The Colorado River continues to be in the news, both as the canary in the coal mine for drought-caused water shortages and as an example of humanity’s fatal flaw: self-centeredness.
The river supplies water to more than 40 million people in seven states — California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and Mexico.
In January the federal government announced that because of the megadrought there would be cuts in water supplies to Arizona (21%), Nevada (8%) and Mexico (7%), and said the rest of the recipients should make voluntary cuts.
That should have been a wakeup call for the other states. It was not.
The states missed their deadlines for voluntary water cuts. Instead of sharing the water, what we got was finger pointing.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming pointed to the lower basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada, arguing they were unable to reduce their share of the water because the drought had reduced their in-stream flows of water, which they primarily rely on.
Nevada argued that if it reduces its share of the water much further it would become uninhabitable and therefore the government should primarily look to California and Arizona for cuts.
It’s now certain that the Interior Department, which manages Colorado River allocations, will impose mandatory cuts to all of the states, and Mexico for not “sharing” water from the river.
Putting aside that distributions are governed by legally binding compacts, this situation is the metaphor for how humanity is not dealing with climate change.
Despite the recent drenching we got form atmospheric rivers, California and the West remain in a drought.
The western United States is a semi-arid, drought-prone landscape without climate change. With it, we are facing a climate disaster in part brought about by global warming and in larger part by our unwillingness to see beyond our self interests and share an ever decreasing resource.
California gets more than 15% of its water from the Colorado River.
A large part of the water is used by Imperial Valley farmers to grow alfalfa, lettuce and broccoli. Arizona is using its share of the water to build more subdivisions.
While it’s convenient to frame this debate as one between farming and housing development, that misses the point.
Climate change has presented humans with a stark message from Nature: our reliance on and attachment to fossil fuels is changing our environment to the point that “business as usual” is no longer sustainable.
Yet, we neither — at the personal nor governmental levels — are willing to make the necessary changes.
People who drive electric cars fly in private jets. Trading gas appliances for electric ones, while helpful, is palliative. It will not solve this problem.
And, most certainly fighting over who gets what share of Colorado River water, a patently dwindling critical resource, is beyond ludicrous tending toward the absurd.
Yet, this is where we find ourselves — unable to move outside of our established patterns and comfort zones.
I understand that a changing climate with its severe storms, droughts and wildfires is overwhelming and therefore people continue with their lives as if it was not happening because they really don’t know how to stop it.
However, that’s not true. We do know how to stop it, we just don’t have the political will to do it.
Burning fossil fuels — oil, natural gas and coal — to generate energy is the primary cause of global warming. This is not debatable except in some altered make believe universe.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” set out a greenhouse gas reduction process for the world that could have reduced emissions to 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. This included creating demand for electric vehicles, increasing renewable energy through tax credits, creating new clean technologies, and using low carbon products in constructing buildings and transportation projects.
It was a good beginning that, unfortunately, the world, at the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference, for self interests, declined to follow.
The failure of western states to cooperate and voluntarily reduce their usage of Colorado River water is yet another example of the same self-centeredness that must change.
Climate change is a CHANGE. It requires that we do things differently, beginning with a renewable energy economy.
Clearly, people should reduce their use of greenhouse gas-causing activities, but unless and until we acknowledge at the global level that climate change is an existential threat to life as we have known it, we will continue down the zero-sum path we are on.