We're Probably a Self-Limiting Virus

A couple of replies to comments on the last post, seemed easier to go ahead and make a post of it.

A golf course in Seattle has to do with events in the Desert Southwest... how?

Um...that's the Wynn Las Vegas Golf course. Confusing isn't it?

When I lived in Phoenix we had *lots* of golf courses. Without fail, they were all watered with treated sewage ("greywater"), not with potable water. How do you think they keep the grass so green? (heh!).

That's something only recently being considered in Las Vegas. Golf takes in roughly $250 million annually in greens fees here so it's not something that's going to go away any time soon.

Then again, golf courses are far from our only problem:

LAS VEGAS -- Although households collectively consumed the most, the Clark County School District topped a list of the 100 largest water users in the Las Vegas area, followed by a pair of golf course facilities.

Area schools and support offices used 2.75 billion gallons last year, enough to cover more than 8,000 football fields with a foot of water, according to records released by the district and water agencies.

The school district was the valley's biggest single user in 2002, but golf courses and hotels accounted for two-thirds of the top 100 users.

The figures were provided as southern Nevada develops plans to cope with the drought, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Paulson said the district, the fastest growing school system in the nation, serves 277 schools with 1,800 acres of landscaping. Grass grows on about 1,500 acres. About 255,000 students and nearly 29,000 employees use district facilities.

Also, a lot of these developments have housing associations. If you offer to donate 10 trees and plant them, many of them wil;l be grateful for the greenery.

Housing associations are more often than not part of the problem. Even in dry, dusty Las Vegas many require lawns. One was sued recently for not allowing a homeowner to use artificial turf, the association lost the case.

I would suggest moving your ass out of the southwest before it dries up and you all come over here looking for water and shelter from the dust bowl. I personally find it incredibly stupid that people choose to live out in the middle of the desert, especially when getting water to those developments is harmful to the earth.

Sounds simple but as usual it isn't quite that simple. That could work out pretty well for the wealthy but for the majority of people who depend on things like....jobs, it isn't as easy as snapping ones fingers and moving off to some damper climate. The southwest is where the job growth is and has been for quite some time. Even assuming one could forcibly relocate millions of people to "wetter" locations it would simply shift the problems. Where are all those people going to live, work, etc? How long do you think water resources in the new locations would hold up to a massive population influx?

In that event you could just as easily say people are stupid for living in areas prone to tornados or hurricanes....should we relocate everyone living in the midwest and in the southeast? Wisconsin and Minnesota could get extremely crowded.

Getting water to most desert areas is not the issue. We have water, groundwater. The majority of towns here (with the notable exception of Las Vegas) do not import any water at all. The problem is with the ways we use it and the number of people we try to support with it.

From Wikipedia: The theory arose in the late 1860s and 1870s during the westward expansion of white settlement west of the Missouri River and across the 100th meridian west, the traditional boundary line between the humid and semi-arid portions of central North America. At the same time, there was a spread of farming from the area near Adelaide northwards to areas of much lower rainfall. Specifically, In the early part of the decade, white settlement had spread into central and western Nebraska along the Platte River. Emigrants on the Oregon Trail began reporting that the land in western Nebraska, previously known for its yellowed dry vegetation during the summer, had seemingly become green. Out of this evidence, some scientists of the day concluded that change was due to the settlement and the effects of cultivation. One of the most prominent exponents of the theory was Cyrus Thomas, a noted climatologist of his day who made a study of the recent history of Colorado, concluding the increase in moisture was permanent, and that it coincided exactly with the first homesteaders. Other prominent advocates of the theory were Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, the noted geographer who had explored and surveyed parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and Samuel Aughey, a professor at the University of Nebraska.

Thomas and other climatologists offered a variety of explanations for the theory. A common idea was that the plowing of the soil for cultivation exposed the soil's moisture to the sky. In addition, newly planted trees and shrubs increased rainfall as well, as did smoke from trains. Another hypothesis stated that the increased vibrations in the atmosphere due to human activity created additional clouds, from which rain fell, an idea that led to the widespread dynamiting of the air across the Great Plains in the 1870s.

The theory was widely embraced in its day, not only by scientists, but land speculators and emigrants. Some historians have argued that the theory was embraced readily as an outgrowth of Manifest Destiny, the idea that God had ordained the white race of Americans to spread across the North American continent. The theory is regarded as partially responsible for the rapid settlement of the Great Plains in the later 19th century.

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a great book to read if you're interested in water issues in the Great Plains and southwest. Will definitely give you a different perspective on the Army Corps of Engineers among other things.

Agriculture, at least initially, created the push for development in the west. The western population grew up under government sponsored programs that saw it as the bread basket of the nation....here to feed the growing eastern population. Sorry East coasters, no one gets a pass on this one.

The area I live in developed because of farming. Cotton, mint, alfalfa, etc. were all grown here but as the available groundwater for irrigation became depleted the farms were sold off for other types of development. The current number of homes actually uses less water than what the farmers did back in the day. Still too much but there it is....6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

It just boils down to there being too many of us using up far too many resources. The good news is that in spite of our best efforts the planet will chug along just fine, it just might be without us on it.