Wetlands and water

During the summer, President Obama attempted to deliver an positive message to the public regarding the havoc unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico which severely impacted the wetlands lining the coasts from Louisiana to Florida. He stated that damaged wetlands would be thriving once again, their birds would return, their fish would come back and spawn, within a season or two (I attempted to find a citation for this, but all I can tell you was that this message was heard on NPR). I was stunned to say the least. During a time when the witch hunt for those responsible should be escalating (everyone loves a good, old fashioned burning at the stake) because of the gravity of the mistakes made, he was telling us to calm down because soon enough everything would be back to normal. Obviously, he has not read the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment on wetland ecosystems. If he had he would understand how grossly misinformed he sounded.

As the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report discusses, wetlands provide innumerable benefits to humanity but they are also one of the most sensitive ecosystems on the planet - lucky us. If they ever do recover (one damaged by the spill in the early 1900's in California has yet to still fully recover), it will take years for these systems to return to their full capacity. But oil spills are not the only event that should worry us. It seems that almost every externality of unsustainable human development negatively impacts these ecosystems in some way. These include urban and agricultural runoff, increased land use, urban heat island, over-consumption of water, and climate change. Many of the services they provide are what keeps our other systems resilient. It cleans up a lot of our water pollution, regulates climate, is a hotbed of biodiversity, and buffers the coasts from natural disasters. But once our populations reduce their capacity to provide these services, the negative impacts of development escalate at accelerating rates.

On separate but related note, Roseland's chapter on water and sewage provided a thorough listing of ways water policy can be attacked and implemented. I was surprised to read that throughout North America stormwater combines with sewage water before it's treated. This strikes me as rather odd and a waste of our energy and resources. Why are we contaminating unused water before we treat it? This seems ludicrous. But given our current perspectives on the value of water this should not be surprising. Just like in home systems, where we use perfectly clean water in our toilets and on our lawns, we are not concerned with efficiencies. It's important to implement the small and big efforts it will take to correct our systems and use before the shift in water availability becomes too severe to adapt to. Not only will this prepare us for the change that looms ahead but it may delay the need for more drastic changes in water use. Sponge-baths anyone?