Life in the Desert
It’s always interesting to step out of your home environment and into one that is almost totally alien. Detroit, where I currently live, is Eastern Broadleaf Forest, whereas Moab is in the region of Intermountain Semi-Desert and Desert, according to the Forest Service. While I’ve been to the desert twice before, it’s still striking to me. The most noticable difference for me is the utter lack of trees in the desert, as the environment can only support relatively small flora that is extremely resilient to long periods of drought, like juniper. Each plant species found in these areas shows special adaptations to the harsh environment; small leaves to minimize water loss to evaporation, waxy berries serving the same purpose, the ability to self-prune in times of drought, and other adaptations all serve to reduce plants’ water requirements.
Humans have a different adaptation that allows them to live in the desert, intelligence. Humans’ ability to divert water from major rivers for irrigation and other purposes largely removes the limits imposed by the scarcity of water that makes deserts what they are. This means of sustaining settlement in the desert has a history of failure, though, with the most dramatic example being the soil salinization that resulted in the collapse of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. Israel faces similar problems today, despite having pioneered more efficient techniques for irrigation; the water requirements of modern lifestyles place an extra burden on water sources. Similarly, the water demands of modern cities and suburbs trouble the Southwest.Seeing green lawns and large, grassy fields in the middle of the desert is almost shocking– they’re simply not supposed to be there. Yet they are there, and they’re the result of both human ingenuity and foolishness. We’ve been ingenous enough to figure out how to reallocate water resources, but we’ve been quite foolish in our management of this power. This foolishness has no greater manifestation than the subsidies created to encourage growth in the Southwest. There’s no doubt that the region has experienced significant growth over the past few decades. For example, Maricopa County (where Phoenix, AZ is located), experienced an astonishing 45% population increase between 1990-2000. Many of these new residents came from other areas in the United States and brought with them a fondness for lush, grassy lawns and other luxuries of more water-rich areas. It would be easy to blame these people for their failure to adapt to their new environment, for their enormous appetite for water, for the fact that the Colorado River now peters out rather than reaching the Gulf of California. It would also be wrong to do so, as none of the residents of the region really have any reason to adapt– so why expect them to?
Instead, the blame most properly lies with our society’s larger failure to create the proper incentives. By subsidizing water usage in the Southwest, the Federal government has removed the incentives necessary to create an efficient allocation of this scarce resource. Thus, were it not for the political implications, it would be quite easy to solve the problem of water shortages: simply charge the free market value for water. It’s a solution that is economically efficient, good for the environment, and good for liberty. It’s efficient by definition, and good for the environment as the amount of water available to the market can be limited to levels necessary to ensure minimum flows. Further, environmental groups could actually purchase water rights and simply allow the water to flow downstream. With respect to liberty, instead of instituting controls that tell people that they can’t have huge lawns in the desert, such a system would allow them to make their own choice. If they can afford to pay the actual value of the water and choose to do so, it’s their perogative. By and large, though, they would choose to do differently.
This free-market solution is a great reflection of the natural way. Once water costs reflect the harsh limitations of the desert, the people living there will do as everything else out there has done: adapt to the environment in which they live. I can see the bumper stickers now: “Be like the juniper! Support free-market environmentalism!”
Well… maybe not the last part. On another note entirely, I’ve selected a handful of pictures from the trip and they can be viewed here.