The Colorado River is shrinking
sciencemag.org
The Colorado River is shrinking
1–10 of 258 posts
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#2Maybe we need to look at cloud-seeding or other rainmaking solutions like the UAE is doing
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#3We're not going to make any of these hard choices. We're going to keep assuming some nameless person in the future will come up with a way to solve these problems without any sacrifice from us because we're under the collective delusion that the future is always better than the past. Instead, the future is going to be grim because we're refusing to do anything active here in the present to make the future better.
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#4Maybe we need to look at cloud-seeding or other rainmaking solutions like the UAE is doing
It works, but it requires tons of precious metals to get to work and we could never recover the amount of water or even the metals themselves to make it efficient. Do-able, just going to cost money like no tomorrow. Literally the definition of throwing money at the problem. When you have a uber rich oil state with plenty of cash to burn, it'll work until they run out of cash or desire.
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#5Maybe we need to look at cloud-seeding or other rainmaking solutions like the UAE is doing
Sure, let's ignore the simple solution - stop consuming so much water - and jump to a high-tech, unknown impact, expensive, complex, expensive solution. What could go wrong?
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#6I know this may be silly but one reason why I stay in the "Great lakes states" and own property here is because of global warming and my lack of hope that tech/governments/capitalism will solve it before we reach a point of no return during which we will experience massive property and life loss in the US. Only then significant change will occur IMO.
There are places in the south now that need water to be delivered by trucks due to shortages. At some point it is going to be pointless to live there and housing market in those areas will collapse.
Coastal areas will be flooded due to increasing sea levels.
Places with little to no rain will experience more extreme fires(happening now).
I'm sure Midwest will also experience more severe weather but you can make it work, living under water or without water is impossible.
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#7Maybe we need to look at cloud-seeding or other rainmaking solutions like the UAE is doing
If the goal is just for human use, then that might make sense. This article also includes the ecosystem. Increasing the rainfall in the region could alter the other aspects of the ecosystem. The real issue is on the demand side with ever increasing populations.
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#8Maybe we need to look at cloud-seeding or other rainmaking solutions like the UAE is doing
Sure, let's ignore the simple solution - stop consuming so much water - and jump to a high-tech, unknown impact, expensive, complex, expensive solution. What could go wrong?
"Sure, let's ignore the simple solution - stop consuming so much water"
I agree that it's a demand-side issue, but the solutions are not "simple".
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#9I know this may be silly but one reason why I stay in the "Great lakes states" and own property here is because of global warming and my lack of hope that tech/governments/capitalism will solve it before we reach a point of no return during which we will experience massive property and life loss in the US. Only then significant change will occur IMO. There are places in the south now that need water to be delivered b…
> There are places in the south now that need water to be delivered due to shortages.
An argument for moving to Florida or Louisiana, where the water will be delivered to your home for free in short order.
Dark humor, but sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
Re: The Colorado River is shrinking
#10Approximately 27% of the water used in Utah comes from the Colorado River and 60% of Utahans benefit from the river. 82% of Utah water goes to farmers. Significant amounts of that water usage is to grow Cotton and Alfalfa. Two water intensive crops that are largely exported out of the country.
In my opinion we have absolutely no business growing these crops in a desert, especially just to ship them out of the country. Unfortunately the Governor of Utah makes his money (you guessed it) growing Alfalfa in a desert, and he recently gave an impassioned speech about how those of us asking for certain types of agriculture to stop in our desert don't understand how important farming is.