So. how would you feel when you are told that not only can you not drink the water, but that you can’t boil it either, because that just concentrates the toxins. How would you feel if the only way you could get bottled water was to drive at least 1.5 hours one way to get it at inflated prices? How would you feel if, while the crisis was going on, and your throat felt more and more parched, you had no idea, absolutely no idea, how long the crisis would last?

First Detroit: different issue, but again, involving the preciousness of water. Now Toledo.

It’s over? After two days, 500,000 people who live in or near Toledo Ohio can now drink the water from their source, Lake Erie. Or at least that’s the official line. I guess they didn’t want to be reminded of Hurrican Katrina? Perhaps they’d just rather lose a few (or more) folks to poisoned water rather than admit that maybe it’s not over, that it’s indeed not over, that it will never be over until we change our attitude towards Nature in fundamental ways and act accordingly.

One thing’s for sure, though this crisis has been a decade in the making, “the environment” will now finally be on the docket during next year’s mid-terms, at least in Ohio. And, I imagine, in California, and the entire Southwest.

Toledo Water Crisis: A game changer for The Great Lakes and global algae research