Why Don't You Go Jump in a...Oh

Fifteen years or so from now?

Just as New Orleans has large engineering projects, so it is with other communities, although for places in the desert southwest, the idea is to retain fresh water, given that, otherwise, it's...a desert:

Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows climate scientists’ moderate forecasts, resulting in a reduction in average river flows.

Demand for Colorado River water already slightly exceeds the average annual supply when high levels of evaporation are taken into account, the researchers, Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce, point out. Despite an abundant snowfall in Colorado this year, scientists project that snowpacks and their runoffs will continue to dwindle. If they do, the system for delivering water across the Southwest would become increasingly unstable.

Now, unlike wingnuttia--and Dennis Hastert, but I repeat myself--I'm not in favor of or suggesting that Phoenix or Las Vegas be abandoned. Just the opposite. Despite never having been to either city...and I don't foresee ever visiting Phoenix...I'm more than willing to see tax dollars invested in maintaining or improving the viability of water delivery to these communities, in part, because it IS a viable investment, and also in part because, yeah, the people of the region are American citizens, just like those of us here in the Gret Stet. And I'd like to think those in the Southwest would think likewise about a investment in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It's a simple concept, really: a national government of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on earth can and should invest in projects that benefit its citizens.

I realize that goes over a lot of wingnuts' heads, but, then again, so do a lot of things, including books without pictures, card tricks, the concept of insurance as a business/financial tool, and pretty much anything demanding more brain power than what can be supplied by the medulla. And while they're entitled to their primitive, um, grasp of reality, there's no reason why we have to go along with it...