Landscaping

We have a drought, water rationing, and the Dallas Morning News editorializing that North Texas wasn’t meant to have green lawns. Xeriscape is good. Grass is bad. They are fine ones to talk, dependent as they are on the pulpwood industry. North Texas wasn’t meant to have trees either, except along the creek banks. When we first came to Plano there were trees marking the section lines but they were mostly hackberry planted for the purpose. Now there are trees and ornamental shrubs everywhere I look. As they have matured we have become a more beautiful city. Parks and Rec has been planting more trees too, complete with watering systems though I don’t think they use potable water. And why shouldn’t we take pleasure in lush vegetation with flowers here and there?
Okay, this year is different and things won’t look as good as they normally do. Even the wild flowers mostly failed but when the rains come back so will the color. Things don’t have to be drab all the time. After all, isn’t it the American dream? A house in the suburbs with children playing outside? What would it be without grass? I am reminded of a visit to the American military cemetery in Normandy. The moment we stepped through the gate we knew we had left France. It wasn’t just the chimes playing God Bless America. The place looked American. We expected a well tended lawn and we got one.
Not that water conservation is bad, or xeriscaping either within limits. The highway department did a beautiful job with red yuccas along the reconstructed Central Expressway. In fact more landscaping along public roads is a welcome improvement that we’ve all noticed over the years. A lot of it is done with drought tolerant plantings. But one of the really attractive features of Plano is all the crepe myrtle and they won’t bloom without regular watering. When we moved here most neighborhoods were new and a few homeowners put in gravel yards. I’m not sure if they liked the appearance or just wanted to avoid mowing but I didn’t care for them. For one thing they looked hot and North Texas summers are hot enough. Also, it was probably asking too much of passing school children to not pick up a few rocks and toss them around. Over time those yards tended to get weedy. Low maintenance doesn’t mean no maintenance.
I really like the trees, shrubs, grass and flowers that watering makes possible. When the weather allows I enjoy taking my morning coffee on the patio, reading the paper and watching the birds eat breakfast at the feeder I maintain for them. It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have a pretty place to do it and without watering even the earliest bird would have trouble finding a worm in this tough Texas clay.
So this summer I will run my sprinklers only at the prescribed times, water my petunias by hand, and pray that it rains before I have to stop even that. But don’t expect me to get used to the idea that I can’t plant my annuals. Texas has plenty of water, just not necessarily when and where we would like it to be. If there are shortages it’s as much from poor planning as the weather. If population in North Texas is outgrowing the water supply we are also paying more in water bills. I pay for every gallon I use. I haven’t seen or heard anyone suggest the fees don’t cover the cost. So why don’t we have more water?

Are We Doomed?

Thomas Malthus wrote “An Essay on the Principle of Population” in 1798 and added his name to the language. Malthusian predictions of catastrophic population growth have been relegated to the lunatic fringe but the sentiment lives on. Man is destined to make the planet uninhabitable. Every generation has its doom sayers of course and the pace seems to be picking up. We’ve only just gotten past the nuclear winter scare, if we are past it, and now global warming is in full swing. There seems to be an emerging scientific consensus that it is happening, that it is caused by carbon based fuels, and that unless the United States reverts to the pre-industrial age we will soon see submerged sky scrapers in Manhattan. A consensus doesn’t mean the scientists are right. They’ve been wrong before. There are more than a few prominent skeptics but that doesn’t stop the dire predictions.
What nobody seems to have is any realistic notion of what to do about it. Solar and wind energy have their advocates but that potential is limited and there is the issue of where to put it. Those most likely to support massive windmill or solar cell farms don’t want them anywhere they might spoil the view. The only clean burning fuel on the horizon that could make a real difference is nuclear. Despite some recent softening by environmentalists an energy executive would have to be crazy to bet the company on that. Conservation is getting renewed interest but it is directed mostly at suburban mothers and their SUVs. The problem there is those mothers vote what’s important to them and one of their biggest issues is the car pool. If high gasoline prices don’t push them into hybrids I can’t see politicians getting in the way. The only other alternative I hear much about is the fuel cell. That technology is decades away at best. For now at least production of the necessary hydrogen consumes more energy than it provides and even if it didn’t a whole new distribution infrastructure would be required. In fact the two big winners in the current push for energy independence appear to be ethanol and so-called “clean coal,” neither of which does anything to decrease carbon dioxide emissions. Texas energy companies are even backing away from natural gas in favor of more coal because of price and supply instability.
If carbon dioxide really is a threat to the climate the two bulls in the china shop are China and India. They are going to join the industrialized world whether the rest of us like it or not, they are going to power their way there on carbon based fuels, and “clean coal” is not among their energy priorities.
So what do we do? We muddle through. Maybe enough reasoned voices will make themselves heard to offer something constructive. When they do we’ll act on them. We haven’t done that badly so far. The air is a bit cleaner than it was a few years ago. I suspect high prices will drive more than a little innovation I do think American energy independence will come, and fairly soon. That is a good thing because it will require a great deal more innovation. A few bad ideas will get passed into law but that’s life in a Democracy. The worst of them will be repealed before they do too much damage.
In the meantime, are people really spending money to see Al Gore’s movie on global warming? Abraham Lincoln was right. You can fool some of the people all of the time.