In Colorado, it's now legal for residents to catch a raindrop. It sounds like an unremarkable bit of legislation, but it's actually quite profound (and exciting). From The New York Times:Who owns the sky, anyway? In most of the country, that is a question for philosophy class or bad poetry. In the West, lawyers parse it with straight faces and serious intent. The result, especially stark here in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, is a crazy quilt of rules and regulations - and an entire subculture of people like Mr. [Tom] Bartels who have been using the rain nature provided but laws forbade.A legacy of frontier times, many Western states have historically forbid rainwater catchment by claiming ownership of every drop. But, in the face of population increase and ongoing drought, the state realized it was time for an update. Ultimately, what this does is decriminalize something that never should have been a crime in the first place. Hear, hear!Photo (CC) by Flickr user Traveling.Lunas.
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