Dear NCPIRG member,
If you’ve been living in North Carolina over the past year, then most of your daily small talk has surrounded the drought. “How much water does your town have left?” “What happens if we run out of water?” “Where are you going when it does run out?”
One aspect of the drought that hasn’t come up as often is the issue of growth, and, more specifically, how we manage our natural resources with so many new faces coming to North Carolina.
We’re expected to add 3 million people to the state over the next 20 years. To accommodate these new North Carolinians, we’ve got to look at the way that we conserve our resources. That means asking tough questions about how we can sustain our quality of life in the face of rapid growth.
I think the answer lies in implementing forward-looking policy solutions. With water, we need to enact economy-wide efficiency measures. With energy, we need to find ways to meet growing demand through efficiency and renewable sources. With transportation, we need to look at solutions like public transit that will get cars off our roads.
So while we struggle to work through the challenges of the drought, let’s keep in mind the opportunity it’s creating: a wake-up call to address the challenges that lay ahead. As always, thank you for your support.
