Al Gore, with DiCaprio, has made environmental concerns a hot, even sexy issue. Clooney does his part by driving an electric vehicle. DiCaprio has made a movie and Al Gore has taken it global and reinvented his career. Yet, just as in the case where dolphins and pandas capture the public's heart and then their dollars as opposed to the less sexy and just as endangered white rhino, environmental concerns follow the trend and are easiest to join if it involves something and someone far away.

Care about the pandas in China, the whales in the ocean, and the penguins Antarctica, but not the endangered California clapper rail. We need to be concerned about what we can do, now, in Los Angeles, in California or in the US, as we enter a drought and continue to live in a drought. The solution isn't as simple as carpooling or bringing your own shopping bags.

For Americans to rise to action, we have to be willing to recognize the problem, even if it isn't sexy, even if it isn't as easy to understand and resolve as some celebrity driving drunk or driving without a driver's license. This is year eight. Are we going to wait to be prepared in year 10 or when we only have three hours of water each day? What will it take for Californians, and indeed, all Americans to understand we can't waste water and how wasting water is leading us toward disasters? Ignorance isn't bliss. In California, ignorance can be a firestorm that lasts for weeks or months.

The Clooney movie was based on Sebastian Junger's 1997 book by the same name of a true 1991 incident resulting in deaths of the crew of the Andrea Gail. The 1991 perfect storm wasn't predictable; it wasn't something that could be seen coming. A perfect drought is something that has been predicted, but so many people seem unprepared, and I don't see our government working toward any plan.

Does the "perfect drought" need a novel about the fire-related deaths we've already had and then a movie with a sexy star to get attention?