Californication: The conscious denial of reality and consequent investment in the irreality of the entertainment industry. (also) The valorization of gratuitous consumption and expenditure, including copious sexual deviance (see: Charlie Sheen)
As humankind lurches into an era of unpredictable weather events, the threat of drought, desertification, and dehydration are intensified. Cities in the southwestern US face a difficult but promising solution. 2010 census data indicates 8 of the top 10 largest cities in the US are in the southwestern portion, collectively hosting approximately 12 million people.
Drought in these areas is reaching a fever pitch. News reports indicate that California is in the grip of a 4-year dry spell with no end in sight. These maps show the predicted changes in precipitation linked to climate change, the deleterious affects of which have catastrophic potential to impact agriculture, recreation, and basic biological functions. The anthropological record shows entire civilizations have mysteriously vanished, linked with the effects of extended drought. Water is an essential resource to life-- to what lengths will governments go to stabilize their future against the onslaught of base difference?
One solution is gaining ground: the recovery of water from waste. Waste is an innocuous term that describes a taboo, possibly the greatest taboo of all, and a fundamentally bourgeois one brought on by the ideality of the western lifestyle. Researchers at Janicki Bioenergy have come up with the Omni Processor: a system that converts physical waste into potable drinking water. The excess of carbon is used as a source to power the plant, reducing the need for an influx of outside energy. What is left after the water has been seperated and the carbon burned, are the nitrates and phosphates which can be used as a natural fertilizer for agricultural fields. It seems like the next step in sustainable infrastructure, but for Americans, the conscious barrier is one of taste and exceptionalism.
The thought of furnishing vitriolic sewage into a life-granting substance seems plausible, but we won't be seeing Omni processors popping up on the Western front for many years to come. Instead, the corporate megalith Bill Gates hopes to bring them to developing countries. This proves that, while the solution is within reach, Americans would rather keep it at arms length and cloak it under auspicious philanthropy. The first plant to be built internationally is set in Dakar, Senegal. Construction is set to begin as soon as next month.
The whole process reminds me of a skit the absurdist activist group the Yes Men did awhile back to disturb business students. Posing as representatives of McDonalds and the WTO, they proposed to transfer waste in the first-world to developing countries, repurposing it into bio-burgers with food additives-- a novel way to stave off world hunger. The base difference was a jest aimed at the willingness of corporations to capitalize on problems in developing nations, but it rings eerily close to the water problem. We'll see what happens next.
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