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Page added on November 26, 2015
Let’s be thankful that now is a fantastic time to be alive
Thanksgiving celebrates human cooperation. And even though the European colonization of America was not exactly a cooperative venture, the inaugural 1621 Plymouth Thanksgiving feast certainly was. That historical reality reminds us why Thanksgiving is worth celebrating today — that one of humanity’s best traits is our ability to take something dark and make it bright.
Today is an opportunity to give thanks for a wonderful fact: In all of human history, there has never been a better time to be alive than right now. This might seem an odd thing to say at the moment. War, terrorism, poverty, political repression and hunger plague many countries. The most recent wounds, inflicted in Paris, Syria and elsewhere, are still fresh.
But life is improving in unprecedented ways.
Over the past century or so, the typical American’s income has grown sixfold. Life expectancy increased 30 years during the 20th century, from 47 years in 1900 to 77 in 2000. Infant mortality went down by more than 90 percent over that period, from roughly 1 in 10 to less than 1 in 100. Just think of all the broken hearts avoided. Nutrition and health care improved so rapidly that the typical American in 1950 was 3 inches taller than in 1900. Today’s Americans are taller still.
This Great Escape from poverty, as Nobel-winning economist Angus Deaton calls it, has been going on for the past two centuries. We and our children are only the most recent beneficiaries. Before that, most people, even the ones who lived in the richest, most powerful countries on Earth, had an average income of around $3 a day. Today, average income in rich countries is more than $100 a day.
The result? Today, people live longer, healthier and wealthier lives than history’s grandest monarchs could ever imagine.
Louis XIV’s Versailles, for all its extravagance, did not have flush toilets. Ramses II, Julius Caesar and Henry VIII did not have air conditioning. They did not have TV, newspapers or electricity — let alone computers or the Internet. Today, even the poorest Americans enjoy all of those things, which are so commonplace we barely even think of them.
Napoleon Bonaparte nearly conquered Europe. But even at the peak of his powers, he could travel no faster than a horse’s gallop. Today, anyone can move twice as fast as Napoleon ever did by simply hopping in a car. Every day, thousands of ordinary people fly through the air at hundreds of miles per hour in airplanes, nearly 6 miles up in the air, in climate-controlled comfort. The list goes on.
As you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with your family, consider a thought experiment. Ask your parents and grandparents about what times were like when they were young — no cable television, no automatic transmissions, no Internet.
Then turn to your children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren and tell them about your own memories of life before smartphones — when having access to a camera, email, text messages, news alerts, maps, music and movies in a single device seemed unthinkable.
And these days, the world has something else for which to be thankful.
While Europe and America have been comparatively wealthy for some time, they are no longer alone. Postwar Asian tigers such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan have become just as rich. In China and India, home to more than a quarter of world’s population, hundreds of millions of people are lifting themselves out of poverty. And much of Africa, after centuries of hard times, is showing signs of hope.
That is perhaps our biggest reason to give thanks: Eventually the whole world will have enough to live with comfort and dignity. As long as people are free to cooperate and exchange with one another on their own terms, it could even happen in our lifetimes.
29 Comments on "Let’s be thankful that now is a fantastic time to be alive"
Rodster on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 7:58 am
Bullshit hopium article. It is a great time to be alive but for different reasons. Humans are at a crossroad with planet Earth and if all it has built up the last 200-300 years from the industrial revolution will come crumbling down and will we survive that. That’s the big question and what’s on the other side of that change.
People do live longer but at a cost because it’s artificial by means of modern medicine and fossil fuels made that possible. The costs to stay alive longer requires money and depending on how much you have determines how long you can extend your life. Some people have become poor by trying to extend their life with the expense of modern medicine which continues to escalate in cost.
I disagree that people are wealthier today when you see that our current debt based money system only enriches a few at the expense of the majority. The wealthiest are now referred to as the upper one percent. That collective group has more wealth combined than 85 percent of the planet.
Davy on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 8:23 am
If you read my previous comment then you will see the disconnect I am trying to relate is perfectly expressed by this article and with basis of what American Thanksgiving has come to signify. Nowhere in this article is there a mention of reasons to not be thankful or God forbid scared. Thanksgiving today is part of a grotesque series of coopted celebrations culminating in New Years. These holidays that at one time did have significance and were valid have been hijacked by corporate greed, a false social narrative, and irrational optimism. We have little reason to be thankful. Our lives today are so much less meaningful in a relativity of meaningless modern global culture.
This day should be a day when we come together and say grace over a great meal and family togetherness that anytime could be our last. We would mention how many others do not have the opportunity to feast as we are and have family together as we do. In fact think of all those people who no longer have family because of war and or dislocations. In preparing the meal we would have made an effort to not prepare too much food and what food we used would have a quality to it. The food would hopefully be local and better yet something we grew. We would not do the typical American buffet style smorgasbord of poor quality and unhealthy food. We would not talk about Black Friday shopping tomorrow period.
Our transformed thanksgiving would lead into a transformed Christmas that would be centered on spiritual values, community, and family and not materialism of buying and giving. New Year’s would be a somber time of facing the facts that in the next year our material and spiritual wellbeing will be put to the test yet again for another year. We would make resolutions of efforts to make life less horrible and dangerous in the coming year. These are the kind of changes I am talking about that would come from an end of denial at the highest of social levels where we find our meaning and reasons for community and economy.
We are at an existential point of no return. The sooner we acknowledge this coming collapse the better we can adjust and prepare. What we will see again is yet another entropic blow out of waste, poor attitudes and lifestyles. This is foremost an American phenomenon but globally there is little differences in general just the degree is worse in America. Change the names and places and it is much the same. If the place is poor or a failing state the narrative is still the same with hope of change and future prosperity.
I ask you Americans to reflect on this craziness over the next weeks. See the empty promises and the dangerous precedence these activities sets for the younger generation. Now is the time for change. Now is the time to prepare the younger generation for what will be their generation of decay and death. We can try to make their coming generation less bad with less pain and suffering.
You may say Davy lighten up and chill. Some will say Davy I realize this but it will never happen. First and foremost we have no idea what is coming there are so many possibilities that lead to descent and decay who knows. Secondly we must have something to indicate what is right and just. I am not saying I have a lock on the truth. My main point here in this comment is the rejection of what is going on today with Thanksgiving and through New Year’s day. I am violently rejecting this article as pure negligence in this realization of the dangers ahead. I am saying embrace the truth with honesty and turn away from a failed tradition of plenty that is and recently has been proven false and destructive.
Rodster on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 8:38 am
The Holiday season as it has morphed into is a commercialized money grab bag for businesses/retailers to cut their losses for the rest of the year. That’s why we now see Black Friday several days or even weeks earlier. The Holiday season is nothing more than an excuse to drive retail sales. It’s why Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mothers Day, Fathers Day etc have all been commercialized.
TPTB have found ways to continue BAU and maintain the system. The world has partaken of consumption and it’s now impossible to turn off the spigot.
paulo1 on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 8:47 am
Good comments, guys. The consumerism and all day football in billion dollar+ taxpayer subsidized stadiums is quite sickening for an outsider. (I use the term outsider for all those who do not buy in to the consumer/victim role. This term does not pick on Americans)
On our Thanksgiving this past October (Canada) I remarked to my wife that everyday was thanksgiving for us. I have noticed over the past few years Vancouver retailers are trying to mimic the Black Friday shopping frenzy as well as WalMarts around the Province. The consumer orgy seems to be an urban/rural split. Everyone I know has a nice dinner with family with a few friends invited over who live on their own. My kids were all busy so I think we had our neighbour over for a drink and dinner.
Rodster on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 9:23 am
The Black Friday frenzy has made it’s way even to Britain as well.
penury on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 9:38 am
It is the getting season. have you got yours yet? I am so old I remember when his used to be connected to some religion or other. Now it appears to be the worship of Mammon/
apneaman on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 9:42 am
Be thankful if you have managed to not yet become an externality of modernity. Yet being the key word.
The World Is Paying a High Price for More Frequent Extreme Weather Events
https://news.vice.com/article/the-world-is-paying-a-high-price-for-more-frequent-extreme-weather-events
apneaman on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 9:49 am
These folks down under are thankful they were not victims of the ever longer AGW jacked Australian (global actually) fire season.
SA bushfires: Clare resident recalls seeing home burn down, reuniting dog with owners
“A man has seen a home burn down and had flames “lapping” at his car in a terrifying ordeal in the fire near Tarlee in South Australia yesterday.
Clare resident George Hooker, who recorded the fire’s activity in the Mid North on Wednesday, said the fire was intense.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/clare-resident-recalls-frightening-fire-experience/6974750
apneaman on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 10:37 am
“Then turn to your children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren and tell them about your own memories of life before smartphones”
Tell them it’s the reason why there is no clean air or water anymore. Tell them, sorry that there are no effective antibiotics anymore either, but we needed to make a few dollars more – sorry about the lethal infection from that ordinary scratch – maybe there’s an App for it?
“Science Says Super Bacteria Coming to Kill Us Is Imminent, “People Will Die”
“According to a study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, scientists in China have discovered significantly increased levels of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin in pigs. The drug is a last line of defense against a host of bacterial infections, many of which are common in people. Researchers said they expect the resistant bacteria to spread outside of China, if it has not already done so.
“What is particularly worrying about this is the mechanism of this resistance means that it can spread very easily between species. So global spread is likely.” Liz Tayler of the World Health Organization told BBC4 Radio. “This paper suggests that this has already spread out of China and into Malaysia.”
http://news.yahoo.com/science-says-super-bacteria-coming-154248566.html
apneaman on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 10:41 am
Climate Refugees and a Collapsing City
“DHAKA, BANGLADESH, Nov 25 2015 (IPS) – With multiplying impacts of climate change – increasing floods, cyclones, and drought – thousands of climate refugees are migrating to Dhaka. And the city, well beyond its carrying capacity, is bursting at the seams.
The word most often associated with Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is perhaps, “overpopulated.” Supporting more than 14 million people on less than 325 square kilometers (125 square miles) of land, the city’s drainage, waste management and transportation infrastructure is on the brink of collapse.
Against that backdrop, it is hardly surprising to find the Bangladesh capital among the worst cities to live in on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 ranking.
To delve beneath the apparent reasons – overpopulation, waterlogging and congestion – is to reveal a major underlying cause: unsustainable levels of climate-induced displacement and migration.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/11/climate-refugees-and-a-collapsing-city/
apneaman on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 10:47 am
Something else no other apes have had the privilege of experiencing.
Humankind’s Last Days Below 400 PPM CO2?
“Another ominous milestone fades away in the smog behind us…
By mid November of 2015, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory had again risen above 400 parts per million. Over the past two weeks, these levels maintained. And even though we may see a few days during which CO2 levels drop below that key threshold during late November and, perhaps, early December, those days could well be the last.
The last days of below 400 parts per million CO2 may then be behind us. It’s likely that none of us now living will ever see such ‘low’ levels of this critical atmospheric greenhouse gas. And it’s possible that humankind itself will never again see a day in which CO2 levels fall into this range (please see Is This the Last Year Below 400 PPM CO2?).”
http://robertscribbler.com/2015/11/25/humankinds-last-days-below-400-ppm-co2/#comments
The Last Time CO2 Was This High, Humans Didn’t Exist
“The last time there was this much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, modern humans didn’t exist. Megatoothed sharks prowled the oceans, the world’s seas were up to 100 feet higher than they are today, and the global average surface temperature was up to 11°F warmer than it is now.
As we near the record for the highest CO2 concentration in human history — 400 parts per million — climate scientists worry about where we were then, and where we’re rapidly headed now.”
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-last-time-co2-was-this-high-humans-didnt-exist-15938
Hawkcreek on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 1:07 pm
You would have to be an idiot to be thankful for smart phones. I’m thankful both my sons came back from Iraq and Afghanistan without any physical damage.
When your thankfullness priorities rest in more stuff, more big Mac’s, and the ability to steal more stuff from the rest of the world, you are truly fucked.
makati1 on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 8:10 pm
penury, I share your memories. There used to be a reason to be thankful, but it was killed by greed and stupidity. It is only an American holiday. I wonder if the ME is thankful for America’s plundering? Africa? South America? Asia? Or even Europe?
A day to celebrate the plundering of the rest of the world that makes it all possible. But not one in 10,000 Americans would even understand that comment without a long discussion of recent history. And then they would deny it.
I doubt the US has many more Thanksgivings to celebrate.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/why-we%E2%80%99re-sliding-towards-world-war
“… and says that we’ll have major wars between now and 2020. He has written pieces recently entitled, “Why We will Go to War with Russia“, and another one saying, “Prepare for World War III“.”
http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/22643
“Prepare for World War III. Ironically, the Democrats are the ones who start them every time.”
http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/war-is-likely-after-turkey-shoots-down-russian-jet-ignores-putins-warning_11252015
And…
http://orientalreview.org/2015/11/25/turkey-and-the-hornets-nest/
“Back in October this year at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting Russian President Putin said : “Fifty years ago, I learnt one rule in the streets of Leningrad: if the fight is inevitable, be the first to strike.”
This from a nuclear country’s President.
Happy Thanksgiving! LOL
makati1 on Thu, 26th Nov 2015 9:32 pm
Filipinos are thankful…
http://www.ibtimes.com/philippine-economy-misses-expectations-industry-farming-remittances-2201064
… that their economy is still growing at 6+% and not the zero to minus percent of America. Third highest in Asia. But then, they still work for their living. lol.
apneaman on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 12:14 am
U.S. breaks all-time wildfire record – More than 9.8 million acres burned in 2015
“In this week’s National Interagency Fire Center wildfire report, the year-to-date area burned by wildfires stands at 9,814,916 acres. By this time in 2006, the value was 9,508,556 acres.
Canada had a very active fire season as well, with nearly 9.9 million acres (4 million ha) burned, almost twice the ten-year average. The area burned in British Columbia was nearly three times the 10-year average, and Northwest Territories had its second-worst season on record, after the disastrous 2014 fire season.”
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2015/11/us-breaks-all-time-wildfire-record-more.html
makati1 on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 12:27 am
“Let’s be thankful that now is a fantastic time to be alive”
‘US Steel To Lay Off Thousands Of Workers”
“Laquan McDonald Police Shooting Video Ignites Chicago Protests”
“Protesters to target Chicago shopping area on Black Friday”
“Costco E. coli outbreak related to vegetables in chicken salad”
“Oklahoma Leads The World In Seismic Activity As 2015 Quake Count Tops 5,000”
“‘Mind-Blowing Abuse of Power’: Walmart Spied on Workers With FBI, Lockheed Martin’s Help”
“New York Port Authority Evacuated Due To Threat Amid Holiday Travel Frenzy”
“Why Even a Modest Disruption Will Shatter the Status Quo”
“Why The Obamacare Exchanges Are Failing”
“Congress struggles to secure nation’s power grid”
Bring on the clowns…
” Donald Trump Encourages People to Spy on Their Neighbors — And then report them to the police”
“Rubio: God’s Rules Trump Supreme Court Decisions”
“New York Times Slams Donald Trump’s ‘Outrageous’ Mocking Of Reporter With Disability”
“Exposed: Hillary Caught Coordinating With CNN to Smear Rand Paul”
‘Huckabee: Obama ‘probably’ wants Americans to learn Koran verses”
“Scientists: Ted Cruz Understands Less About Climate Than A Kindergartner”
Today on http://ricefarmer.blogspot.fr/
Apneaman on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 11:56 am
For every 1 degree C rise in temperature the atmosphere holds 7% more moisture, hence the ever increasing record breaking deluges. How lucky to be alive to see so many records being broken. These new records will soon be broken too.
The Latest: 2nd Body Found After North Texas Floods
“More than 4 inches of rain fell at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport from Thursday through Friday morning. It has rained 55.23 inches there this year, topping the annual rainfall record of 53.54 inches set in 1991.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-record-rains-lead-flooding-north-texas-35446136
onlooker on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 12:09 pm
Great comments everyone. Yes time to go shopping and be thankful that we are partaking in the destruction of the life support systems of the Earth. This article makes me sick to my stomach. The epitome of blind optimism and/or spurious canards. I am thankful, thankful that at least here on this site and board people realize the terrible price we have paid for this so called “modern civilization”. We have sacrificed our mother Earth for the the sake of shallow and un-fulfilling consumerism. The words of this article have never been true and they are not now.
GregT on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 12:31 pm
Water Vapor Confirmed as Major Player in Climate Change
“Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide.”
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/vapor_warming.html
F.F.K.H. on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 4:33 pm
William S. Burroughs Thanksgiving Prayer:
“To John Dillinger and hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day November 28 1986”
Thanks for the wild turkey and
The passenger pigeons, destined
To be shat out through wholesome
American guts.
Thanks for a continent to despoil
And poison.
Thanks for Indians to provide a
Modicum of challenge and
Danger.
Thanks for vast herds of bison to
Kill and skin leaving the
Carcasses to rot.
Thanks for bounties on wolves
And coyotes.
Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
The bare lies shine through.
Thanks for the KKK.
For nigger-killing lawmen,
Feeling their notches.
For decent church-going women,
With their mean, pinched, bitter,
Evil faces.
Thanks for “Kill a Queer for
Christ” stickers.
Thanks for laboratory AIDS.
Thanks for Prohibition and the
War against drugs.
Thanks for a country where
Nobody’s allowed to mind their
own business.
Thanks for a nation of finks.
Yes, thanks for all the
Memories– all right let’s see
Your arms!
You always were a headache and
You always were a bore.
Thanks for the last and greatest
Betrayal of the last and greatest
Of human dreams.
makati1 on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 5:28 pm
F.F.K.H., that pretty well sums up America.
makati1 on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 6:47 pm
Some see the future…
“Filipino Youth in fear of a Possible Doomsday with a No Deal Scenario in Paris, held a Funeral March at the Climate Justice Rally
Quezon City, Philippines – Thousands of Filipinos marched for climate justice today, November 28, and converged at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. Broad groups of social movements, religious groups, trade unions, farmers, urban poor and NGOs took part in the Climate March carrying climate related issues – energy transformation; right to food, land and water; justice and reparations for affected people; protecting our common home (from Laudato Si); jobs and just transition; and carbon emissions reduction….”
https://www.popularresistance.org/philippines-funeral-at-the-climate-justice-march/
“Thousands of people marched last Saturday in Oakland to demand political action on climate change and a global reduction in fossil fuels in advance of the global climate conference in Paris. The crowd, estimated at more than 4,000, marched from Lake Merritt to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Drummers and dancers entertained the crowd while local speakers highlighted the major challenges to reducing global warming….”
https://www.popularresistance.org/thousands-of-protesters-demand-action-on-climate-change/
Alas … nothing will change and they will be doomed. Too few and too little power($$$)to force real change, but it is too late anyway.
apneaman on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 9:08 pm
The Dying Americans
“Often times you hear about a “dieoff” due to our situation. I think this study confirms beyond a doubt that the dieoff is already happening. Yet, consider that, before this study became popularized, you would have never heard about it in the mainstream press. Still doubt the collapse is real?
It’s not people dying in the streets, though, unlike some of the more feverish TEOTWAKI peak oil predictions. From the research, elevated levels of suicide and drug abuse are the prime culprits. It’s the million little deaths that go unnoticed in the obituary columns of decaying communities all across this formerly prosperous nation. Someone overdosed in a back alley. Or a meth lab exploded. Or maybe they were killed in a car accident, or decapitated while driving their motorcycle too fast. Or they were shot by police. Or they are dying of liver failure by age 40. Or, increasingly, they are ground down slowly by the many chronic diseases such as diabetes that are symptomatic of the chronic stress and horrid (yet highly profitable) junk food diet of most Americans. It’s a dieoff all right, but it’s never framed as such. You can see it all around you: the overcrowded jails filled with unemployed people, the overcrowded hospitals filled with sick, obese people, the folks standing on the medians and freeway offramps with cardboard signs and living their cars, all while the media just goes on reporting about spectator sports and celebrity gossip as though nothing bad is happening. Ignorance really is bliss.”
more
http://hipcrime.blogspot.de/2015/11/the-dying-americans.html
makati1 on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 9:36 pm
Ignorance and denial, Ap. The Us suicide deaths passed the auto deaths last year for the first time ever. Murders are fast catching up to both and the drug use of all kinds is going exponential. When you have 20 veterans committing suicide daily, something is desperately wrong.
http://www.newsmax.com/US/VA-veterans-suicide-Iraq/2014/04/04/id/563681/
Even if these numbers are exaggerated, they tell a sad story of how Americans ‘value’ their troops and life in general. I wonder how many are because they finally realized that the were fighting for corporate profits and not freedom and safety for themselves and their loved ones? A high percentage, I bet.
onlooker on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 9:43 pm
Truly so sad the American vets. Yes Mak, I think more then a few decided to commit suicide from understanding what a crock of shit all this war and mayhem is. You see when we lie to ourselves eventually that all catches up to each of us. To make things worse to be lied too as chronically and incessantly as we in the US are being lied too is also very depressing. I thank God everyday I woke up some years back to what this world really is and what is happening both in US and around the world. I do not regret it for one moment. I feel bad who are awoken abruptly in a traumatic way as I think is happening more and more around the world.
GregT on Fri, 27th Nov 2015 11:58 pm
The sad fact of the matter is onlooker, no matter the political system, or ideology, the corruption eventually always rises to the top.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
apneaman on Sat, 28th Nov 2015 1:53 pm
Fantastic indeed
“Sandra was also the first major hurricane in the Western Hemisphere that has ever been observed on Thanksgiving Day. Sandra was the record-shattering 25th Category 4 or stronger tropical cyclone in the Northern Hemisphere in 2015. According to wunderblogger Dr. Phil Klotzbach’s Twitter feed, the previous record was eighteen such storms in 1997 and 2004.”
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3196
apneaman on Sat, 28th Nov 2015 1:54 pm
The invisible threat
Rising temperatures mean insects can carry viruses such as West Nile to wider areas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/11/27/disease/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_disease933pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
apneaman on Sat, 28th Nov 2015 5:12 pm
The Central Valley is sinking: drought forces farmers to ponder the abyss
As people dig ever deeper to find water, nearly 1,200 square miles of California is sinking 2 inches a month – destroying roads, bridges and farmland in the process
“In some parts of the valley, however, the land is sinking at a rate of 2in (5cm) a month. About 1,200 square miles, roughly bounded by interstate 5 and state route 99, is collapsing into what scientists describe as a “cone of depression”.
“The land around here is sinking, and as it is sinking, the bridge is going with it,” said Hurley, manager of the San Luis Obispo water company, on a tour of sinking infrastructure near the town of Firebaugh.
The water company, which is owned by area farmers, had recently rebuilt the levee, he said. But “because the water is hitting the bridge, they are going to have to reconstruct the bridge”. Wellheads were being destroyed, because they could not maintain pressure. Dams were sinking. “I am having a hard time pushing water through my canal,” Hurley said.”
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/28/california-central-valley-sinking-farmers-deepwater-wells