PHOTO: John Wesley Powell, in a thoughtful mood.
Despite this being a wet year, Colorado is still in the midst of the worst historical drought that we’ve seen in 1,200 years… If we do nothing, our $47 billion agriculture industry, $19 billion outdoor recreation industry and the hundreds of thousands of hardworking Coloradans who are employed in both of those industries will all be put in jeopardy…
— from a press release from Conservation Colorado, December 7, 2023.
The folks at Conservation Colorado have their hearts in the right place, but maybe they’re trying a bit too hard? And in the wrong direction?
Yes, we get it: the population of the American Southwest — the population that depends on the Colorado River and its tributaries for water — has tripled over the past 75 years. And our water supply has not kept up.
That’s not the water supply’s fault. Our water supply depends on weather, and the weather depends on air currents and temperatures out in the Pacific Ocean.
Did the Pacific Ocean even know we were going to grow our population this fast? I sincerely doubt it. So I am not blaming the Pacific Ocean.
Before I start blaming the people who need to be blamed, I will to be perfectly clear that my ex-wife Darlene and I brought forth two children — which is actually below what they call ‘replacement rate’ of 2.3 children, the rate required to keep the population from declining. (We couldn’t figure out how to have the additional 0.3 children.) In other words, I am not personally responsible, in any way, for a 300% increase in population.
In fact, my oldest child has moved to Michigan, which I encouraged him to do. What with the drought and all.
The population growth in the Southwest has caused everyone to become aware, in 2023, of what John Wesley Powell predicted in 1878, when he published his noted scientific study, Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States — a noted scientific study that was actually never noted. The report concerned the then-sparsely-populated American Southwest.
And it’s right there in the title. “…the Arid Region…”
I’m not claiming to be a scientist, but I believe “the Arid Region” usually means: “doesn’t have enough water.”
In his 1878 report, Powell presented empirical evidence of rain patterns in the American Southwest that contradicted the then-popular theory that ‘rain follows the plow’, a theory widely propagated by politicians, scientists, railroad corporations, and proponents of Manifest Destiny. According to that theory, settlers could flood into the American Southwest, armed with plows, and everything would be hunky-dory. People believed that our destiny was manifest. (Whatever that means?)
Powell pointed out the inadequacies of the Homestead Act of 1860 for settling the “arid lands”. The Act allowed individuals over the age of 21 to stake a claim for parcels of land measuring 160 acres. Powell argued that 160 acres of dry, western land would be too little to support grazing due to sparse vegetation, and also too little for agriculture without irrigation, due to scarce water.
Did anyone listen? I guess not, because look at where we are now: getting lectured by people concerned about the lack of water.
Now, I don’t always mind getting lectured. After all, I was married for 25 years. But let’s at least get the facts straight before we start riling people up.
Despite this being a wet year, Colorado is still in the midst of the worst historical drought that we’ve seen in 1,200 years…
As I said, I’m not a scientist. But I occasionally write humor articles for the Daily Post, and it’s part of my job to use words. Like “arid region”, for example. And “historical” for another.
I’m pretty darn sure that this is not “the worst historical drought we’ve seen in 1,200 years”, because the word “historical” actually has a well-accepted meaning… a meaning that not everyone accepts, unfortunately. In order to have the “worst historical drought in 1,200 years” you actually need to have “1,200 years of history”.
Last I looked, people didn’t start keeping an historical record of the rain in the American Southwest until the 1800s. (Which is how John Wesley Powell knew that we shouldn’t do what we’ve done.)
I’m going to go out on a limb, and ask the man himself for a solution.
Louis Cannon: Mr. Powell, you predicted this was going to happen, and we didn’t listen. What’s the best way out of our predicament?
John Wesley Powell: Simple. Tell everyone to move to where there’s water. Maybe Michigan?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.