Water.

Recently, while looking over a grad school course-book, I was astonished at how many of my fellow colleagues were surprised that I was to be taking an entire class about water. One particular girl stated that she wasn’t even sure there was an entire books worth of material to say about water. Now, while I don’t consider myself astonishingly informed, I do like to think I’m better than most. I asked the rhetorical question of whether she would be surprised if the school offered an entire class on oil. Of course not, no one would give it a second glance. It is my belief that the finite nature of oil is well known and affects us all.

It is my theory that people are astonished at the scarcity of water, on the other hand, because its true cost is just now becoming apparent. For the last century or more, our natural resource policy had been one of exploitation and use with no thought to the consequences. Water had been so plentiful that the overarching obsession was to keep it as cheap as possible. Cheap, plentiful water became the name of the game in the United States, particularly in the west and southwest, where the mighty Colorado river flowed seemingly endlessly.

It was this attitude and that river in particular that has led to the mass development of the western United States and an agriculture plan that can be described as schizophrenic at best and pure insanity at worst. The Homestead Act, in combination with open spaces meant land was dirt cheap, and cooperative weather meant farming was easy. As such, it became acceptable to grow cotton in New Mexico, citrus in Southern Arizona, rice in Southern California and to place massive fish farms in the areas around Flagstaff, Airzona.

It wasn’t just a bizarre agriculture that took place, though. Cities were erected seemingly overnight, with little thought given to sustainability. Los Angles in particular, came to symbolize urban and suburban sprawl, with LA county being larger than Connecticut. Las Vegas, as well, a city in the middle of the desert, became known for its luscious golf courses and massive fountains. Phoenix, previously a minor town along the famous Route 66, has become a megalopolis, but with no natural water supply and no industry to sustain itself.

All of these cities and agricultural systems were built on the premise that the water would last forever. Unfortunately, the house of cards they had built is beginning to collapse. Chronic water shortages plague Los Angeles and Phoenix. Las Vegas has been forced to institute draconian water restrictions on its citizens and even the famous fountains are being turned way down.

It is, perhaps, too early to say what will become of these massive cities in the desert, but unless revolutionary changes are made, they will be unable to continue to exist.

The same cannot be said for the bizarrely out of place agriculture. Already, the USDA has been forced to reevaluate water permits and many of them have begun to fold and move their operations elsewhere.

One thing that can be said with relative certainty, however, is that the era of ignoring nature for the sake of brute technological force is over, never to return.