The aquifers that allowed the development of the Prairies and the American West are essentially gone. We drained millions of years of accumulation in one human lifetime. Sorry, six thousand years of fossilized water from the Great Flood according to the mouth-breathing Know Nothings.
Every once in a while some wishful thinking moron, almost without exception a large "C" Christian and political Conservative, says that there's just got to be infinite water down there somewhere just waiting to be found and save us all from our short-sightedness.
It's exactly the same story as deforestation, global warming, toxic chemicals in the food chain and every other disaster that snuck up on us. First there's derision for any lunatic who could imagine that things would ever change. Then there are the hired guns for the rich vested interests. Then the scientists are Communists and traitors. Then the data are true, but it's not our fault. Then there are more rounds of paid lies, trashing the good name of the people with the data, looting of the government coffers by the same people who caused the problem, and finally the whining that there's nothing we can do about it, so there.
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