Not enough oil, nor water

Both water and oil are becoming more precious right now. In the southeastern U.S. a severe drought is leading to threats of rationing. Nobody's saying it's a result of climate change, but they're regretful that some of those big hurricanes didn't come along this year and dump a a lot of rain inland. The drought has led to some hard feelings between local and state officials on one hand and the federal Corps of Engineers on the other.

A drought out in California has the governator there in a political bind, one end of the state distrusting the other. It was always thus.

Here at ZDnet we've blogged about the huge amount of water used for some tech needs. And water was a major topic at the GoingGreen conference where one speaker pointed out that only 2% of the world's water supply is fit to drink. Not even oil seems very valuable if you don't have enough water to drink, so watch the developments in the Southeast if rain doesn't come this fall. The politics of water could make the politics of global warming or oil prices look like a canasta game. Things are already so desparate in Georgia you have the state Chamber of Commerce actually looking for state government intervention. Meanwhile in neighboring North Carolina the governor has just imposed a statewide burning ban. That's on top of a call to cease all outdoor watering. Neither state has banned the brewing of beer despite it's dependance on large quantities of water by both manufacturer and user. ------------- Meanwhle, that other life-supporting liquid, crude oil, continues its march toward ever higher prices. Adjusted for inflation crude's still a bit below the all time record highs, but closing in fast.