Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert, Introduction
Desert, semi desert, call it what you will.
The point is that despite heroic efforts and many billions
of dollars, all we have managed to do in the arid West is turn a Missouri-size
section green–and that conversion has been wrought mainly with
nonrenewable groundwater.Ó
p. 5.
Òquadruple the amount of desert
that has been civilized and farmed, and now the same people say that the future
of a hungry world depends on it, even if it means importing water from as far away
as Alaska.Ó
p. 5.
ÒThe holiness of the blooming desert.Ó
$300.00
/ acre foot of water is the cost to
desalinate
$3.50 / acre foot is what upstream
farmers pay for the water
Salinity
increased due to evaporation exceeding precipitation in a desert
San Joaquin valley Òthe most productive farming region in
the entire world.Ó
Is now threatened by increasing salinity or an alkali condition
of the soil, because evaporation of water exceeds rainfall and leaves
accumulated salts behind in the soil; now unfit for farming.
High plains aquifer problem.
ÒThere, the pumping of groundwater is regulated. But the
states have all decided to regulate their groundwater out of existence.Ó
There may be 50 years of groundwater left in seven states.
p. 10
ÒIn the West, lack of water is the central fact of
existence, and a whole culture and set of values have grown up around it.Ó
p. 12.
ÒIn the west it is said, water flows uphill toward money.Ó
p. 12.
ÒBut when you consider our balance-of-payments deficits, you
have to remember that we send $100 billion out of this country each year just
to pay for imported oil. The main thing we export is food. The Ogallala region
produces a very large share of our agricultural exports.Ó
p. 13
50,000 major dams in the USA.
Òlogic and reason have never
figured prominently in the scheme of things.Ó
p. 14
ÒThe annual precipitation there is seven inches, an amount that
Florida and Louisiana and Virginia have received in a
day (or coastal California this last month[1]).
But even though gambling and prostitution are legal around Reno, water
metering, out of principle, was for a long time against the law.Ó
p. 14.
