Posted by Carl Gerhardt on Feb 20, 2018
On 2/20/2018, James Ridgeway, the Public Awareness Coordinator for the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, spoke to the Magnolia Rotary Club about the importance of water conservation. Pictured above is James Ridgeway.
 
James Ridgeway told the group that it is sometimes difficult to get people excited about water and water conversation. One of his main jobs is to do just that. Make people more aware of the need to conserve water.
 
Mr. Ridgeway provided a slide show that started with NASA and the Journey to Mars. Although this seemed like a strange subject to discuss water conservation, the point was that NASA has already put together a plan to not only travel to Mars but to build a permanent colony there. Since the astronauts going to Mars require water to drink and there is no way to provide a new source of water for them, the plan includes technology designed to allow for the re-use of water supplies. Mr. Ridgeway believes that like other space missions, new technologies (including water technologies) will come out of this massive undertaking of mankind. In fact, the water technologies that are yet to be discovered may one day solve future water problems here on earth.
 
To illustrate how technology tend to improve with human needs, he showed the original lunar landing computers and compared them with the raw power now available in today's cell phones. Today's cell phones are already thousands of time faster and more capable that the original lunar lander computer. The same technology creep will most likely follow the mission to mars.
 
Mr. Ridgeway then showed everyone several water conservation projects that kids as young as 4 years old are doing in schools today. This next generation will most likely be the future space explorers  that solve our water technology problems.
 
For more information about the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, go to: www.lonestargcd.org.
 
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