Letter from Richard D. Stacy
Water – August 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I have enjoyed George Sibley’s columns in Colorado Central for some time. His most recent, “The Developed Resource,” was very interesting. Long ago, as a student at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs (B.S, Chemistry, class of 1952), I used to occasionally sit in on the geology lectures of Dr. Pearl who also was quite interested in the water resources of Colorado.
As I recall from his lectures, he indicated that the water supply on our planet was, indeed, a finite resource; actual net losses occurring only via electrolysis or evaporation to outer space. Water supply is, and probably always will be, a matter of distribution, whereas the “peak oil” issue, that you refer to, is a very real problem for mankind, as we do physically destroy our petroleum reserves in the use of this raw material. I won’t live to see the havoc which I think will ensue on earth when we finally exhaust the earth’s crude-oil supplies, but I am saddened by the lack of serious planning for this inevitable eventuality.
Richard D. Stacy
Montrose
