Aquaducts: Government-Assisted Slow-Motion Suicide

The Southwest, to some extent, has mistaken the drought cycle we’re in as being climate change. People have talked about this up and down but the fact remains that the big cities of the Southwest exist only because water could be moved to them. All the mega-cities of the Southwest—Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix—are sitting smack dab in the middle of deserts and only exist because water could be moved to them. That’s how they grew and the only reason they could grow. So, guess what’s going to happen if that water isn’t available? Right. Shake hands with the Anasazi.

The problem is that the Southwest appears to have been unable to read the signs that these regions were susceptible to droughts every few hundred years. Plus, the drought would last up to 30 years. That’s okay if you have populations who can get by on available water. But if aquaducts are paying for the whole shebang, you’re going to be in deep trouble if the Colorado River is not replenishing Lake Mead faster than water being taken out of it. Especially when less water is flowing downriver thanks to drought.

The problem is people got distracted with the climate change theory and concentrated on political action and green energy initiatives when, in the Southwest, we needed to be looking in a different direction. This drought is a normal cycle here. Why? That isn’t important. But we need to start thinking about water. NUMBER ONE: These population centers got as big as they did thanks to government. Government built those aquaducts. If the government hadn’t gotten involved in this, the cities wouldn’t have been able to expand this way. So, when people think government has solutions, they need to keep this firmly in mind. Their solution will probably be to take away someone else’s water to give it to people in those cities. Which is what they’ve done in the past.

 

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1:43 pm on June 7, 2017