Kendrick Wilson Columnist

The rain that soaked the UA area last week provided a nice reprieve from this fall's dry conditions. But climatologists say it wasn't enough to pull us out of a drought that has plagued the entire Southwest region for the past several years.

Gregg Garfin of the UA's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth was quoted in Thursday's Arizona Daily Star as saying that some areas have built up a 20-inch rainfall deficit during the drought. Given that the Tucson area averages only 11 inches of rain per year, we would need nearly two years worth of rainfall to make up the deficit.

Additionally, hotter temperatures are melting the snow packs that usually fill Arizona's rivers and reservoirs. Kathy Jacobs, a UA faculty member and former director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources' Tucson office, told the Star that even if precipitation returns to normal, higher temperatures could increase the evaporation rate and reduce the impact of increased rain.

It has become politically incorrect in recent years to assert that humans could be to blame for these types of conditions. Despite resounding evidence that overproduction of greenhouse gases as a result of human activities are causing higher temperatures globally, many refuse to accept it and point to past ice ages as evidence that humans could not be responsible for what is happening now. Just as those who insisted the world was flat were eventually silenced, so will those who believe we are not at all responsible for global warming ÷ hopefully before disaster strikes.

The controversy surrounding global warming aside, there is incontrovertible evidence that humans are worsening the already negative drought conditions for Southwestern ecosystems. Water tables that have been overdrafted for agriculture, mining and municipal water sources have removed the water sources of many native plants. Overcrowded forests exposed to nearly a century of fire suppression are experiencing crowning forest fires and, once they have burned, forest soil is subject to erosion when rains do come.

While giant dams and canals have prevented most Arizonans living in cities from even noticing the drought, that could soon change as melted snowcaps can no longer serve major rivers and rainfall is unable to make up the deficit. Arizona could soon be headed for mandatory water rationing. This means the UA might even start limiting how much water students may use in their dorms.

One problem is that rains like we saw last week convince many casual observers that the drought has ended.

"Once it rains, people lose enthusiasm for drought planning," Jacobs told the Star.

Unfortunately, the drought is far from over, and a few sporadic rains will not end the problem. In the meantime, Arizona continues to allow farms, mines and golf courses to use precious groundwater, a resource that may soon run out. Enormous growth rates in both Tucson and Phoenix have put increased demands on municipal water sources, yet neither city has found a water source that can accommodate such enormous rates of growth much longer.

Only when aloe and jojoba replace cotton and citrus, when mines use only reclaimed water from municipal sewers and when cities' growth rates are capped to levels that current water sources can sustain will the Southwest truly prove itself a practitioner of water conservation.

Marc Reisner, author of "Cadillac Desert," once noted, "In the East, to Îwaste' water is to consume it needlessly or excessively. In the West, to waste water is not to consume it."

The time has come for us to wake up to the fact that the drought conditions we are experiencing are not merely the result of animal spirits. Substantial scientific evidence has shown that human activities are increasing global temperatures, which leads to droughts, and there can be no denying that water management ÷ or lack thereof ÷ has worsened the effects of droughts in the Southwest.

It is true that humans have not yet changed the environment more than any other species. Indeed, blue-green algae caused more change in the atmosphere than humans could ever hope to. However, humans are plagued with the ability to understand the effects of their actions and to find ways to correct them when the results threaten their environment.

The drought that currently affects the entire Southwest should serve as a warning of many potential disasters, most of which can be mitigated if humans take seriously the effects of their actions and move forward with measures to limit them.

Kendrick Wilson is a political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.