Reality Check -- AND -- WebCT site [I think]

Students:

A quick post on the world as it really is out there. I apologize if I ranted in section yesterday, but I feel that this class--as much if not moreso when Professor Pezzoli teaches it--is willing to call a spade a spade and acknowledge that because of the environmental consequences of our daily lives that we are in dire staits all across the globe.

But here's an example of how serious the consequences are of the systems we have in place to support urban lifestyles across the southwest, at this point an enormous proportion of the American population, and how are already facing them.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/02-08LakeMead.asp

Lake Mead may go dry by 2021, according to Scripps researchers. Remember, that it is the same Scripps Institute that was the home of Roger Revelle, the man who through an inadvertent military contract ended up discovering the carbon emission-ocean warmth data which became part of the scientific evidence for the discovery of global warming.

Not to mention the fact that there would probably be no UCSD without Revelle's intervention.

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/revelle/revelle.htm

So try to imagine those consequences and think through what it takes to put our lives together and how radically we have to change the organization and functioning of our societies if we want to maintain them with anything near the level of development we've achieved. Because without water--remember almost all of it actually goes to agriculture--we're going to have to revisit the fact that we've sprawled over our arable lands, and all of a sudden these pieces start to connect.

Also, there is now a WebCT site for our class up due to Jeff's help. Let me know if this is not true, and I'll keep in touch with him. But I think we will be able to put up all of the slides past the midterm this time. As always I'll keep you posted on these issues.