The seed of disaster is the arrogance Southern Californians have shown toward the ecological system. We can pretend we are in England with our vast lawns, or in Scotland with our golf courses, but pretending doesn't make it so. We can waste water as if it were an infinite resource, but as we have seen from space even the ocean is finite.

The plants native to California were drought tolerant, but the California lifestyles are not. Some native plants were meant to burn and some require fire to germinate.

Now, as people begin pointing fingers at each other, they resist seeing how it's not just the government to blame for not making it clear how desperate our situation was. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, and even until recently, it was hard to get environmental news published in the general media.

The environment wasn't news because it took too long to develop. It wasn't like an action movie with a sensational photo, celebrities, lots of noise, and a quick and happy resolution. It was a long, depressing dirge in some minds, but really it was like a slowly developed crime novel where the criminals were just your average citizen, living a life of ignorance, paying more attention to celebrity gossip or political scandals than to how we were killing ourselves.

It's not just Californians. It is also a problem in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. In North Carolina, the governor is reluctant to impose water rationing. "Here's what local leaders should do if they haven't already: Ban watering the lawn, power-washing the patio or washing the car unless it can be done with recycled water. Residents should take short showers the navy way — wet down, cut the water off, soap up, rinse off. Elapsed time: a couple minutes, max. Every other day take a sponge bath. Leave the bed sheets on longer. Wear that shirt another time or two before sending it to the wash. Flush the toilet only when necessary. And save water and money by cutting the use of electricity, which requires considerable water to generate."

There are already cities with water rationing such as Chester County, South Carolina. Other cities such as Asheboro, North Carolina have restrictions as well, and yet the Carolinas aren't a semi-arid desert. States such as Nevada and Arizona have limits on watering lawns.

When will California start setting limits?