaders have struggled to tackle the problem. Most of this sinking, the researchers say, is irreversible because the Earth is still compacting and responding to the ways water was drained a long time ago. Cabral-Cano and his colleagues project the land is going to sink another 100 feet over the next 150 years."
  - cityofdelusion 2y ago
    Depends strongly on the geology. Clay will compress greatly, but bedrock/limestone will not at all. Most aquifers consist of a diverse range of geologic materials in varying thicknesses with different ingress types that will vary in capability to recharge.
onlypassingthru 2y ago
At some point, people have to come to terms with their poor choices. Building in a flood zone, building in a dense forest and farming in an arid land all seem like poor choices for long term success. However, there may be some good to come of depopulating SW Kansas. With the farmland abandoned, maybe we can finally give it back to the bison?
- beambot 2y ago
  Why should they care when FEMA will just keep bailing everyone out, subsidized by everyone else's tax dollars. Just look at New Orleans, but now imagine it scaled up to the entire state of Florida...
  - bilbo0s 2y ago
    I don't know man? I was working for Halliburton, so I knew there were good reasons to bail Houston/New Orleans out. Just take a cursory look at any map of our energy infrastructure. Conversely, there is little reason to bail out Kansas. There are just some uncomfortable realities about how logistics and infrastructure work in this nation. And that means places like, LA, Norfolk, Seattle, New York, New Orleans, Houston, etc are far more important than, say, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Not that we shouldn't try to help places like Fort Lauderdale or Miami. But for instance, not that it ever would, but if it came down to Norfolk or Miami, it's gotta be Norfolk we save. If it ever came down to Houston or Savannah, it's gotta be Houston we save. Those choices are just engineering sense. The issue here is Kansas didn't do anything to make that area of its state indispensable to the US. Maybe wind farms or something? I don't know? But having been around the people who make those calls, I can tell you they aren't terribly sentimental by nature. If they are sentimental at all, it is by legal obligation (ie - force) or political pressure.
- cyanydeez 2y ago
  No, actully, people can jusdy keep doing stupid things because we have such a largesse of basic comfort. They arnt going to suddenly change and fascism.is likely the.equal choice than any.ecologically smart.one'

by jmclnx 2y ago

Especially with the latest US Supreme Court Rulings, the agencies cannot do anything, it is up to just Kansas or Congress. And without a National Commitment, Kansas alone will be unable to do much.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

Not a bad thing. The aquifer will be depleted, existing use cases will die, and solving this can be revisited decades or centuries from now after the electorate and representatives have turned over. The outcome is based on choices made. Sibling comment mentions returning the land to nature; new expanded national lands would be great. If anything, efforts to accelerate the depletion should be undertaken to speedrun the outcome. This avoids the slow decline of unnecessary intensive farming of the land, and pushes the system to failure more rapidly.

kibwen 2y ago
You can't fix a depleted aquifer on human timescales. The ground settles and loses the ability to hold water.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Even better, thanks for the context.
  - kibwen 2y ago
    For an even more urgent example of this in action right now, see how Mexico City is currently sinking at an incredible rate: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/04/mexico-city-sinking-water-crisis/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/0... "Some areas in Mexico City are slipping as fast as 20 inches a year in recent decades, according to researchers. Overall, the clay layers under the soil have compressed by 17 percent in the last century. A culprit for the uneven sinking in Mexico City, researchers say, is pumping water from underground. The water extraction enables the porous soil to compact and depress. Because more than half of the city’s water supply comes from underground aquifers, its leaders have struggled to tackle the problem. Most of this sinking, the researchers say, is irreversible because the Earth is still compacting and responding to the ways water was drained a long time ago. Cabral-Cano and his colleagues project the land is going to sink another 100 feet over the next 150 years."
- cityofdelusion 2y ago
  Depends strongly on the geology. Clay will compress greatly, but bedrock/limestone will not at all. Most aquifers consist of a diverse range of geologic materials in varying thicknesses with different ingress types that will vary in capability to recharge.

onlypassingthru 2y ago

At some point, people have to come to terms with their poor choices. Building in a flood zone, building in a dense forest and farming in an arid land all seem like poor choices for long term success. However, there may be some good to come of depopulating SW Kansas. With the farmland abandoned, maybe we can finally give it back to the bison?

beambot 2y ago
Why should they care when FEMA will just keep bailing everyone out, subsidized by everyone else's tax dollars. Just look at New Orleans, but now imagine it scaled up to the entire state of Florida...
- bilbo0s 2y ago
  I don't know man? I was working for Halliburton, so I knew there were good reasons to bail Houston/New Orleans out. Just take a cursory look at any map of our energy infrastructure. Conversely, there is little reason to bail out Kansas. There are just some uncomfortable realities about how logistics and infrastructure work in this nation. And that means places like, LA, Norfolk, Seattle, New York, New Orleans, Houston, etc are far more important than, say, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Not that we shouldn't try to help places like Fort Lauderdale or Miami. But for instance, not that it ever would, but if it came down to Norfolk or Miami, it's gotta be Norfolk we save. If it ever came down to Houston or Savannah, it's gotta be Houston we save. Those choices are just engineering sense. The issue here is Kansas didn't do anything to make that area of its state indispensable to the US. Maybe wind farms or something? I don't know? But having been around the people who make those calls, I can tell you they aren't terribly sentimental by nature. If they are sentimental at all, it is by legal obligation (ie - force) or political pressure.
cyanydeez 2y ago
No, actully, people can jusdy keep doing stupid things because we have such a largesse of basic comfort. They arnt going to suddenly change and fascism.is likely the.equal choice than any.ecologically smart.one'