In this fallen world of ours, the planet itself is not as hospitable a place as we’d like. Though parts of it come close, Terra is not a paradise. The third rock from the sun, Old Sol himself, is just that: mostly rock. Lots of metal, too, even those metals that cause cancer. And wars.

All that metal and rock has a very thin layer of dirt, water, and air. A little bit of water. And other liquids, and gases (both confined and floating held only by gravity). That is mostly where we humans live. That air and dirt and water also support more than just humans: there are animals, from single-cell critters up to blue whales and great condors and even elephants. But sometimes there isn’t enough dirt: it isn’t there and so it is exposed rock. Or it’s covered by water. Usually salt water, but sometimes fresh water – water with a low enough salt content to make it drinkable by humans, birds, and land animals.

The saltwater isn’t of great concern. Except perhaps for the environists who claim that global warming will melt all the icecaps and the (mostly) dry land where billions of humans live. Or those same environists who panic over people dumping trash, flushing sewage, and spilling oil into the oceans. Of course, salt water is useful, some creatures thrive in it, and it provides easy transportation for humans and their animals. And buffers against tyrants and other invaders. Not that the environists don’t freak out about some of these things.

The big problem is fresh water. The environists, the politicians and various parasites tell us constantly that there isn’t enough of the stuff, or that we are polluting it, or that we are using it all up. Sounds really, really bad, doesn’t it? There are two kinds of freshwater: surface water (like lakes and ponds and creeks and stormwater runoff), and groundwater (the water that we get from wells or springs). Both of these bring out the extremists among the parasites.

Now, don’t get us wrong. It is possible to pollute both groundwater and surface water. And over the centuries humans have done plenty of that. It is also possible for stupid people to damage natural water systems. But that does not excuse their panic. Why? Most damage – and most pollution – can be mitigated and eliminated. And there are work-arounds if the problems can’t be fully fixed.

Among those parasites are those that try and panic everyone about tap water (especially here in the States) and try and sell us $2 16.9-ounce bottles of water or $150 water filters or $,$$$,$$$ (big bucks) of wastewater and water treatment plants and billion-dollar pipelines to bring water hundreds of miles.

A problem is that these thugs (who are mostly in it for their own wealth and power) and their dupes have convinced far too many citizens: workers and employers and shareholders/owners that we are rushing to catastrophe.

Let us look at the American Southwest for some examples of this:

What are the two major problems facing the water supply in the Southwestern United States?

I figure that a LOT of people will be upset with me, but here goes.

(By Southwestern I mean: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and portions of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and a slice of Wyoming. I include Wyoming because it is at the extreme northern end of the Colorado River watershed.)

First is excessive consumption of the limited amount of water available. Not just for lawns and baths and cute civic decorations, but for industry, agriculture, and government.

Second is human stupidity. On both a large and small scale. Again, not just business or private – but also government stupidity.

We will look at these in a follow-up commentary. We think it is important to understand this and its relationship with human liberty. When people: individuals and families and companies do not have the freedom to think and act – and are not held responsible for those actions – good or bad, bad things happen. We have thousands of examples of this with water.

There are other problems with fresh water supplies. But they are almost nothing compared to these two, excessive consumption and stupidity. And really, much of the excessive consumption is due to… human stupidity. ESPECIALLY but not ONLY on the part of voters, politicians, bureaucrats and environists. (And to some degree, engineers without the fortitude (courage) to stand up and lay out the facts.)

Blind faith in science is just as bad – or worse – than blind faith in religion. Or in people, especially in government. We must resist it, and use the brains that God gave us.

And all this fear and panic and lack of knowledge and blind faith? Leads us to war. Especially when we throw in greed for wealth and power. And when we foolishly give governments the power we do.

We will look at this real-world problem in detail in a future commentary.

In the meanwhile, look at that glass of water you can get. From your tap or in a plastic bottle from a store. Count your blessings. There are lots of places people can’t get nice clean water like this, even if our water has nasty stuff like PFAS and chlorine residuals and turbidity. But remember, the only sort of truly-pure water around is the distilled stuff you can buy in gallon (or 3.8-liter or 1-liter) jugs. Fresh water is not naturally pure by modern definitions. But what is pure enough for us to live on and not kill us (at least not quickly) comes because people – individuals working together – generally voluntarily and for mutual profit – did and do things. Yeah, government came along and took it over (mostly) but for centuries, government was part of the problem.

And still is.