EDA News August 2022

Welcome to EDA's new partner

For the past several years, EDA has been analyzing major groundwater sources in the United States, including the Ogallala and Memphis Sand aquifers in the Midwest/Mid-South.

After many meetings with groups in these areas, we are pleased to announce a formal project with Protect Our Aquifer (POA) in Memphis.

On July 25, EDA’s Research Team began working on a report for POA, Impact of Water on Public Health and Safety in Shelby County, Tennessee. Research will be aided by the other teams in our Action Council, State Legislation, Advocacy and Education.

EDA has also discussed the possibility of conducting four future studies for Protect our Aquifer. These include:

Water, water everywhere (until it's gone)

Besides aquifers, humanity’s other primary source of water is surface water. Historically, people have thought of surface water as a renewable resource. Based on the hydrological cycle, all the water that evapotranspires (leaving the Earth either through evaporation or the transpiration of plant life) falls back to Earth in the form of precipitation.

But some scientists are now saying that our fresh water is becoming a non-renewable resource. Because of climate warming, slightly more surface water has been leaving Earth than returning as rain or snow. This difference is expected to increase as humans, vegetation and soil pull water from the land at a more forceful rate than the pull of the atmosphere.

Drought manifests in several ways: decreased rainfall, low stream and groundwater levels, parched crops, insufficient community water supplies and struggling ecosystems. In many places today, all of these characteristics are appearing at the same time.

Today’s mega drought is a fast-moving disaster. Intensified by civilization’s heating of the planet, the American West is now experiencing unusually arid conditions. The past two decades have been the West's driest period in at least 1,200 years.

Grandiose plans like pumping water from the Mississippi River to the arid Southwest are being discussed, but few people take these ideas seriously. A project of this magnitude would require massive quantities of energy, significant logistical challenges and an enormous budget.

If water is no longer a renewable resource, what will societies do? How will a growing population share a diminishing supply of water? What can our elected officials do to reverse or stabilize the nation’s shrinking water capacity?

Our State Legislation team has been analyzing water legislation in numerous Western states. Our Research team has been conducting carrying capacity research of surface water problems in California and Colorado and are currently in discussion with Western Resource Advocates, headquartered in Boulder. We are also working toward conducting advocacy training on equitable and sustainable water at a Western location in 2023.

Democracy flows from our hearts -- please vote!

EDA's Election Board will be holding annual elections from August 15 - 22. In addition to the candidates on the ballot, there will also be ratifications for minor changes in EDA’s Cooperative Charter.

You have been receiving information about the August elections through email and on Loomio. The call for candidates concluded on July 31. The next two weeks provides you an opportunity to review the qualifications of the candidates and the merits of the proposed ratifications of EDA policy.

These days the news is filled with stories about the importance of voting. We have created EDA in a way that accentuates your direct involvement in the decisions of our organization. This is why all Active Members of EDA are required to vote.

We did not develop this policy to burden anyone, but to remind us all of the special privilege we have of choosing the officials that best represent us and express our values. This holds true for democratic organizations like EDA just as it does for our local, State and Federal elections. We recognize that democracy flows from our hearts.

The American Experiment

The first known reference to the phrase, ‘the American Experiment’, was in a New York newspaper a few days after Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. On November 27, 1860, the New York Daily Tribune wrote of the controversy precipitated by the election of the abolitionist Lincoln:

“The social, and especially the political institutions of the United States have, for the whole of the current century, been the subject in Europe, not merely of curious speculation, but of the deepest interest. We have been regarded as engaged in trying a great experiment, involving not merely the future fate and welfare of this Western continent, but the hopes and prospects of the whole human race.”

“Is it possible for a Government to be permanently maintained without privileged classes, without a standing army, and without either hereditary or self-appointed rulers? Is the democratic principle of equal rights, general suffrage, and government by a majority, capable of being carried into practical operation, and that, too, over a large extent of country?”

The article concluded that a possible secession of the South from the United States:

“would be very far from proving, or even indicating, the failure of our American experiment. Whatever happened to the Slave-holding States after this separation, the experiment of republican government on democratic principles would still go on; nor is there anything in our past history or present position to induce serious misgivings as to the result.”

It’s moving to read this solemn reflection on` the fate of democracy, which was written just as dissent was reaching a fever pitch and the secession of South Carolina from the Union was only three weeks away.

Many people are wondering now if our American Experiment will survive similar forces of political disintegration. We solemnly agree with the insight of the Daily Tribune on the eve of America’s Civil War: that if democracy fails, it will be a tragedy not only for this country but for “the hopes and prospects of the whole human race”.

Basecamp

Earlier this year, your EDA Board authorized the IMPACT group to search for a new communications platform. IMPACT recommended that we use Basecamp as our platform for communication. Thanks to some generous donations to purchase this app, EDA is now moving our operations to Basecamp.

Over the next several weeks, EDA’s teams will be invited to organize their respective departments on Basecamp. Later this Fall, all other EDA members will be invited to join the platform.

Basecamp will enable our teams to get their work done in a more streamlined way than we’ve been able to do with Loomio. It will help us improve our flexibility, responsiveness and coordination as an organization.

EDA's Sixth Annual Conference

EDA will be holding its annual conference on Saturday, October 22. This year’s theme is Revaluing Our Commons. We plan to have several featured speakers, including David Bollier, a renowned expert on the commons and the director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.

The conference will also feature reports from the Chairs of our four teams, State Legislation, Advocacy, Research and Education.

What is the role and value of the commons in our lives? Join us and learn how to answer this vital question.

Mark this date on your calendar--October 22. Registration will open in September.

You won’t want to miss this special event!

EDA Advocacy for State legislation
(for discussion at your next party)

Some EDA members have asked why we advocate for legislation that promotes the equitability and sustainability of food, water and energy. Let’s revisit the story.

One hundred years ago, world population was just 2.0 billion and is now reaching eight billion. During that period, civilization’s practice of resource extraction and over-consumption has left the planet in a precarious condition, using up our resources faster than they can be replenished.

Instead of addressing this reality, we are told that the answer is greater economic growth and innovative technology. This is why our social, economic and political institutions have been slow to make the changes that are necessary for the future survival of human beings within the constraints of Earth’s ecosystems.

The human population is now depending predominately on non-renewable resources for its sustenance. Both science and history show that no society that bases its primary production systems (agriculture, water and energy) on non-renewable resources will be able to sustain itself over time.

As the current economic crisis continues, many leaders will cling to solutions from the past, including the exploitation of natural resources and the inequality between human beings. The solution is not greater economic growth. It’s about getting government officials to recognize how people must live within the physical limits of the planet more equitably, cooperatively and sustainably.

That’s what we advocate. It’s who we are