A Well Running Dry

It comes as no surprise that Texas is facing a substantial battle with Mother Nature over water accessibility, given its rapidly growing metropolitan population, its harsh arid climate, and the effects of global warming that are penetrating our planet.  Our current water conservation efforts are not adequate enough.  Texas needs to implement tighter restrictions on water usage in order to provide security for the future of the state.               

Texas government needs to allocate a greater number of resources to maintaining and preserving water levels.  The state needs to invest in aquifer storage and recovery systems, especially in counties where there is an imminent threat of drought.  There also needs to be more aggressive conservation measures implemented which aim to reduce both indoor and outdoor water use and expand the use of recycled water.  According to estimates from the Texas Water Development Board, 40 percent of all municipal water use is outdoors and half of that is lost to runoff from the excessive watering of lawns. Additionally, the general public needs to be better educated and informed on the severity of the issue.  It must be emphasized that the restricted use of water during drought is not long-term water conservation, but instead, it is a temporary response to a condition of drought.  We need to find long-term solutions to this problem.         

The effects of drought have already cost the state of Texas billions of dollars.  The reported agricultural losses due to drought-induced fires in 2011 were $7.2 billion.  The reported cattle sector losses in 2011 were $3.23 billion.  Finally, the reported cotton production losses were $2.2 billion.  The state would be able to proactively prevent losses as extreme as these by allocating a fraction of the money to drought management techniques.  Now is the time to tighten and enforce water conservation regulations in the state of Texas, to set an example for other states, before it is too late.

Guns in College Classrooms Bill

The blog post by John Woods analyzing the newly introduced “Guns in College Classrooms” bill highlights the extremely disconcerting process of legislation.  This piece of legislation, introduced by chairman Joe Pickett, a Democrat from El Paso, TX, will ultimately force colleges and universities to allow students to carry assault weapons in classrooms.  What is even more outlandish than the bill proposal itself is the fact that the hearing for the bill is happening during spring break, a time when most students are either out of the state or not politically and or socially engaged on campus. The author argues that this shows an extreme lack in judgment on the behalf of the bill proponents and an unfair policy process in general.  He also argues that this type of divisive scheduling, specifically scheduling hearings during school recesses, has happened in the past.  It is an unsustainable and non-democratic method of passing pieces of legislation that otherwise might not be passed.

The author’s intended audience is the general public, but he resonates especially with students who attend colleges and universities in the state of Texas.  His prerogative and passion behind this blog post is apparent from the beginning of the post.  He lost his girlfriend during the Virginia Tech massacre six years ago, and gun control is a very heated issue for him.  The author communicates and advocates for various organizations such as the Virginia Tech Review Panel and Gun-Free Schools of Texas.  He is also supporting other political solutions such as universal background checks in place of the newly introduced bill.  I sincerely hope that his post brings about awareness to this issue and facilitates policy reform.