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Colonizing the Desert
Jun. 27th, 2011 09:38 amThe first permanent building in Las Vegas, Nevada was built in 1905. In 1930, the 5,100 people there made it the very definition of a "jerkwater" town - a place the locomotives stopped to refill on water. In 1960, well into the casino era, the population was 64,000. As of the 2010 census, Clark County (Las Vegas and suburbs) has a population of 2.1 million. Phoenix, Arizona, was historically a bit bigger, having a population in 1950 of 106,000. Today, the population of the metro area is 4.2 million.
The source of this information, the blogger at Gin and Tacos, uses this data to make a political point. These population figures are possible because of water, cheap electricity and air conditioning. Two of those three things (water and power) came about because the Federal government built dams and irrigation projects, such as Arizona's Salt River Project and the Hoover Dam, with taxpayer dollars. Without this Big Government intervention, 9 our of 10 Arizona and Nevada Tea Partiers wouldn't be there. This is because 9 out of 10 people wouldn't be there.
I'd like to use the same data to make a point about space colonization. Man can no more live in these areas (at least in anywhere near these numbers) then Man can live on Mars. Yeah, dying of lack of air is quicker than dying of thirst and heatstroke, but no less certain. If we are going to colonize Mars, we'll need the same level of effort, and the same level of dependence on technology to survive.
I'd also like to make a point about sustainability. There is and has been for a while a fear that not only can the region not support additional growth, but that it can't support its current population - that the water allocation was based on a wetter-than-average historical period. Space colonies will face the same problem, and in both cases, the solution will be the same. Either resource prices (be it the air tax or the water bill) will go up, forcing some people to move, or there will be a catastrophic failure causing a mass exodus.
If the former event occurs (and that's where I'm putting my money) not only will population and usage levels go down, but the higher price will attract new resource providers. For Arizona, I have a vision of solar desalinization plants sucking water from the Gulf of California and piping it up to Phoenix. For a Martian colony, well, I'm sure they'll think of something. But at a certain size of problem, the only solution is government.
The source of this information, the blogger at Gin and Tacos, uses this data to make a political point. These population figures are possible because of water, cheap electricity and air conditioning. Two of those three things (water and power) came about because the Federal government built dams and irrigation projects, such as Arizona's Salt River Project and the Hoover Dam, with taxpayer dollars. Without this Big Government intervention, 9 our of 10 Arizona and Nevada Tea Partiers wouldn't be there. This is because 9 out of 10 people wouldn't be there.
I'd like to use the same data to make a point about space colonization. Man can no more live in these areas (at least in anywhere near these numbers) then Man can live on Mars. Yeah, dying of lack of air is quicker than dying of thirst and heatstroke, but no less certain. If we are going to colonize Mars, we'll need the same level of effort, and the same level of dependence on technology to survive.
I'd also like to make a point about sustainability. There is and has been for a while a fear that not only can the region not support additional growth, but that it can't support its current population - that the water allocation was based on a wetter-than-average historical period. Space colonies will face the same problem, and in both cases, the solution will be the same. Either resource prices (be it the air tax or the water bill) will go up, forcing some people to move, or there will be a catastrophic failure causing a mass exodus.
If the former event occurs (and that's where I'm putting my money) not only will population and usage levels go down, but the higher price will attract new resource providers. For Arizona, I have a vision of solar desalinization plants sucking water from the Gulf of California and piping it up to Phoenix. For a Martian colony, well, I'm sure they'll think of something. But at a certain size of problem, the only solution is government.
