Water Crisis

Arid Ambition: Conquering the American Desert 1 Arid Ambition - Part 1: John Wesley Powell and the Folly of Settlement 2 Arid Ambition - Part 2: The Syndicate That Stole a River 3 Arid Ambition - Part 3: The Gods of Concrete and the Pork Barrel 4 Arid Ambition - Part 4: Teton and the Price of Engineering Hubris 5 Arid Ambition - Part 5: The Mirage of Augmentation and the Looming End ← Series Home The quest to conquer the American West transformed the landscape, leaving behind monuments of concrete and a history defined by political manipulation. Massive engineering works, like Hoover Dam, were built with such exquisite care they might outlast skyscrapers and cathedrals. Yet, the ultimate price of this conquest was the illusion of limitless water. The civilization established in the arid West is less a permanent domain and more accurately described as a precarious beachhead. The odds of sustaining this highly engineered civilization remain low. ...

Arid Ambition: Conquering the American Desert 1 Arid Ambition - Part 1: John Wesley Powell and the Folly of Settlement 2 Arid Ambition - Part 2: The Syndicate That Stole a River 3 Arid Ambition - Part 3: The Gods of Concrete and the Pork Barrel 4 Arid Ambition - Part 4: Teton and the Price of Engineering Hubris 5 Arid Ambition - Part 5: The Mirage of Augmentation and the Looming End ← Series Home The American West often appears as a land of limitless possibility. This vision, fueled by relentless optimism, masked an intractable truth: the West is a semidesert with a desert heart. This region cannot be remade into the image of the wet eastern United States. It requires manipulation of water, capturing it behind dams, storing it, and rerouting it over hundreds of miles in concrete channels. Ignoring this environmental reality led directly to disaster, political conflict, and the rise of a pervasive welfare state disguised as rugged individualism. ...

Sweetwater Seas Under Siege: The Great Lakes' Ecological Catastrophe 1 Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 1: The Seaway's Paradox: How a Dream of Commerce Unleashed Ecological Ruin 2 Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 2: The Great Salmon Swindle: How One Biologist Traded Native Fish for a Sport Fishing Fantasy 3 Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 3: Toxic Tide: How Microscopic Mussels and Farm Fertilizer Killed Lake Erie's Recovery 4 Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 4: The Chicago Barrier: Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle Against the Carp at the Continental Divide 5 Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 5: Water Wars and Genetic Fixes: Charting the Destiny of North America's Greatest Freshwater Reserve ← Series Home The Sweetwater Seas Under Siege - Part 1: The Seaway’s Paradox: How a Dream of Commerce Unleashed Ecological Ruin ...