"Staggering" is a word that comes up quite a bit in the article, and it seems appropriate.
There is something similar at work in the Central Valley of California, where thirsty farms are competing to drill down into underground reservoirs, which depresses the land and disrupts other water flows like aquifers, which operate by gravity, aggravating the problem.
Meanwhile the Oroville Dam, which maintains a great water reservoir that feeds much of California, is falling apart. We went from a severe drought to a complete deluge, which paradoxically could usher the drought right back in by overwhelming various regulative systems like the water reservoirs.
We do know that states - which can't print their own currency - were hit particularly hard by the financial crisis, and many were hit by failing derivatives and other financial instruments. Couple this with a destruction of the tax base due to collapsing demand and investment - a problem created by the depression and insistence on neoliberal reform - and accompanying social atomization and a collapse in trust, and the shocking spread of public negligence and recklessness becomes more understandable.
I'd like to briefly comment on the matter of climate change, which not only produces hotter temperatures and drier environments, but also sudden deluges and other surprises from chaotic weather, which overwhelms life systems that are predicated on anticipation of the environment. It is the oscillating pattern which is most traumatic, which further stresses other stressed social systems.
A meta pattern begins to emerge; compare this to various physiological disorders like blood sugar problems and alcoholism. When too much sugar enters the blood stream, the body compensates by releasing large amounts of insulin. All of the sugar is metabolized too quickly, and the blood sugar level drops, leading to fatigue and mood problems, among others. On top of this the body becomes resistant to insulin.
With alcoholism, the sudden presence of alcohol helps to stimulate the GABA receptors in the brain, providing a calm and euphoric state. However with greater amounts of alcohol over a long period of time, the GABA receptors become depressed. If the alcohol intake is suddenly stopped, all of that suppressed receptor activity bounces back, like a returning pendulum. Thus the subject is consumed with depression, anxiety, and other more serious symptoms, all opposites of the depressive effects of the alcohol.
These patterns can also be compared with other environmental patterns, such as the disruption of the nitrogen cycle. A common example is the process of eutrophication, in which the introduction of too much nitrogen (a nutrient) to a body of water causes the explosive growth of organisms most responsive to nitrogen, various algae blooms, which then consume all of the oxygen in the water and kill off all other life forms, which results in dead zones.
What all of these patterns have in common is an overabundance of manipulation: organized life has manipulated and concentrated certain substances which have a limited effect on limited bodies, and then introduced them into complex life systems which require balance and continuity to function, thus throwing the systems out of balance, essentially destroying them. This is certainly a significant pattern to explore further, but for now I want to turn back to the significance of Mexico City's drought conditions.
As the first linked article details, drought-stricken Mexico city has tapped deeper into its underground reservoirs, causing the city to steadily sink, which has the compound effect of stressing its gravity-based water systems.
Mexico City is one of the largest and most populous world cities on the earth. Its destruction will mean cascading crises on the local and global level. Globally, the city is an important financial and commercial city for the Americas. Locally, mass migration will be certain, as Mexico City has a population of over 21 million. Mexico is already in a state of extreme political strain, with rapidly rising gas prices and a collapse of political legitimacy. The country continues to receive deportations from an increasingly xenophobic United States that is ramping up its anti-immigrant efforts. Though immigration from Mexico is decreasing, where will all of these people go in the end?
This is but one sector of the world, where escalating crisis is rapidly becoming a new normal. Which raises another issue that will have to be addressed in time.
The chief spiritual task of our age is to not only come to grips with human mortality, and the mortality of civilizations, which has been a long-running task, but a reconciling to the loss of continuity in general. I mean here of the eventual sweeping away of all that one knows, and which is continuous to the perception.
Yes everyone is mortal and dies. This is an important fact that drives spiritual thought and practice. But many of our deepest drives have to do with maintaining continuity in a society. One works so as to advance the future interests of one's community and society. One labors with the hope that future generations will prosper.
One is left with a profound spiritual challenge: to continue working and to live a decent life in the face of the possibility that much of what now exists may be swept away in a shorter time horizon than what one is ideologically accustomed to.
I'll address this more thoroughly soon.
