Critical thinking

As an avid reader and sometimes writer of letters to The Bee, I’ve been reflecting on some of the best ideas. The writer that proposed we connect the coast rail line to the Valley rail line had a great idea. Low hanging fruit. Not much of that left. On infrastructure in general, we’re only about 20 years behind the times. We should of had high-speed rail 20 years ago.

Water? I just have to laugh. There’s nothing more critical to California than water. And water is the one subject we do the least critical thinking on. We fuss, we fume, we fight, we sue and we get nothing done except further degradation to the magnificent ecosystems that are our heritage.

There are those who want to blame the drought and our current water woes on fish. That’s a good one! Just kill all the fish and we’ve got enough water for everybody. Except we don’t. It’s math. Here’s the formula. Wet years minus dry years plus population growth minus aquifer depletion squared by pollution. But let’s just be real smart about this whole situation and kill all the fish. That will solve everything. Except it won’t.

This story was originally published May 24, 2015 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Critical thinking."