Go West, Young Man!
And die of thirst. Horace Greely gave (?) his famous advice over 150 years ago. But the west is out of water, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon.
I read a fascinating book a few months ago called Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. (Actually, it's only fascinating if you don't live in LA and don't know anyone who does. In those cases, the proper adjective is "terrifying.") Like the NY Times story, the book describes how the relative wetness of the past two centuries in the west is an historical abberation--extreme drought being the norm to which the west is now returning. Cadillac Desert is another fascinating book about how the west got to be the way it is. Probably the scariest thing is that it seems that not one thing has been done to stop or even slow the absurd growth of western cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix. It seems almost certain that in 50 years, probably much less, Las Vegas will have crapped out and Phoenix will have returned to the ashes--why do people keep moving to these ridiculously unsustainable places?
And die of thirst. Horace Greely gave (?) his famous advice over 150 years ago. But the west is out of water, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon.
I read a fascinating book a few months ago called Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. (Actually, it's only fascinating if you don't live in LA and don't know anyone who does. In those cases, the proper adjective is "terrifying.") Like the NY Times story, the book describes how the relative wetness of the past two centuries in the west is an historical abberation--extreme drought being the norm to which the west is now returning. Cadillac Desert is another fascinating book about how the west got to be the way it is. Probably the scariest thing is that it seems that not one thing has been done to stop or even slow the absurd growth of western cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix. It seems almost certain that in 50 years, probably much less, Las Vegas will have crapped out and Phoenix will have returned to the ashes--why do people keep moving to these ridiculously unsustainable places?
<< Home