The Colorado’s dwindling waters will test our endurance and ethics.


** News of the world environment
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NEWSLETTER | APRIL 14, 2023
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** Stumbling Toward Dead Pool
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This week, the Biden administration signaled it is willing to step into an ongoing water debate for states that rely on the dwindling supply ([link removed]) of the Colorado River. The river, which supplies some 40 million people across the arid Western United States, has always been overallocated. But as climate change continues to stretch droughts into megadroughts ([link removed]) and megadroughts into aridification, more water woes are coming. This will test many things, including our ethics.

There will be no good alternatives. Still, the Biden administration is hoping that the Colorado River states — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, California — along with federal tribes, can negotiate a solution. If not, the question becomes: Who should make the biggest cuts? Nevada, Arizona, and California are in the most trouble, as they rely on water released from Lake Mead, which last summer saw its lowest levels ever and which is inching closer to “dead pool ([link removed]) ” — the level at which the river is too low to exit the dam, too low to run.

If they can’t come up with an agreement themselves, the feds could ask all three states to cut water allotments equally — by up to 25 percent. But because Western water law was first put together by miners, a complex regime of water rights could bind things up in court. California has senior rights ([link removed]) , for example, and its farmers might not take kindly to cuts that benefit Arizona golfers. Navajo Nation, on the other hand, might have something to say about its own rights ([link removed]) versus orange groves.

As is becoming the norm in a world where change is faster than politics, it will come down to individuals to do what we can, or what we must ([link removed]) . What can we do? Xeriscape all yards? Cut 10-minute showers down to seven? Change our concept of what “dirty” laundry is? Each of us is on our own to figure it out, I fear, considering how well covid-masking policies went. I hope one day in the future, our norms will be able to handle our world. Until then, each of us must become expert environmental ethicists ([link removed]) , waiting for better days to come.

Brian Calvert
Associate Editor, Earth Island Journal

PS: On Tuesday, April 18, my colleague Maureen, will be talking about the Journal's reporting on prisons and the environment ([link removed]) at a panel organized by Carnegie Mellon's history department ([link removed] be talking about our reporting on prisons and the environment) . Join in via Zoom.

Photo by David Denicolò ([link removed])
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Neighborhoods that lack sufficient green canopy miss out on the health, economic, and climate benefits trees provide. A new data-based tool can help cities locate these communities and plant trees where they are needed the most.
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** A River and its Dolphin ([link removed])
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Artist and activist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto first spotted an Indus River dolphin, one of the world’s most endangered cetaceans, when he was 15. That brief sighting launched a years-long fascination with the dolphin and the river it calls home.
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** Learning in the Age of Man ([link removed])
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What kind of schooling can prepare students to take on the biggest challenges of their generation, and encourage them to imagine new, holistic ways forward?

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** Room for All ([link removed])
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Only 5 percent of India’s land is protected for wildlife. Yet, alongside 1.4 billion people, it shelters 23 percent of the planet's carnivore species, including at least half the world's tigers, the only surviving population of Asiatic lions, and almost 13,000 leopards. How?

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Photo by Kishore Bhargava ([link removed])

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** Radical Climate Flick ([link removed])
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A new eco-thriller inspired by a non-fiction book that makes the case for violent direct action in response to the climate crisis is creating quite a stir. Rolling Stone ([link removed]) is even calling it the “hottest date movie of the season.” We are curious to hear what you think.

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