NY Times Magazine: “The Future is Drying Up”
The people who move to the West today need to realize they’re moving into a desert, Mulroy said. If they want to live in a desert, they have to adapt to a desert lifestyle. That means a shift from the mindset of the 1930s, when the federal government encouraged people to settle in the West, plant water-intensive crops and make it look like the East Coast. It means landscapes of parched dirt. It means mesquite bushes and palo verde trees for vegetation. It means recycled water. It means gravel lawns. It is the Wests new deal, she seemed to be saying, and I got the feeling that for Mulroy it means that every blade of grass in her state would soon be gone.”
(Via Long Views)
THIS IS GOOD NEWS. I LOVE the desert.
It sort of grows on you. Seems like a barren wasteland
until you are part of it.
i’ve lived in Long Beach, CA for almost 20 years now and there is no doubt that we are becoming desertland. not sure if people around here will ever give up their precious lawns. i do what i can to recycle/reuse.