ABSTRACT
Let us begin with a metaphor. There is a ghost that haunts the water policy discourse in the American Southwest. Among the iconic images identifying the American Southwest we see haunting photos of the abandoned pueblo cliff dwellings of the Anasazi (e.g., Figure 5.1, Mesa Verde). They are found above the tributaries of the Colorado and the Rio Grande in northeastern Arizona, northern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and southern Utah (Figure 5.2, map). These prehistoric structures symbolize both the attempt to engineer stability under systemic stress and its failure. Their abandonment is associated with prolonged, severe drought. 1 This is part of the scientific conclusion that was presented to a public who were recently informed that the Southwest has been characterized by periods of prolonged severe drought throughout most of the past 1,200 years (Kunzig 2008). Such droughts are the norm. 2 The early twentieth century was the wettest in the past 500 years, an anomaly. The principal industries, the proliferation of private swimming pools, and oasis image of the Southwest are built on an anomaly. The region’s human population is also one of the fastest-growing in the United States. The longue durée of climate (and its extremes of natural variation) is an unwelcome specter in a region where unprecedented economic growth has become dangerously synonymous with the idea of stability. A crash in water consumption or human population seems inevitable. Mesa Verde: Perhaps best known to the public, this ancient pueblo with its spectacular setting and multistoried houses was abandoned in the late 1200s, after a prolonged period of severe drought (it is located in southwestern Colorado; see map, Figure 5.2. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203403341/c0b43264-4ba1-4ac3-b776-7eeddf22e91c/content/fig5_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Photo source: Wikipedia Creative Commons; photo by Lorax (G. Edward Johnson). Map of the study area with major rivers, dams, cities, and state political boundaries. Mesa Verde is located in southwestern Colorado. The Central Arizona Project transports water from Lake Havasu and the Parker Dam to Phoenix and Tucson. The Colorado River Aqueduct provides water to highly populated counties of the Los Angeles metropolitan area: it ends in reservoirs and local canals just to the east of the metropolis. Cartographic sources: Arizona Department of Water Resources, Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and the World Resources Simulation Center. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203403341/c0b43264-4ba1-4ac3-b776-7eeddf22e91c/content/fig5_2_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
