Visions and Nightmares
Water has always been the ultimate limiting factor on human society in the Sonoran Desert. Until the late nineteenth century, people largely relied upon surface flow, adapting to rivers rather than making the rivers adapt to them. This century, however, dams have domesticated all major rivers in the region while pumps have mined groundwater aquifers far beyond recharge. |
Areas like metropolitan Phoenix will spread unchecked as long as they can wrest more water away from farmers and Indian nations. For much of its history as part of the United States, Arizona has suffered from a bad case of "California Envy," battling its more powerful western neighbor for Colorado River water, yet emulating its explosive growth. Unless it consciously decides to restrict growth, however, Arizona will become the southern California of the twenty-first century. |
