Year after year, our country is getting dryer. Like a lot of our biggest problems, this change is normally out of sight, out of mind. Then there are times with dramatic events, like the fires raging across California.

Fires.

We saw them in California a few years ago. Then we saw them in Colorado. Now they are back in Calfironia and worse than ever. Two years ago Southern Califnornia was deluged with rainfall, creating the mudslides in Malibu we all watched on TV (mudslides are especially bad in areas where folliage has been burned off by summer fires). Last year it did not rain at all. The lack of rain (stored as foliage water content) and the strong Santa Ana winds are now creating a wild fire of historic proportions.

The entire region is getting dryer and dryer and water is not just a problem in California.

The giant aquifer that sits under many of the Western states has been diminishing each year. We are pumping up more water for agribusiness than nature is putting back in with rain. People have pointed out that raising corn and cattle are making this problem worse but there has been little change. (It's cheaper to ignore the problem.)

Then we have rivers.

Eight years and counting of drought throughout the southwest. Rivers like the Colorado are at their lowest levels in years and reservoirs are straining. States as far away as Georgia have asked for federal help with their water shortage and even Michigan is facing water problems as warmer weather increases evaporation off the Great Lakes. Will the Great Lakes turn into the Aral Sea?

Tens of millions of people as well as agribusiness depend on water from major rivers like the Colorado and the Rio Grande. What we never discuss is that Mexico depends on these rivers too - or at least it did. We have been violating the US-Mexico water treaty for years but using up the water before it reaches the border. (Las Vegas needs more fountains, you know.) And the problem is getting worse.

These are the kind of changes Al Gore has been warning us about. If dreaming that this is just a natural cycle makes you feel better while you water your lawn, fine. The rest of us need to face reality and adapt. The oceans may rise but the amount of fresh water we depend on to keep us alive is shrinking.