So I’ve been so busy writing I haven’t gotten a chance to say what we’re actually doing. Currently, I’m near Escalante, Utah starting week two of our field ecology course. I don’t know what exactly we’re doing, research-wise, but here’s a sample sentence from our reading, which we have a test on later in the week: The differentiation of tillering mode, whether extra or intravaginal, may have been in itself a seminal event in the evolution of grasses in response to ungulate interaction.
That’s right, people: we’re learning about grass vaginas. I didn’t even know grass had vaginas. And that’s among the easier-to-understand points in the article, which is eighteen pages. It’s going to be another late (post-10pm) night.
Up until yesterday, we were hanging out in the Eastern Sierras being inspired by mountain epicness. When we weren’t writing, we had meetings with a variety of people about water issues in the Mono Lake and Owens Lake areas. It’s a pretty interesting history, so I’ll summarize it here.
Mono and Owens Lakes are both terminal lakes, as is the Great Salt Lake. They have no streams flowing out of them, which means they’re very salty, alkaline and full of minerals. Because of this, they’re inhospitable to most life, including fish, but very important for a few select species. Mono Lake is home to a species of brine shrimp found nowhere else on earth. Owens Lake has several creatures evolved to tolerate the salt and alkalinity of the lake. But the selling point of the lakes is the important role they play in bird migration. They’re incredibly important stops for birds en route to South America for the winter and back north in the summer. Birds will arrive and double their body weight in a matter of days feasting on shrimp and other creatures in the lakes. Some species of birds stop at one of the lakes, eat, then continue on to Bolivia without stopping.
Meanwhile, several hours away, a large city called Los Angeles was growing. Since LA was built in the middle of a desert, they’ve always had water issues. In 1913, the city completed construction of an aqueduct which took virtually all of the water out of the streams feeding Owens Lake. By 1924, the lake was completely dry and the birds that relied on it were gone. In 1941, the aqueduct was extended to take water out of the streams feeding Mono Lake, and by 1982, the lake had lost 31% of its surface area.
LA’s Department of Water and Power (DWP) was taken to court by a grassroots group called the Mono Lake Committee, and in 1994 a judge ruled they had to allow enough water into the lake to let it rise 20 feet. So far, it has risen nine, and significant bird recovery has already been observed. Owens Lake has also been somewhat recovered after a compromise between DWP and activists. However, it will never again occupy its former area.
LA has been a leading city in conserving water over the years, and they now use scarcely more than they did in the 1970s, in spite of a population growth of about a million people. I’m really grateful that conservation efforts have been undertaken and that DWP was able to compromise with activists. But I worry about how long these cities in the middle of deserts can be sustainable. Invariably, the populations of Phoenix, LA, and Las Vegas will continue to grow. Climate change is causing glaciers to melt and the reservoirs that feed them to evaporate faster. Once all possible water conservation has been implemented, what will these cities do?
Many environmentalists (and other analysts) have predicted future wars will be fought over water, and I suspect they’re very right. I wonder if these cities will hang on stubbornly, propelled by the fact that they’re situated in the richest country on earth. We have the military might necessary to secure water rights wherever we need them if it truly comes to that, though I doubt it will. Maybe desalinization technology will keep advancing until it’s cheap enough to let LA grow forever. I hope we go that route (cheap technology, hopefully not LA growing forever). But I worry. Water is recycled, yes, but it’s a finite resource in some senses. Only a certain amount can be used at a time. Groundwater is rapidly being depleted worldwide and the aquifers we pump from can take thousands of years to recharge, making them a very finite resource. We might solve climate change, and ignoring all the arguments about environmental justice and the right of species to exist (both of which are very important issues), some people somewhere will survive climate change relatively unscathed. But we truly can’t live without water, and in some ways, water shortage worries me more than a hotter planet (though the latter obviously contributes to the former).
I’m looking forward to learning more about water in the West, though. And yes, I know I need to read Cadillac Desert (currently on page 20).
We also went to Manzanar, a former Japanese internment camp, while we were in the Sierras, and I hope to write about that in the next few days.
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