Annie Birdsong's Homepage



    The Planet Is Drying Up    


Will we be a hot, flat and dry planet?
Destroy the Mountains and You Will Dry Up the Rivers



Living in harmony with nature
Understanding Why We Need Wetlands and Wild Free-Flowing Rivers



We must recycle paper -- and use it sparingly
The Horrible Fury of Nature: When Forests Are Lost



Will we become a dry desert?
How Rainforests Benefit the Whole World



Will we be wall to wall concrete
Sprawl is One of the Most Urgent Issues Facing Mankind



Will we become a dry desert?
Maude Barlow: The Planet Is Drying Up


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What kind of world will we leave to future generations?
We Must Change Or Dry Up the Planet

More than half of the world's major rivers are seriously depleted and polluted, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century.

If we dry up the rivers we will become a desert.

The biggest user of fresh water is irrigation. To counteract this problem we need drip irrigation and other more sustainable forms of irrigation.

We also need collection of water for agriculture in huge rain barrels or clay pits that are covered with some kind of netting to keep mosquitos from breeding. We just can't allow our aquifers and rivers to be drained dry.

The new hybrid, high yielding seeds often must be irrigated, whereas lower yielding traditional varieties could be rain fed.

We also need to watch our water use. If everyone would take a tub bath in three gallons of water this would help.

Many people use far more water than this. The average person takes a 10 minute shower, which is about 70 gallons -- 7 gallons per minute. (Source: Michigan State Government Water Conservation Website.)

The world has really changed. When my mother was a little girl, people lived more in harmony with the earth.

There was no bathroom and no running water. They used a well. They washed off in the kitchen from a tin wash tub that was sitting on the wood burning stove being heated.

We need to work towards using rain barrels and withdrawing no water from the river.
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We're drying up the earth
Why Fight Climate Change? Water



Climate change is melting the Himalyayan glaciers. Should we care? Yes! The melt water from these glaciers feeds these riversin Asia: The Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huang, which supply water to two billion people.

Remember that if we dry up the rivers, we will become a desert.

Already, for whatever combination of reasons, China and India are experiencing chronic water shortages. China has a big big problem with spreading deserts.

Climate change is also affecting water supplies in California. Melting snow in the Sierra Nevada supplies drinking and irrigation water, but climate change means less snow and thus less water.

Climate change also means more drought, which will have serious impacts on agriculture.
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Why each municipality needs a greenbelt
Trees Are a Vital Part of Our Hydrological System


Trees are pumps that pull water from deep in the earth, which they then breathe into the atmosphere from their leaves. Is that what is causing the mist in this picture?

I believe the answer is yes because satellite images from Nicaragua and Costa Rica reveal that when an area is deforested, the cumulus clouds are absent or poorly developed in comparison to forested areas. (Robert O. Lawton, U.S. Nair and Ron Welch -- University of Alabama, Huntsville)

If there are no trees in an area to pull water up, will it remain in the earth -- lost to the hydrological system?

There is evidence that in many situations, the answer is yes and that loss of vegetative cover can reduce precipitation.

"I'm working with scientists who have been able to tabulate that for every percentage of urban growth, there is a net loss -- there is a percentage loss of rain over that hydrologic cycle in that ecosystem," said Maude Barlow, an author and U.N. advisor on water and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (also called the Alternative Nobel.)

This is just one reason why sprawl is one of the most urgent issues facing mankind.

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To live light and traceless
Rainwater Harvesting


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Globalization: Should Big Ag Try to Feed the Whole World?
Irrigation -- Large-Scale Agriculture Dries Up the Great Aral Sea

Remember that if we dry up the rivers, we will become a desert. And we are indeed drying up rivers. Here is just one of example.