Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott drills well to water lawn during historic drought (via Raw Story )
Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott is one of a growing number of wealthy residents who are drilling wells to get around water restrictions during one of the worst droughts in history — a practice that environmentalists…
Climate change probably caused this drought and the need for Mr. Moneybags to drill his own personal well. Which brings us to another climate change event; the typhoon that hit the Philippines. Who is going to feed all of these people? The capitalist economic system is completely useless in the wake of such a disaster. What these people require is a ‘collective’ response of ‘donated’ money, food, water, etc. So much for the Republican ideology of “individual self-help” like that of Mr. Abbott. He and those who think like him are a disgrace to hummanity.
This is probably an indication of the leadership “style” Texans can expect from Abbott, should they be stupid enough to elect him.
Interesting to note that farmers in the town of Hoxie, Kansas (yup, in “Dead Red” Kansas) are actually going to try their own small commons to try to keep their portion of the Ogallala aquifer from sinking away beneath them to depths where they can no longer access it to try to irrigate their crops.
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-11-07/the-farmers-of-hoxie-inaugurate-a-water-commons
excerpt – “…Contrary to the “tragedy of the commons” parable, which holds that no single farmer would have any incentive to rein in his or her water consumption, the farmers of Hoxie found a way to cooperate and overcome their over-consumption problem. They came up with a set of rules to reduce their water usage for a five-year trial run; had the state government make it a formal requirement; and installed meters on everyone’s pumps to verify compliance.
Clearly a key factor in the success of this plan (so far) has been the town’s small size and tight social connections. The owner of the biggest business in town, Scott Foote of Hoxie Feedyard, told the NPR reporter: “It was a lot of neighbors got together, that know each other personally, go to church with each other, kids go to school with each other. Honestly, it’s just a tightknit community.”
A farmer explained his support for the Hoxie water commons this way: “It’s my name at stake. And I don’t want to sound selfish, but I don’t want to let my kids down. We’ve got a great corps of youth in Sheridan County, Thomas County, and I don’t want to let them down!”…”
If practiced by people who value their good name in the community, and who think of those who may come after them, “The Tragedy of the Commons” does not have to end in tragedy.
However, if practiced by persons such as Atty. General Abbott, whose motto is “All for me and none for you, Suckers”, things will end very badly in deed.
Stupid enough to elect Abbott, Dr. S? They voted for the Shrub against Ann Richards. Rick Perry was reelected twice over. Senators Cruz and Cornyn, Representatives that give crazy a bad name; Davis has no chance.