Day Zero, Capetown.

[mlmooney89]

My co-worker is from South Africa and even though she has been in the states for 8 years and has plenty of access to water she still hoards it because of the fear she went through growing up and living most of her life there.

[brewer]

My co-worker is from South Africa and even though she has been in the states for 8 years and has plenty of access to water she still hoards it because of the fear she went through growing up and living most of her life there.

Where does she hoard it? Tell us more.

[The Grand Nudger]

They did rely on rainfall (as we all do to greater or lesser extents), and climate change has impacted that.  A historic drought is what tipped them over the edge.  That's the connection between "big oil" and their water problem.  Under expected conditions, they would have enough water - even under expected drought conditions.  Obviously that can only go so far and at some point it doesn't make sense to file more people there...but they weren't at that point yet. They neither planned for (nor..from the story..responded well to) catastrophe.

However, would this be seen as an acceptable response if, say...Houston suddenly found themselves out of water? Get the fuck out you idiots, why did you build Houston there? Why are you compalining about environmental damage that cut off your water supply..what does that have to do with the sequestration of your source by waste or industry, or the effects of climate change?

Obviously, economic realities force us to move to places like Cape Town (or any large city, really)...but does that give people or decisions that effect those places a free pass to shift responsibility onto the residents? What are we suggesting....mass migration...????

[mlmooney89]

My co-worker is from South Africa and even though she has been in the states for 8 years and has plenty of access to water she still hoards it because of the fear she went through growing up and living most of her life there.

Where does she hoard it? Tell us more.

Just in buckets in the tub. They shower around the buckets and let them catch the water then she uses the water for everything else she needs water for.

[brewer]

They did rely on rainfall (as we all do to greater or lesser extents), and climate change has impacted that.  A historic drought is what tipped them over the edge.  That's the connection between "big oil" and their water problem.  Under expected conditions, they would have enough water - even under expected drought conditions.  Obviously that can only go so far and at some point it doesn't make sense to file more people there...but they weren't at that point yet.  They neither planned for (nor..from the story..responded well to) catastrophe.

However, would this be seen as an acceptable response if, say...Houston suddenly found themselves out of water?  Get the fuck out you idiots, why did you build Houston there?  Why are you compalining about environmental damage that cut off your water supply..what does that have to do with the sequestration of your source by waste or industry, or the effects of climate change?

Obviously, economic realities force us to move to places like Cape Town (or any large city, really)...but does that give people or decisions that effects those places a free pass to shift responsibility onto the residents?  What are we suggesting....mass migration...????

I'm not saying that there is not a connection between climate change, consumption of fossil fuels and droughts but to take the position that big oil is the only cause is just infantile. 

And mass migrations due to droughts have occurred in the past, prior to big oil.

[Thumpalumpacus]

My co-worker is from South Africa and even though she has been in the states for 8 years and has plenty of access to water she still hoards it because of the fear she went through growing up and living most of her life there.

Where does she hoard it? Tell us more.

In her purse. I saw it one day a couple of months ago while making a deposit. She had one bottle, two water-balloons, and perhaps a pint running loose.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'm not saying that there is not a connection between climate change, consumption of fossil fuels and droughts but to take the position that big oil is the only cause is just infantile. 

And mass migrations due to droughts have occurred in the past, prior to big oil.

OFC. We're not where we find ourselves due to a single bad decision (nor, obvs, is Cape Town), and yes, ofc, mass migrations happened before oil..but that doesn't get that particular decision off the hook for mass migrations it is connected to.

I think it's an interesting confluence in peoples minds..because..demographicaly, people who poo poo climate change and fossil fuels impact on that -also- would not want to see mass migrations into their countries from S. Africa.

Well, at some point they're going to have to choose between one or the other.

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-and at some even further point..we run out of places to mass migrate -to-. All of us, not just S. Africans that "make bad decisions".

[Wyrd of Gawd]

???
South Africa hardly has enough oil to make a mess.

Way to miss the point. THIS IS NOT about one country, this is about how big oil WORLDWIDE has been pumping out CO2 for over a century which is causing more extremes WORLDWIDE. Nobody is blaming one country, I am blaming an industry for the impact it has had on our entire planet.

You can expect more climate volatility, in more frequency of droughts, more extreme flooding, more intense snowstorms in the winter, more frequency of hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones, more wild fires in the summer. Climate change is GLOBAL, South Africa's drought is merely one symptom of 100 years of ignoring the problem.

What get's burned as fuel on any part of the planet, collectively has an effect on the ENTIRE planet. Our planet's atmosphere does not give a shit about boarders or profits, if we keep fucking up our atmosphere by polluting it, we only hurt ourselves long term.

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Or maybe it's because since 1995, Cape Town population increased 78% while reservoir capacity increased 15%.

NO BUTTHOLE.......  Their drought is happening for the same damned reason we've had record wild fires in California. 

The data put into computer models has taken MILLIONS of points of data records of temps worldwide over the recorded history of weather science, and those models PROVE we are causing it you DUMBASS!

Take your science denying and shove it up your ass!

That's too funny.  Some folks would have gone bananas when the last ice age ended and things started to warm up.  If only those cave men had kept walking instead of driving trucks it would still be nice and chilly for the wooly mammoths and cave bears.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's still nice and chilly for the mammoths across large swathes of the globe, the earth getting warmer was not enough, on it;s own, to off them.  They had help.  We're super helpful like that.  

The same is most likely true about human beings.  Drastic climate change would inconvenience us, greatly, but it;s only with a little bit of help from our friends that we'd manage to off ourselves when it happens. The residents of Cape Town have been negatively impacted by climate change, but as noted in the story they're getting helped along by their neighbors..who continue to be wasteful. In the event that the area became uninhabitable..well, they have legs, sure..the problem is that the other guys have guns and don't like immigrants.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's still nice and chilly for the mammoths across large swathes of the globe, the earth getting warmer was not enough, on it;s own, to off them.  They had help.  We're super helpful like that.  

As an aside, megafaunal extinctions seem to follow us around the globe. Odd coinkydink, no?