A couple of blogs recently have brought up the legacy of the Bush Presidency. Reading my National Geographic brought up another aspect of this. It is an article titled “The Drying of the West”. And it lists the numerous indicators that at least the American West is well on the way toward a major drought. The dust bowl of the 30's was a plain old drought. Major droughts in past history of the American West have lasted for centuries. Sorry, Ron, but Arizona is in the middle of a part predicted to get DRY. And it is not the only part of The United States. Remember the water shortages in the Southeast? The photo at the top of this blog is Alabama. National Geographic points out the regular swings in the weather. But also points out that global warming adds a major contribution.

Is this due to Bush's Administration? Not by itself, of course. But suppose Gore had been elected. Would like to think he would have been able to swing policies a little bit toward making global warming less devastating. And would like to think he would have been able to keep the military-industrial complex from raping the environment because of profits. And eight years can be a significant amount of time.

The warming of Earth is definitely not a good thing. But the biggest problem is the changes in the weather. A degree or even a fraction of a degree causes major shifts in the jet stream, in El Nina, in the circulation from the tropics to the temperate zone.

We weathered the dust bowl drought. But it also brought on a major upheaval. Much agony in the United States. But major governments around the world failed. World War. An interesting new book treats the mini ice age of the beginning of the 1800's as a definite cause of the French Revolution. Napoleon devastates Europe. Some governments and civilizations can survive and some can not. But all must pay. And world wars seem to evolve – exponentially.

Natural disasters are also expensive. A major population shift costs. A lot. With a substantial national debt already crippling the finances, it could be something really difficult.

Is it possible that Bush's legacy may not be Iraq and terrorism at all. Will he be the President who let the slide into major environmental and civil failure begin? There is a fascinating series of books titled “If”. They list turning points in the history of our civilization. Could a future chapter be what happened because some judges chose a President?