water

Dripping Springs, Texas is at a watershed moment. No pun intended. Turns out, when you live somewhere you don’t realize that not everywhere in the world is living the same way. I always thought it was odd that I was staring at drought signs in the middle of a thunderstorm, but alas, I was. Drought isn’t a word that I really understood. To me, it means, it hasn’t rained in a long time, don’t let the water run while you’re brushing your teeth. I was staring at a drought sign while rain hit my head, so it really made no sense to me.

Yesterday I learned why: Austin, Texas, is running out of water.

We've been running out of water for a while, but it's gotten really bad. At the very end of that, really, really bad leads you to a small town called Dripping Springs. That’s where I live.

Dripping Springs is the closest community right outside of Austin that, a couple years ago, was nothing but farm lands and now has fast food restaurants and is even putting in a Target. It's pretty sad. That's for another post.

What's interesting about Dripping Springs is how fast this population has grown between that of the small town and Austin, Texas. Where there used to be grass, there are now giant communities which house many, many faucets.

Austin, Texas, has been in a drought for a while now, but the boom in populations tipped the scales. Remember “California is getting a little creepy during COVID. I want to go to the land-free… Texas.” All those heads and all their now little babies have made quite the problem in our water system.

I think what's going on in Texas is the severity of our weather. Summers are super hot, which basically fries off all the top water, and the winters now get cold. I'm sure you remember the great freeze because they played it on every news channel in every state in America, but let's just say our grid systems are not as strong as our Texas pride.

The other thing Texas is facing now is that, because we are so pro innovation, we also are so low-regulation that the tech giants are saying that we can locate our data centers anywhere that there is still land. Texas has a lot of land, so Texas is getting a lot of data centers, and a lot of data centers requires a lot of water. Essentially, what's happening is that by 2030, we may run out of water. I have never lived in a world where I had to think about water or how I was going to get water. Seems spooky.

This week, my florist (I’m getting married, so yes, I have a florist) told me that they were moving Michigan because of water. I just smiled, because I had no idea what they were talking about, but now I do. And if anyone knows something about water, it’s a florist.

For all of these reasons, the question I'm going to drop down today is: What is the right way to face environmental trade-offs with technological advances?

First thing that you have to realize is that nature is the only thing worth protecting. We came to this earth that was doing very fine without us, and we squeeze every last bit of goodness from it. The oceans, the rainforests, the trees, the ground, we have literally killed it all. And we have to take responsibility for that.

Don't point fingers. It's not their fault. It's all of our fault.

Especially if you live in America. If you drive a car, if you wear T-shirts, if you so much as drink Coca Cola or eat a chip, it's your fault. Take responsibility and move on.

Second, you got to fall back in love with nature. Don't fight for something that you don't actually love. You gotta get out of nature, away from everything, go camping, sit under the stars, set out a fire, and basically feel what it is like to be held by Mother Nature. It's called Mother Nature for a reason because she is a mother, she is loving, she is giving, she is nurturing. Let her hold you and give you a reason to change from that place and from that reverence and awe and love, and make lifestyle changes become easier because you know what you are fighting for.

If you leave it abstract and think about the trees that you see in the movie or the trees that you see on social media, it's not going to stick. You need to get unplugged and out of the sun.

Once you have the love back in your heart from Mother Nature, then you start talking systems. If the government was able to help people be self-sustaining, we could take some steps forward. Until then, let's give them the model:

• Rain barrels

• Solar panels

• Sustainable houses

• Sustainable materials

• Sustainability departments

Ask yourself, from first principles: is sustainability important to you? If so, what can you do based off of whatever you do for the world? It's not widespread answers; it's individual lifestyle changes. That's the way that this game is set up, for better or for worse. Each of us needs to make the changes for ourselves.

Yes, have the conversations with your friends and family, but it's not worth going and fighting the big corporations and fighting this invisible man. The way that it changes is by changing yourself and then letting people see your different way of life, asking questions, and then the rapids grow.

What I learned from myself.

What I find really interesting is that our world is driven by money, but what drives money is actually driven by the people. If there was an increase in demand for sustainable architecture, there would be an increase in capital and an increase in investment into these types of companies. It's simply because the markets think that the majority of the demand is for shit-fast fashion, whatever. That's where the money was going.

If every single person in America thought that it was really cool and really in vogue to have a rain barrel, you better believe private equity is going to be in the rain barrel business and go for it. If you're searching for money, who am I to stop you as long as I get a cheap-ass rain barrel?