Reisner's Cadillac Desert: The American West And Its Disappearing Water

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

Water Wars In the Sacramento Bee, an excerpt of Mat Weiser’s article “Water Controversies Boil Over” shines some light on one of the biggest environmental issues we struggle with today: water wars. Although the article was published back in April 26, 2009, it still makes excellent points on today’s water debacle. Weiser informs the public of the situation we have put ourselves in, by our poor management we have created an international crisis.

The native americans had many things that helped them survive today,you will learn about the desert regions

The Greys have been creating problems for your government ever since their first downed craft was discovered in the New Mexico desert in 1947. The creatures you found (for that is what you considered them) both horrified and mystified you. The authorities were immediately notified and the few civilians present were ordered to be silent. The Air Force whisked away the remains of the fallen craft and its inhabitants, one of which was still alive. A special task force was organized to examine the findings and give recommendations. The one surviving extraterrestrial was taken to a laboratory and kept under strict supervision day and night, where after some years it succumbed to an unknown illness. This was your first encounter with the Greys.

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

Environmentalism has always been two sided. Nature versus urban. locals versus national. Frequently, large tracts of public and federal land are bought and developed by industry. Pristine wilderness turned to bustling epicenters of human activity, all in the name of progress and economic growth. This tale of preserving natural wilderness is one that begins with John Muir, an advocate against the taming of Yosemite national park and the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir, while the head of the US Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, insisted on the reservoir to supply the city of San Francisco with water. This timeless epic of conservation or preservation brings us to the Jumbo Valley, a vast expanse of uninhabited, pristine wilderness home to diverse

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

Now Arizona is not the typical state that has a lot of precipitation and rain yearly, but it depends off other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers located in other states to for their water supply. After searching and conducting research, it was found that the main impact Arizona is suffering from the drought is decreasing water levels is from Lake Mead (located in Nevada), and the Colorado River, which flows North to South through several U.S. states. Research and data found shows that the Bureau of Reclamation releases water into the Colorado River below Lake Mead to meet water demands of downstream users in Arizona and California, and also to satisfy treaty obligations to the Republic of Mexico. Findings by the Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead water level’s peaked at 1,214.26 in January of 2000. Almost a decade and a half later, recorded in January 2014, the water levels of Lake Mead are now 1,108.75 (Smith, 2014). This findings show that Arizona is continually getting a decline in water from Lake Mead every month that passes, affects thousands of residents living in Arizona, which already lacks water to begin with. If this continues, this can cause many civilians to both stand by and bare the drought as long as they can, or decide to move out of Arizona to states with a better water supply, so they won’t be burdened with the continual burden of having to ration and conserve water. The state has

How people’s views of nature have changed over time in the United States of America and how it has affected us is a great question. Looking back through history makes it simple to answer this question. People have very different opinions on to what their answer would be. Reading Out of the Woods edited by Char Miller and Hal Rothman, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worstter, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon, The Ecological Indian by Shepard Krech III, and Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal by Silas House makes it easy to comprehend and to answer how our views of nature have changed.

When referring to Arizona’s water Kris Mayes, chairwoman of the state’s utility regulatory panel once said, “How do you say just how valuable water is in an arid state like Arizona?” she said. “It’s like the credit-card commercial-it’s priceless” (McKinnon). She was right, because in a dry state like Arizona, water is pretty important. To say water is ‘pretty important’ for the world is an understatement. We use water to function. And when we think of water we think of saving it. Keep the faucets from dripping or turn off the water while brushing your teeth. There are numerous tips for water conservation, but people don’t often think of the damage that is already done. Damages like ‘dead zones’. Dead zones in the ocean have been around for

The term desert is strongly connected to the image of an extremely harsh environment void of any life. The sand dunes at the Gulf of California would fit this description of a desert biome, but for large parts the Sonoran Desert has a stunning array of different organisms.

Water is very important in everyone’s daily lives. They need it to shower, brush their teeth, cook, taking care of the landscapes, and most importantly to live. Water is everywhere but as some people say it will soon become scarce due to the fact people are being very wasteful with it. Water conservation is a big topic in the United States when it comes to California, a state known for their droughts. It seems like every years there is always something on the news headlines talking about a drought in California. Conserving water would obviously become an even bigger deal if we lived in California instead of the Midwest. Obviously the topic of water conservation is still a big topic in the Midwest because as a nation, people are wasteful and taking having water for granted in our everyday lives. Although scientists and astronomers are learning how they can get water from comets and asteroids if planet Earth were to run out of water one day it is still in the experimental phase and is not a for sure thing on Earth. For the time being, instead of wasting the water, in people’s everyday life’s they can help reduce the risk of water going completely extinct by understanding how the water is going to waste, solutions to saving water, and being smart when dealing with landscaping.

Specific purpose statement: To persuade my audience to take action in order to conserve one of the most finite and precious resources we have in the U.S.

One of the major issues confronting western America is that of environmental conservation and protection versus agricultural essentials and needs. This issue includes the environmentalists' fight against herbicides and pesticides, reservoirs for irrigation water, and livestock grazing on public land. The controversy that this essay confronts will be that of the desire to use public land for livestock grazing versus the importance of preserving the rangeland ecosystem. Importance is found on each side of this controversy by various groups of people. What will there be for tomorrow's generation if the ecosystems of public lands are not preserved?