People better wake up "Western drought worst in 500 years "

[donsu]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/18/recorddrought.ap/index.html

The drought gripping the West could be the biggest in 500 years, with effects in the Colorado River basin considerably worse than during the Dust Bowl years, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday.

-snip-

Environmental groups said the report reinforces the need to figure out a better way to manage the Colorado River before reservoirs run dry.

"The water managers, they just continue to pray for rain," said Owen Lammers, director of Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper. "They just say, well, we hope that things change and we see rain."

-snip-

"The big lesson is communities cannot afford to put all their eggs in the proverbial basket. You need ... a diverse portfolio of resources," Ortega said.
-snip-
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if there is only one source of water how can you have a "diverse portfolio"?

[IrateCitizen]

1. The problem isn't resource diversity, it's wastefulness

You can't expect to build up golf courses in the middle of freaking deserts and not significantly draw down water supples! If green grass were meant to grow in the desert, it would have already. Maybe everything was brown in the desert for a REASON?

Furthermore, with more and more people flocking to the American Southwest, more and more strain is placed on the already fragile water supply. I'm convinced that within 20-25 years, there will be virtually NO water left in AZ, and people will be scratching their heads asking, "What the hell happened?" as they realize they can no longer water their lawns every other day of the week.

Engineers can only manage what resources are available. The problem lies in not examining realities of limited amounts of those resources to begin with, and planning accordingly. But, I guess that such foresight just isn't "profitable" enough, is it?

[indepat]

7. Flying into Phoenix for the first time ever one year ago, I counted twelve

swimming pools in one block of fourteen houses and wondered how in the world their water supply could support such folly.

[Eloriel]

12. Wastefulness isn't quite the right word

for what you describe, IMO. Insanity comes a little closer in my mind, tho I certainly agree with all you've said otherwise.

Mostly it's a callous and extremely arrogant disregard for the Earth itself, an unwillingness to fit into Nature's reality but instead force our will upon Nature to dominate, and "control" Nature.

I was reading an interesting book recently from someone who works closely with Nature, and the author was saying that while the environmental degradation is horrific, Nature always wins. That can be with or without humans, and it's humanity's choice.

[benburch]

2. To answer your question...

You build pipelines to other places where there IS water.

It is VERY expensive.

And perhaps the only place you can find water is the sea.

So you desalinate.

Even MORE expensive.

I expect most communities in the West to be ghost towns in 30 years.

Especially Las Vegas.

[madrchsod]

3. you mean a pipeline

to the great lakes? maybe a pipeline to Milwaukee so they pipe their shit somewhere else? it`s a good thing the governors and Canada have been able to protect the lakes from the water merchants but the war is far from over.

[Dardi]

5. You expect Vegas to be a ghost town in thirty years?

Seriously? Because of lack of water? Have you given this much thought?

[benburch]

6. A lot of thought.

Vegas could not exist without water.

[Dardi]

10. Neither could Seattle, or any other place

That still doesn't tell me why the a city with one of the highest growth rates in the nation would suddenly experience such massive negative growth as to become a ghost town in thirty years. For many, many reasons, it's a physical impossibility (short of a nuclear strike or similar massive, sudden one-time catastrophe). Las Vegas will continue to have sufficient water. Perhaps at great expense and perhaps at the expense of surrounding communities (as has already happened), but as long as thousands of people travel thousands of miles every day to leave many millions of dollars in those casinos, Vegas isn't going anywhere.

[benburch]

11. Because there is NOPLACE for them to get water...

Other than Lake Mead. And if that dries up, and it will if the Colorado Watershed dries up, Las Vegas is doomed.

Wells? The water table those wells draw from is nearly dry, and the water in the table is getting brackish.

So, does it make economic sense to put a pipeline to the ocean and build a huge desalination plant, and pay the energy cost to run it? I don't think it does.

The other alternative, extreme water conservation measures just won't work for LV. Just look at it. Green everywhere, Fountains, Pools, Waterfalls. LV would not be an attractive place to visit without most of that. And you can Gamble anywhere these days. There is a Casino in my home town of Elgin, IL!

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Not sure this would help much

considering the lack of rainfall out that way, but..

Cisterns are a good idea for anyone who lives in an area with a decent amount of rainfall.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/index.php?page=rec&rid=diy&id=2050

[northzax]

8. It's not a drought.

it's normal. The 20th century was, by all records, absurdly wet in the West. if it's dry for 900 years, and wet for 75, then it's not the dryness that's abnormal but the wetness.

the Southwest is in serious, serious trouble. and I concur with the decline in population, smaller communities won't make it, farmers will go away, as will ranchers and the like. you think the Vegas pools are accepatble in no rainfall areas? vegas is a net water user. it will die.

[GreenArrow]

9. Dust Storm Disaster

On the fourteenth day of April of nineteen thirty five,
There struck the worst of duststorms that ever filled the sky:
You could see that dust storm coming the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.

From Oklahoma city to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom.

The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.

From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but didn't know how long.

Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was crying as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, they thought it was their doom.

This storm took place at sundown and lasted through the night,
When we looked out this morning we saw a terrible sight:
We saw outside our windows where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.

It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and windy storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down the highway to never come back again.

--Woody Guthrie