The Weekly Report Cornerstone

   WEEK 23 May 26th June 1st 2003

   THE WORLD'S DESERT

   - escalating water scarcity

   The United States' South West has been a desert for a long time. A dry arid land even before the pink Europeans arrived on the scene some hundred years ago. But when the invaders came, there were no dams, no irrigation system, nothing keeping the raging rivers from raging. The Colorado river, for instance carried rich soil all the way to the ocean as late as the nineteen twenties. The shores of the river were at least occasionally a green and pleasant land. This is one example of many of how bad things have turned lately.
   The Lake Mead outside Las Vegas is half its average level this spring. With the desertification of the land comes scarcity also when it comes to drinking water. There are already places in the world today where water is more expensive than petrol. Like in Las Vegas, the pressure on urban development in all major cities is increasing geometrically. Humans need more and more water when it is less and less left for us to use. Add that to the increase in temperature and rising sea level, and its easily recognizable that something as common as water, as the perception is in industrialized countries isn't common at all.
   Yet another of many areas where human civilization has grown far beyond the planet's ability to sustain it.

  

  

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Entered 2003-05-26