Just Peachy

Search online for factoids about water, and you’ll find they flow like a mighty river.   Did you know  it is the only substance on earth to naturally exist in all three states?   Yep, you can always find it somewhere as either a gas, liquid, or solid.   It is also essential to life, making up about 60 percent of each human as well as occupying 71 percent of the earth’s surface.  It is a vital part of our everyday lives naturally and economically.   It’s the economic part that has caught Atlas’ attention recently.   This month there were a couple of water-related stories worth sharing.

America is in the heart of stone fruit season.   Think about the refreshing sensation of biting into a fuzzy peach while you’re emersed in warm and potentially humid summer air.   Unfortunately, thinking about it might be the best many in America can do this year.   Georgia is known for its peaches, but this state lost virtually all of its crop this year.   Why?  Water.   More specifically, frozen water.   After a particularly warm winter, blossoms emerged early and then temperatures plummeted, causing frost to devastate 90 percent of the potential fruit.

While those poor farmers deal with the challenges of the worst year since 1955, we might all be dealing with effects of another water-related story.   I first heard about this one from Atlas’ President Emeritus, J R Capps, as he mentioned the measurable shift in our earth’s axis due to the depletion of ground water.  Surely, I thought, this was a snippet from a fringe social media account?  Well, a simple online investigation uncovered numerous articles (here, here, and here are just a few).  Apparently, humans have taken out so much ground water from the earth that scientist now detect a change in the angle of our axis.   This small shift could have profound consequences both today and in the future, many of which are still to be determined.

Wow, that got serious kind of quickly.   Let’s slow it down and circle back to peaches.   Peaches are not as important a crop to Georgia as one might think for a state which hosts a college football bowl game named after the fruit.   Instead, California is the number one producer of peaches, according to this article found at Economist.com.  At least water isn’t an issue in that part of the nation, right?