abandoning stewardship of our waters

WE are our own predators.... far from the "stewardship" we were given in "the Garden", we wear the
'greedy hat ' all over the planet! its not enough to blame GMO's or fertilizer/chemical-companies, coal-fired electric plants and rising
carbon emissions from too many millions of cars and trucks.
we need to take a good long look in the mirror.. it is our own overpopulation, as well as
our rampant and astounding consumption
of the resources in our world.

one of the biggest issues for our future on this earth is the "ownership"of water.
out West, every drop of the colorado river already belongs to some entity, plus most every city
down the line to LA. it is true of many big rivers and reservoirs in the dry western states.
as frequent drought has moved east, and closer to my world, there is the big
atlanta/ alabama/ florida battle over allocation of the water in chattahoochee-eufala-apalachicola river system. this has been a very long-time controversy, ongoing since i heard about it from the local folks'
accounts of changes in the Bay and their fears about it, back in'98...10 years ago, now.

one of the most productive estuaries in the one of the last of the living 'big bays' is in
trouble...mostly from insufficient fresh water: the effects of longterm severe
drought in the South, as well as receiving the concentrated yuppie urine etc etc. from upstream.
the apalachicola bay ecosystem is slowly suffering; once so bounteous, and full of life... the fish,
the birds, and the shrimp, crab and oysters are now slowly trying to readjust to the increasingly saline waters, as well as to man's increasing presence and pollution
of the surrounding environment.
unfortunately, abundant bay life stems from the proper ecological balance of
fresh and ocean waters...
which is fluctuating and diminishing more and more every season.
when you read the apalachicola (end-of-the-line) side of things in the florida news-
papers there is much more clear reporting of the issue....rather than our current
governer's ignorant and uncaring remarks about "them 'lil' ole mussels are just gonna have to
crawl a little farther to get to the water". up in lake lanier country, they choose their huge boats
over the health of the river's path elsewhere. their belief seems to be simply use and abuse,
forgetting the connection to all the waters of this living earth.

this whole story brings me such grief, if only for the memory of how incredibly beautiful the
florida 'panhandle' area was when i was first there(1978) the closest i will ever get to paradise. totally wild and undeveloped, full of migrating birds, butterflies and huge dragonflies.
no people, a wilderness upriver like a tarzan movie, with big palms, cypress and big alligators.
the bay waters were fertile and clean in eco-balance with the salty sea.
oysters galore, gathered and eaten right out of the bay, with no fear of the many
parasites/bacterial infection/algae blooms(red tides) present in the overworked waters of today.
long gorgeous bare white beaches beside the placid gulf waters..
did i mention no people?

the "people-in-charge", the fatcats and suits, should remember that our greatest resource is water. that its loss means death for us all, just like the air we breathe. these precious resources should be free, our rights to them paramount.
definitely forever OUTSIDE of ever-present monetary considerations.

i picture a world where those in big business have to wear red ' greedy hats '....
they are shaped like catholic bishops mitres, only not so big or nice.
i want to know who they are, and who to watch out for.....
it would be nice to see all those wall st. capitalists and brokers and CEO's
and bankers involved required to wear this proof of identity while they desperately
scramble to pick our pockets like india's beggar-children

a haiku for today:

Capitalism , Communism..... we all do wear the ' greedy hat '