As a resident of Colorado, I'm in a few gardening-related local social media groups. It's appalling how many people move here and try to grow things like they could in the midwest or pacific northwest. They pour thousands of gallons into their lawns and non-native gardens and then wonder why their utility bill is so high and why their garden is still dying. You moved to a desert people. You need to learn to live like a Fremen. And don't get me started on the exported cattle feed and terrible water rights management. I have SO many feelings.
What groups are you apart of ? I'm also a beginners Gaia steward trying to live sustainably and ethically in reciprocity with the ecosystem here on Ute, Araahoe, Cheyenne territories of what we call Colorado
💯 for the Fremen reference 😅 I live in Texas and have seen the same. And it's odd to me cause my first thought with any plant is "will it grow well here?". If it doesn't grow well here, doesn't matter how bad I want it, I'm just not gonna grow it.
@@willhunting8733 The whole state is alpine desert, even the Kansas half. Boulder looks green in photos because of irrigation of farmland. That irrigation water comes from quickly depleting ground water aquifers or is pumped across the mountains from the Colorado River. Boulder gets an average of about 20 inches of precipitation per year and the statewide mean is 18 inches. For comparison, Missouri gets about 40 inches of precipitation per year. Colorado has also been going through an extended drought for the last 20+ years, making precipitation more rare and more inconsistent. Boulder looks green because of the very problems described in this video.
Doesn't help that you have people moving into the desert from wetter places and just assuming that "The Government" can magically provide water to transform the desert to look like the Southeast. People move in and want lawns, trees, golf courses, swimming pools, and more. That's before you even get to "minor" details like drinking water, which they also assume "The Government" can magically create.
Most people are stupid, inconsiderate, thoughtless, greedy, and completely unconcerned with the future. This is a universal fact, and will never change.
I trust the Private sector to provide me with all I need. And capitalism, and the free market, and Santa Claus. So sick of ignorant right with fascists destroying the USA.
Imagine if the mississippi, tennessee & ohio rivers dry up too? We'd really be done then. People go into panic mode whenever these rivers have low water levels right now!!
Problem is this would take a massive “infringement” on people’s/landowners’/businesses’ “rights” to make any positive impact, which will be met with a flood of backlash, lobbying, and propaganda. US would have to have a serious environmental steward in the White House who’s willing & able to take the heat that will result from strong arming these states and stakeholders into fixing the problem. (It’s not going to happen until it becomes a massive disaster.)
Cold water? You must know the Colorado downstream from a dam. The reason the water is cold is that it's flowing from deep within the reservoir. It warms up to normal if you go far enough down stream. The river is not magically cold or anything, it's an effect of the temperature down stream from the dam. So yeah, it's really cold when only a few miles down from Glen Canyon, Hoover, Davis or Parker dams... and ironically, just downstream from Hoover are hot springs... Anyway, the cold water is a dam effect.
This country, and more broadly, the planet is f***Ed The coming 4 years will make everything worse and the progress made will be reversed Then again, people are stupid, it's proven over and over again, especially in the US
You think this is bad, wait until you look into the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. A fifth of America's agriculture is reliant on it and it'll be depleted in the next 50 years.
10:30 What's the worst about the Alfalfa and Lettuce production in the Colorado River Basin is that it only contributes to something like 5% of the nation's supply. It's entirely unnecessary. Even if we were to completely get rid of alfalfa and lettuce farms in the Southwest, it would have almost no impact on their availability nationwide, including for cattle. We're sacrificing our most endangered and of our most important rivers for something that isn't even necessary.
The alfalfa is largely shipped over to SA anyways. Their own govt restricted water usage so they came to America where a plot of land gives you all the water you like with zero regulations. Thanks Republicans. Small government is swell.
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Politions screwed the people over money for water.
Not sure we have a good replacement for the veggies during the winter, 90% from the numbers I am seeing, don't know where you came up with that 5%. The alfalfa, cotton, Bermuda grass and Sudan grass are a waste.
Water is available by building an aqueduct from the Arctic Ocean then bring the aqueduct to the Colorado, and 13 places to provide all the water America needs. I’ve done a study there is no mountain range to cross bringing fresh water all the way to points where it’s needed.
The most infuriating thing to me about the dam projects on the river is how much of that energy is spent on the most energy-wasting city in the workd: Las Vegas. The Sphere uses as much power as 23,000 households. The laser on top of the Luxor tower uses as much as 230 households, just beaming power into the sky.
If the strip wasn't profiting over a billion dollars a month from dumb ass tourists gambling away all their money here, they wouldn't have the incentive to keep building up the city of lights. But we are one if not the most water efficient city in the world. Win some you lose some I guess.
They could do it all with solar, it's a damn desert... Yet they refuse to cuz some billionaires don't give a fuuuu about anyone or anything but themselves
Las vegas is actually one of the best water managed city's in USA. They recycle every bit of water they use also they borrow more then they're allowed but it all get put back into the river. I watch a whole documentary about it.
@@christiancruiz9044 It's probably using the freshwater supply just fine, i'm not questioning that. But the video points out how building reservoirs for dams have the effect of increasing evaporation, and Las Vegas is certainly not as efficient with energy supply as it is with water supply, so much of this extra power generation is for nothing but powering giant billboards and laser beams.
@@junglechick13 cotton and alfalfa are way worse, especially when you realize all of those massive fields should be prime habitat because that's where the groundwater is, but yes the golf courses suck too
@@junglechick13 Parks, residential use, golf courses, lawns all make up less than 3% of the water use of the lower Colorado. It's almost entirely farming and industrial use that's causing the problem.
@@The_Savage_Wombat If corporations were producing most of the garbage issues in the world I would not be dumping plastic in rivers just because I am 0.0001% of the issue.
I used to live in New Mexico and I'll be 100% honest saying that the water situation/droughts scared the hell out of me. Everyone I knew did not care and paid it no mind expecting the government to "figure it out", but with larger populations, it only puts more stress on an exhausted water supply. I actually loved living in the desert, and made every effort to conserve and wisely use water, but I was one of the very few. I got out of there. I don't see how this problem becomes a disaster in the future.
Makes sense for red states. I lived in Phoenix, Arizona and nobody cared about how much water they used for their lawns. They didn’t even have watering restrictions back then.
*27 year old, Yuma native here:* Most of the species that used to be found in Our wetlands have long since disappeared due to the destruction of the rivers flow. We were once natural and thriving desert oasis but now we are just a wannabe Phoenix. Every time we’ve accomplished any restoration, it’s given the green light to destroy more rather than continue. It’s very disheartening to see. I’ve watched so much be lost just since my teenage years Edit: just drove past a large section of wilderness that was located beneath the mesa that our hospital sits on and discovered it cleared and under development for construction
Private equity companies with shareholders from everywhere in the world, including countries NOT friendly to democracy, are buying up land, assets and water sources.
I’m often surprised at how ignorant… or is it overwhelmed and trapped? big developers are, what a narrow definition of self interest they have, are they really unable to imagine a better way to do things?. The people at the end who showed their is hope and demonstrated what to do are amazing. And young
Don't forget that corporations own land in arizona where they can pump groundwater unmetered as long as they own that land. The Colorado River is mostly used to resupply these reservoirs. Great video!!
@Wiscotac that's california. It has plenty of it's own water, but mismanagement caused them to take more and more from the river. Go talk to the farmers. It's the government coming in telling them how and what to farm.
Because these "people" are professional or scientific reporter, not just regular vloggers, when their video involves experts or scientific data they always re-confirm before stating self assumptions, and also because data or research always updated, so anything they speak for the video always regards on peers and factual data and not self-observations, despite they sure 99%
Something the video doesn't mention, the 1922 interstate compact set its allocation numbers based on average flow of the previous 10 years. Turns out those 10 years were the wettest 10 years in the West in the entire time we've been measuring it.
@@melikecomedyI’d imagine you can raise cows in a much larger area than you can plant crops. In those areas that don’t typically have crops but have access to plentiful water.
The use it or lose it water rights are a brilliant way of ensuring water is going to be wasted, meaning it ensures water is being used unnecessarily just to keep the right to use it.
Yes, it's insanely stupid. And all that waste forces people without water rights to tap their aquifer, which can be a problem for an entire region. And once you've drained your aquifer, you start getting sink holes. And once you lose your aquifer, it's hard to get it back. Some aquifers take thousands of years to recharge.
The Colorado River is facing a complex crisis due to a combination of factors. It's not so much that one entity "killed" the river, but rather a series of human activities and environmental changes have severely impacted it
This is why I left Arizona. I grew up there. And year after year no politician there had the guts to start addressing the looming water crisis in a meaningful way. In fact they did the opposite. And encouraged the cities to grow and encouraged people to move there. This past year it is coming to a head, the federal government gave an ultimatum to the states utilizing Colorado River water to divi up what was projected to be available to them or the federal government would allocate the water themselves. As the globe warms the drought in the southwest is only going to get worse and the water crisis will continue and worsen. If you are thinking about moving there. Don’t. At some point you will go thirsty.
@@bpsreston1 yours are disingenuous questions designed to put doubt into the actual science/evidence. It is a common tactic used by those who wish to believe that human induced catastrophic global warming isn’t real and want to bring others down with them or wish to profit in the short term off of the backs of our children. If, however, you are seriously wondering about the answers to these questions then I suggest you review the evidence and science discussed in reputable, peer reviewed publications and educate yourself.
@@bpsreston1 Life is adaptable and can thrive under a broad range of climates. In that sense today's temperature is pretty arbitrary. But evolution is pretty slow, so life has trouble adapting to rapid *changes* in climate. In geological history, we see that past episodes of rapid climate change is implicated in global mass extinctions, which illustrates how vulnerable life is to rapid changes. So for the most part, it's not the end temperature that matters, it's how quickly you got there.
A geologist fellow named John Wesley Powell predicted this nearly 2 centuries ago. He was shouted down by land speculators and the Manifest Destiny ideology of the time.
Ah yes, And, *" the Manifest Destiny ideology"* or the real reason Mexico is a lot smaller than previously and the US's policy of making sure that real trickle down economics works to screw Mexico and the Colorado delta out of as much water as possible especially during drought years in the southwest.
Congratulations to all and every one who made this video possible. Thanks, will share the link and comments to people educcated enough to understand the issue.
Imagine knowing all of this and STILL thinking you deserve all the water you want to grow non native crops. Saying people don't care about "working farmers" as you demand the right to destroy your neighbors wells while complaining about government over reach... Nuts.
@@brokenrecord3523 Unfortunately, agriculture and politics can never be separated, because it's so vital to our society. Unless we can come up with a way to produce food that makes economic and environmental sense, nothing will change.
@@slappy8941 Things tend to be better when everything is honest and transparent though. If people had to pay the true costs for food people would make better decisions. For example if a pound of beef takes 4 times as much water as a pound of chicken, and the end consumer actually pays for that water and it was not given to the farmers though some loopholes - people would maybe pick the chicken over beef and everything would be better because of less water used?
You mentioned the beautiful green golf courses we have so many of in Phoenix...they are apparently very important because if you look at the school yards you just see dirt. Why golf courses are a better use of our water than school yards that were once grass, I'm not sure.
Aren't school yards either federal or State owned? And aren't the golf courses privately owned? Looking at both of those ask yourself who is wisely spending money?
The Emerald Mile is a good book about the river, although I suppose it's dated with respect to severe water shortages. As an easterner, I found the three deserts to be rather baren and hostile. Great experience to have, once, rafting 188 miles of the Colorado.
@@samelioto476 well if you were to use crops that actually feed humans and were suitable for the place they are planted you would both have space and water that now is used on cattlefeed to have both nature and more than enough food ...
@@NeilBlanchard The Salton Sea in California is a rich source of lithium, a critical component in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and other devices. The Salton Sea region has some of the world's largest lithium deposits, and a Department of Energy analysis estimates that the region could produce enough lithium for over 375 million electric vehicle batteries
My phone is listening to my conversations. I mentioned to my friend's dad the the Colorado River was dried out at the end and now this video pops up in my feed.
As a grain and cattle farmer in Nebraska it is hard to comprehend how much water is being wasted in the southwest. I’m not suggesting the Midwest agricultural system is more sustainable in the long run, but in the short run, at least we have adequate rainfall. Perhaps we could use a just transition to a post meet agricultural system starting with the ending of meat agriculture in the southwest just as a means to conserve water and to bolster our fruit,nut, and vegetable production
What we need is permaculture. Monoculture requires the overconsumption of water and the destruction of the ecosystem. Argroforestry is how the Native Americans grew crops for centuries before we arrived.
The use it or loose it reminded me of my many years in management. Every year when i submitted my budget i had to battle line items where we didn't fully spend all that was budgeted during previous year. This even included equipment maintenance and replacement. If we had done a good job of maintaining an instrument or machine and extended its estimated useful life they would cut our budget for the ensuing budget.
It starts at the headwaters where Colorado Water Company diverts the snow melt to the farmers in Ft Collins. The Grand Ditch! They also divert the Laramie River through a two mile tunnel
This is so very true, I wish it could be reversed cause the fresh rain and snow melt runoff water is diverted directly in to another aqueduct and sent to the Pacific Ocean
The river wetlands suck away 18% of the rivers water?!?!? The ecosystems OF THE RIVER portrayed as fellow culprits?! Seriously? The US should just accept that large parts of their land are arid or semi-arid. And then adapt strategies for the water scarcity.
Not to mention wetlands are absolutely crucial for carbon sequestration. Most ecosystems, even very productive ecosystems with a lot of plants, don't sequester carbon longterm because most carbon that ends up in the plants will just be eaten by an animal or decomposed by fungi/bacteria and get released back into the atmosphere as co2. Wetlands are one of the ecosystems where carbon that gets taken into plant tissues actually stands a chance at getting buried and mineralized
@@AnonymousFreakYT Not as ridiculous as the fact that politicians at almost every level are actively eager to roll over on the growers behalf. Then again, $5 will buy you a cup of coffee AND a Congresscritter.
Going to guess more people will focus replies on the two spelling errors than the truth of the message. (dessert/desert, crysis/crisis) There should be no golf courses in desert regions. We shouldn't be wasting water on anything unnecessary when it's in such short supply.
I visited the colorado river once when i went to see family in las vegas. It was so shallow i never wouldve guessed it was the colorado. We have rivers in pennsylvania that have so much more water.
The Rio Grande isn't much better. I remember driving onto a huge bridge over… what seemed like nothing. I've seen things we called "creeks" or "streams" bigger than the "Grand River".
People from the east coast don't understand how big a deal water is in the west. In the east there are hundreds of rivers that are bigger than the Colorado River and the climate in the east is just wetter. Average rainfall dwarfs what we get in the west. The majority of the west is a desert and water is much more of a precious commodity than in the East. There are only a handful of small rivers providing water to a vast amount of land. I've noticed that people from the east take water for granted.
@@jasonlongwell9192People in the western states are the ones that take water for granted. It's delusional to build massive cities with huge agricultural operations on the outskirts while being in the middle of a desert. I've been waiting 25 years for you fools to run out of water but everytime it gets close the skies open up and save you guys for a few more years. It's going to be an interesting experience when the water doesn't come back. I live in the mountains of Virginia. I highly doubt we'll be open to sharing the water we have in abundance, with people that care so little about the one thing humans need to survive.
Imagine if the river flowed the other way and Mexico had diverted all the water preventing it from reaching across the border into the US. The US would have considered it an act of war and invaded Mexico.
You don't have to imagine; it is happening exactly like that on the Rio Grande. People just don't realize that there are _two_ major river systems in the desert SW, both equally imperiled.
Yeah... The Rio Grande is starting to dry up, too. The Falcon Dam reservoir is starting to evaporate and reduce in size. One of the last sugarcane refineries in Texas just closed down this year. Those crops shouldn't have even been grown here in the first place, but what do you expect when wealthy outsiders establish these industries without thinking of the long-term consequences? Most of the guys that established farming here didn't even have knowledge of our biological province, and when that info came out, they just continued to put pressure on the environment.
@@justicia_azul So, too is Elephant Butte Reservoir, the "Lake Mead of the Rio Grande"; it is at 17%! The water there is not only used for deliveries to Texas and Mexico, but also to grow the famous Hatch green chiles in New Mexico that the nation is starting to get so fond of (as well as Europe and Japan). These chiles lose their flavor if you grow them in the wrong dirt or temperature or humidity or altitude and have been grown in the region since before Columbian times. The reservoir also provides power to the Hatch region.
Imagine if the State of Colorado put dams on all its borders. The South Platte, The North Platte, The Arkansas, the Colorado, the Rio Grande, all ours! I agree with your point about U.S. imperialism vis-a-vis Mexico.
Sounds like a very similar to Australia's Murray River. It has a history of not making it to the ocean. Not sure if we have alfalfa growing there but there is enormous amounts of water going into rice crops and almond crops. A lot of both of these are for export and about 1000km downstream of where the rice and almonds are grown the river delta is dry and salty.
The Murray actually doesnt have a “not reaching the sea” problem at all. The Murray flows directly into a lake and that hasnt had an issue since 1981 where it got blocked. It does have a flow rate issue. There isnt enough water flowing into the lake that enough water flows out to the sea to stop sea water from flowing into the lake. Now for water usage, rice and cotton are huge users of water but are variable to rainfall, low rainfall and production goes down by 90%. The biggest consistent users of water are pastures and cerals like lucerne, fruit and nut production and wine production(grapevine). As well as cotton but water usage can fluctuate 80% down or 400% up based on the rainfall.
I am all too familiar with this river. I used to work at the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the bureaucracy behind this waterway is legendary!!!
@@wastedShaman This river was one of the first ever to get multiple states and entities together to write a contract for the use of the future water... with no real history or data to predict what kind of water will be coming down that river. There has been battles ever since deciding how the lack of flow will accommodate so many people that now rely upon it. For me the most insane reality is that because of this lack of foresight, these old agreements give California more rights over any water that originates in that river basin than Colorado does. =( There are montly meetings between several states and Mexico about how to survive going forward. It was one of the motivating factors that lead to The Colorado Water Plan , first of it´s kind 💕, which I was lucky enough to work on. I an free to chat more if ya wish... can DM from most socials if you don´t wanna continue here.
Central California also suffers from the same issues. The problem is the water is over 'contracted'. In my opinion, these contracts need to be reassessed. At the base an allotment needs to be assigned to a 'healthy' river flow. From there contracts should be assigned on a percentage bases. This impact ag and urban use in a big way, but storage and alternate water sources need to be exploited. The use of solar energy to desalinate ocean water is one possibility. We cannot keep going on just to go on. New solutions and infrastructure needs to be developed.
Wait till farmers have to pay the real cost of desalinated water and watch alfalfa crop production get lost in an instant. Then remember many CA valley farms are also robbing from the water table with wells to offset some of the water lost. The good news is that the downriver court battles are going to land and farmers downriver have no other choice but to sue for a better managed deal. Ironically the CA valleys crops outside alfalfah if not grown will cost upstate consumers in food bills. The use it or lose it rule in literally insane. The hoover dam may be the last one to disappear but dam removal is coming and reliance on the dams locally is a sure one way bet (not the good type). It won't matter if there is more rainfall in the winter if there is no water in the summer.
They pump water uphill to the golf courses in Tucson. What a waste. They use the Colorado for ponds and water features in upscale housing in Nevada. I know, lets go to Mars.
As stupid and wasteful as they are, you could remove every golf course and water feature in the southwest and not even notice the difference. It's just a distraction to focus on that instead of what's really using the water.
A big part of rivers is they reduce evaporation by facilitating habitats like forests that provide the river with tree cover that reduces evaporation. And as the river is established beavers build small damns that help the ecosystem grow and also help water seep deep into the earth refilling the water table.
Sea level rise will make it all OBE. Much of the area shown in the video is but a few meters above current sea level, and the rest is already below sea level. A couple of meters of sea level rise, a high probability by the year 2200, and the current delta will be underwater, as will large areas of Imperial County.
Thank you for an honest video. The salinity altered in the Golfo de Cortés (what USAers call Golf of California) in such a way that it damaged the whole ecosystem. The selfishness of your style of agriculture and cities like Phoenix that should not exist killing whole ecosystems. Water for beef and golf courses. Ridiculous.
@@JimmyMon666 "Swamp cooler" is just another term for evaporative air conditioner. You are probably thinking of refrigerated air/heat pumps, which do not use water, but use way more power. Those are not very common here.
If the world would consume less meat, we would not need that much plants in the first place, because feedkng an animal to than eat it is extreamly inefficient. Sadly, the world is going the oposite direction, because more and more people around the world get access to the money needet for meat. Not that better living conditions in third world countrys are a bad thing, but more meat consumption is.
The compact makes me so angry. It’s such a blatant and shameless grab for power over the environment that we all rely on, human and otherwise, and as expected they took all its resources and now it’s ruined. We talk about the tragedy of the commons, but this is the seizure and depletion of the commons. And they felt entitled because they had the economic, political, and military power to push the consequences and incredible costs onto a future generation. It was so short-sighted, selfish, and arrogant that it makes me sick.
Like why would you not invite the people who lived with that river for centuries?? If there was any amount of good faith in terms of trying to use the river in a sustainable and responsible way, surely their knowledge would be invaluable. But there was no such intention; they knew the native voices would want to keep the river as it was, and they had so little respect for that position and the knowledge the native people had that they excluded them entirely.
There is, and was, no 'tragedy of the commons'. It was ALWAYS the wealthy and the powerful who fenced in what was the common land and declared they owned it now. The entire concept of the 'tragedy' was those people and their lackeys gaslighting the people they stole it from.
Lighten up. Water is fairly well run in US. Wholesale it's 1000 pounds for $1. The earth and sky produce so much water. And ugly truth is West is a desert and not much plants and animals so not much to hurt. Better to build cities in ugly desert than Everglades.... Americans never had it so good, thanks to businessmen of past, say thanks you ungrateful jerks, stop 99% of the righteous moaning .... I have no car or AC, but I bet you do, it's just hilarious how ungreen people like to call others evil..
I discovered that the Colorado goes dry into Mexico by following it on Google Maps one day. You can clearly see how it reduces down to a sandy wash soon after it crosses into Mexico. Sad also to see dry irrigation channels that would work if the river had any water in it. Although I knew that MX and the US had some agreement about how to share Colorado River water, it's also clear that the US uses basically all of it and doesn't leave any to Mexico in the end.
I, as a man from central Europe, never understood the numbers behind the water needed for raising 1kg of beef. It's hard to see from here, where our beef is raised as a free ranging. So thank you, I understand it now, and it's silly...
Well, I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again; it should be illegal to write any resource allocation system which engenders a "use it or lose it" attitude.
Missouri here, just got 10 inches of rain. And no , California is not stealing water from the Midwest. People will have to move from super expensive world to the Midwest. 2.87 a gallon gas you can buy a house for the rent you pay put west. No water restrictions. Guess we’ll have to grow it all someday here.
I think working on water waste from evaporation and pipe leakage would be a good start. Las Vegas is actually a great example because they didn't really have a choice. The reservoirs and canals seem like a perfect place for floating solar because the southwest is so sunny, it would help with the evaporation problem, and it's a lot easier than trying to deploy floating solar in the ocean or on navigable waterways.
@@The_Savage_Wombat yeah maybe the farmers should pay more, but turning river water that's suitable for farming into potable water, and then distributing it without contamination should cost more than just using the water for framing, so no, they shouldn't be paying the same rates as city water.
@@thamiordragonheart8682 Good point. But right now, residential rates can be more than 100 times what farmers pay for water from the Colorado. That seems excessive even if you factor in the cost of purification and distribution.
I’ve read once that the Colorado River was once one of the most beautiful places in the United States. Congress commission a U.S. army officer to go on an expedition in the 19th century and he came back and said that the west was a totally different country and shouldn’t be sold in square lots and that besides the Colorado River there wasn’t huge availability of water. Well they ignored him and then built the dams which destroy the beautiful canyons and ecosystems in them with beavers and all kinds of wildlife and now we’re here. We really should get rid of that alfalfa or at least punish them for leaving the water on. Just waste fraud and abuse at its finest. I saw a lot of it in the army as well.
Just finished vacationing in Arizona for a couple of weeks. When I stopped in Yuma. I was amazed at all the farmland there. They were growing all sorts of crops in late October and early November. Like cabbage, soy, cotton, corn, sorghum etc. Apparently they have year round nice weather and get water from 2 sources the Colorado and the Gila River. That Gila River is not a particularly long river, but the state does rely on it for a number of reasons. Like most rivers its starts up in the mountains looking clean and pristine. In particular it starts up in the middle of mountains of the Gila national forest in New Mexico.
I have a ranch in Western Colorado that's right on the river. This video and its content is just one piece of the puzzle. I became interested in this topic a couple years ago and have been pursuing research ever since. What I've discovered is that it's far more complicated than any normal person could imagine. What's mentioned in the video are all good points, but it only briefly mentioned one of the most significant factors, and that's Colorado's front range (Denver, Ft Collins, Boulder, ect). They take massive amounts of water directly from the headwaters of the river which is more detrimental than the two reservoirs and diversions down stream. But the biggest problem is a plant introduced long ago from Asia to control erosion called Tamarisk. It is impossible to kill and has taken over the banks of the river causing major issues like blocking wildlife from accessing the water. Most important is they consume unbelievable amounts of water, to the point that the entire water shortage could be solved by their elimination alone. Many things have been tried and all have failed to get rid of them. That's the biggest problem and the only solution though, besides not building mega cities in the desert. Going after the farmers and ranchers is popular, but very arrogant. We're not the problem and won't be the solution, it's just destroying an industry for no reason just as we have a long history of doing and regretting.
Murray Darling system and it is blighted by the same greed bullshit and overallocation. Cotton almonds rice none of which should be grown in dry country. But the minute you say anything the water thieves on the Darling scream and the National Party throws a hissy fit.
I've crossed from Yuma into and out of California more times than I can remember from the mid-1980's thru the late-1990's and NEVER saw water in the river's bed.
River ecosystems being portrayed as "taking" the water out of the river is weird ... that's like saying a river emptying into the ocean means the ocean takes the riverwater away
Yeah, PBS really pooped the bed in this specific point in such an astonishingly classic Capitalist POV. Just another reason why you can't run a "public" broadcast on corporate donations. Remember, PBS= Petroleum Broadcast System.
@@28704joe maybe i am not familiar with the spcifics of those oasis - but: if a river forms a natural wetland on its course i dont see how that would be "taking" water from the river - it is not uncommon for rivers to spawn wetlands in their vicinity there are specific ecosystems like that - e.g. alluvial forests
Look at everything the government has deemed a threat that we need to domestically declare war on. War on crime, war on drugs, etc. It all stuff that can generate money. That’s what’s it’s all about. There’s no money to be made here…
"Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, it's a straw, you see? Watch it. Now my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I... drink... your... milkshake. I drink it up!"
No short cuts, the only solution to save the river and land is to work hard for protection and plant local trees and grass, just like the Chinese people did for more than 70 years in northwestern China.
It’s not just the profit motive, notice how they say “you may think this will end up as produce on your dinner table” but immediately switch to blaming exports? As if the overuse is okay as long as it feeds people, meanwhile there are plenty of other states that could support this level of agriculture use of water. Yuma Arizona provides a majority of the leafy greens for the country during the winter months. Then the big AG propaganda comes in and fear mongers that people won’t eat if they can’t farm in these specific (very cheap water) areas.
@@basedoz5745 What's worse is that the Colorado River Basin only produces something like 5% of the nation's Alfala. There are small counties in Iowa that produce more Alfalfa than the entire Colorado River Basin but with relatively little impact on the environment. So we're destroying one of the world's most important and unique rivers to produce a crop that could be produced cheaper and with far less environmental impact in Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, or Mississippi.
@@teebob21 The reservoir is by definition next to a dam, which is, ideally, connected to the power grid. Not saying it's a great idea, but this is a silly counterargument.
They shouldn't penalize farmers who don't use all of their allotted water... Instead, reward them for coming up with new ways of conserving it... With the promise of adding more in the future if needed...
Great video. Pretty soon in the No. 6 are all these computer servers that needs water for cooling for cloud storage, AI computation and don't forget any Bitcoin related stuff.
You saw it when it before it converged with most of its tributaries. That said, I don't agree with the comment that Colorado is an uninterested party. Denver gets 50% of its water from the Colorado basin and the rest from the Platte (water rights fights with Nebraska involving graveyards and canals).
Sounds like California killed 52% of it and likely more since cities like LA were listed among the 18% consumption of the other cities. I didn’t realize California was the representative for the whole of the United States.
@@MbisonBalrogArabian desert doesn’t have our natural resource aka Colorado river so that’s what they are stealing. Water from the rest of the south through our broken legal system of non-protection
you left one culprit off your list. an outdated, like the water policies, socio-economic system, that has stratified into something that very closely resembles the feudalism, it claimed it was replacing.
@@MichaelfromtheGraves that'll be the tube'y'all, and the sizing it imposes combined with the window size you employ. there's not much i can do about that.
It isn't the cattle, it's how they're raised, that's the problem. Properly managed cattle raised on grass will enhance the land and the water cycle. There are cattle breeds, that manage well in these arid areas. Cattle per se are not to blame. Industrialized monocrop plant agriculture is extremely destructive.
You missed the part where the alfalfa grown in these areas is shipped to OTHER countries cattle, not even used for our own. We need updated legislation and regulations to fix this.
This story looks like the disaster of the Aral Sea in USSR. Good thing that the ocean is in the California gulf, because it would have dried up just like that sea.
@@teddylee9545 Only then northern part and only after construction of several dams that prevent the water from flooding too large area crating too shallow waterbody with excessive evaporation. The Aral sea will not return to it's former size unless water flow is more than fully restored. Sure, large modernization programs for irrigation could help, lining of canals could help (on the other hand that would prevent recharging of water tables, but unless more water is available in Central Asia, then the sea will not return to it's former size. The problem is that geography of Central Asia virtually prevents construction of channel that would, without pumping stations, bring significant amounts of water into the region. Diversion from Ishim and Tobol would not make significant difference. Also I doubt that this water would reach Aral Sea, it is too far away and would most likely only slightly impact humidity and rainfalls in the region.
As a resident of Colorado, I'm in a few gardening-related local social media groups. It's appalling how many people move here and try to grow things like they could in the midwest or pacific northwest. They pour thousands of gallons into their lawns and non-native gardens and then wonder why their utility bill is so high and why their garden is still dying. You moved to a desert people. You need to learn to live like a Fremen.
And don't get me started on the exported cattle feed and terrible water rights management. I have SO many feelings.
What groups are you apart of ? I'm also a beginners Gaia steward trying to live sustainably and ethically in reciprocity with the ecosystem here on Ute, Araahoe, Cheyenne territories of what we call Colorado
💯 for the Fremen reference 😅
I live in Texas and have seen the same. And it's odd to me cause my first thought with any plant is "will it grow well here?". If it doesn't grow well here, doesn't matter how bad I want it, I'm just not gonna grow it.
Is all of Colorado like this or just the western regions? Curious because the boulder area seems very green in photos.
@@willhunting8733 The whole state is alpine desert, even the Kansas half.
Boulder looks green in photos because of irrigation of farmland. That irrigation water comes from quickly depleting ground water aquifers or is pumped across the mountains from the Colorado River.
Boulder gets an average of about 20 inches of precipitation per year and the statewide mean is 18 inches. For comparison, Missouri gets about 40 inches of precipitation per year. Colorado has also been going through an extended drought for the last 20+ years, making precipitation more rare and more inconsistent.
Boulder looks green because of the very problems described in this video.
Feelings will have always and yes we can fix anyrhing😮
Doesn't help that you have people moving into the desert from wetter places and just assuming that "The Government" can magically provide water to transform the desert to look like the Southeast. People move in and want lawns, trees, golf courses, swimming pools, and more. That's before you even get to "minor" details like drinking water, which they also assume "The Government" can magically create.
It should be desert in the desert.
Most people are stupid, inconsiderate, thoughtless, greedy, and completely unconcerned with the future. This is a universal fact, and will never change.
I trust the Private sector to provide me with all I need. And capitalism, and the free market, and Santa Claus. So sick of ignorant right with fascists destroying the USA.
It's especially animal agriculture that causes the issue. People could easily live there.
less than 1% of 1% of all water used goes to golf courses.
Please revive the Colorado River. It is a beautiful river with very cold water. If this river disappears, we are doomed in this country.
Imagine if the mississippi, tennessee & ohio rivers dry up too? We'd really be done then. People go into panic mode whenever these rivers have low water levels right now!!
Problem is this would take a massive “infringement” on people’s/landowners’/businesses’ “rights” to make any positive impact, which will be met with a flood of backlash, lobbying, and propaganda. US would have to have a serious environmental steward in the White House who’s willing & able to take the heat that will result from strong arming these states and stakeholders into fixing the problem. (It’s not going to happen until it becomes a massive disaster.)
Cold water? You must know the Colorado downstream from a dam. The reason the water is cold is that it's flowing from deep within the reservoir. It warms up to normal if you go far enough down stream. The river is not magically cold or anything, it's an effect of the temperature down stream from the dam. So yeah, it's really cold when only a few miles down from Glen Canyon, Hoover, Davis or Parker dams... and ironically, just downstream from Hoover are hot springs...
Anyway, the cold water is a dam effect.
This country, and more broadly, the planet is f***Ed
The coming 4 years will make everything worse and the progress made will be reversed
Then again, people are stupid, it's proven over and over again, especially in the US
@@voodoochild1975azyeah I was about to say the same thing. I've gone swimming in the Colorado near Yuma Arizona. And it's not cold at all.
You think this is bad, wait until you look into the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. A fifth of America's agriculture is reliant on it and it'll be depleted in the next 50 years.
Another terrifying precedent is the Aral Sea and its now radioactive sandstorms.
Shhh, comforting lies, the truth is not appreciated.
Well it's not bad for Americans to eat 1/5 less and lose fat
Family guy: you think thats bad! Remember the time that insert random situation here
I would argue further that once this aquafer is drained the American empire will rapidly collapse.
10:30 What's the worst about the Alfalfa and Lettuce production in the Colorado River Basin is that it only contributes to something like 5% of the nation's supply.
It's entirely unnecessary. Even if we were to completely get rid of alfalfa and lettuce farms in the Southwest, it would have almost no impact on their availability nationwide, including for cattle.
We're sacrificing our most endangered and of our most important rivers for something that isn't even necessary.
The alfalfa is largely shipped over to SA anyways. Their own govt restricted water usage so they came to America where a plot of land gives you all the water you like with zero regulations. Thanks Republicans. Small government is swell.
Politions screwed the people over money for water.
?
Not sure we have a good replacement for the veggies during the winter, 90% from the numbers I am seeing, don't know where you came up with that 5%. The alfalfa, cotton, Bermuda grass and Sudan grass are a waste.
Wow John, what ignorance. Yuma, AZ area supplies 90% of the leafy greens and vegetables for the U.S. and Canada.
Thank you for such a straightforward video I really like the style of the video and I really appreciate your candor
Water is available by building an aqueduct from the Arctic Ocean then bring the aqueduct to the Colorado, and 13 places to provide all the water America needs. I’ve done a study there is no mountain range to cross bringing fresh water all the way to points where it’s needed.
The most infuriating thing to me about the dam projects on the river is how much of that energy is spent on the most energy-wasting city in the workd: Las Vegas. The Sphere uses as much power as 23,000 households. The laser on top of the Luxor tower uses as much as 230 households, just beaming power into the sky.
If the strip wasn't profiting over a billion dollars a month from dumb ass tourists gambling away all their money here, they wouldn't have the incentive to keep building up the city of lights. But we are one if not the most water efficient city in the world. Win some you lose some I guess.
They could do it all with solar, it's a damn desert... Yet they refuse to cuz some billionaires don't give a fuuuu about anyone or anything but themselves
Luckily, You're not to decide what is a waste and what is appropriate.
Las vegas is actually one of the best water managed city's in USA. They recycle every bit of water they use also they borrow more then they're allowed but it all get put back into the river. I watch a whole documentary about it.
@@christiancruiz9044 It's probably using the freshwater supply just fine, i'm not questioning that. But the video points out how building reservoirs for dams have the effect of increasing evaporation, and Las Vegas is certainly not as efficient with energy supply as it is with water supply, so much of this extra power generation is for nothing but powering giant billboards and laser beams.
Desert golf courses and alfalfa farms be like, "My river, my water, and if I continue: my dune."
Golf courses in the desert. Grrr.......
What an unconscionable waste of water!
@@junglechick13 cotton and alfalfa are way worse, especially when you realize all of those massive fields should be prime habitat because that's where the groundwater is, but yes the golf courses suck too
@@junglechick13 Parks, residential use, golf courses, lawns all make up less than 3% of the water use of the lower Colorado. It's almost entirely farming and industrial use that's causing the problem.
@@The_Savage_Wombat If corporations were producing most of the garbage issues in the world I would not be dumping plastic in rivers just because I am 0.0001% of the issue.
the desert takes the weak
I used to live in New Mexico and I'll be 100% honest saying that the water situation/droughts scared the hell out of me.
Everyone I knew did not care and paid it no mind expecting the government to "figure it out", but with larger populations, it only puts more stress on an exhausted water supply.
I actually loved living in the desert, and made every effort to conserve and wisely use water, but I was one of the very few.
I got out of there. I don't see how this problem becomes a disaster in the future.
Makes sense for red states. I lived in Phoenix, Arizona and nobody cared about how much water they used for their lawns. They didn’t even have watering restrictions back then.
*27 year old, Yuma native here:*
Most of the species that used to be found in Our wetlands have long since disappeared due to the destruction of the rivers flow. We were once natural and thriving desert oasis but now we are just a wannabe Phoenix. Every time we’ve accomplished any restoration, it’s given the green light to destroy more rather than continue. It’s very disheartening to see. I’ve watched so much be lost just since my teenage years
Edit: just drove past a large section of wilderness that was located beneath the mesa that our hospital sits on and discovered it cleared and under development for construction
the billionaires will take care of everyone, millionaires are always known for loving the poor and environment.
@@krono5el🙄
Private equity companies with shareholders from everywhere in the world, including countries NOT friendly to democracy, are buying up land, assets and water sources.
Montana mostly uses rain water to water alpha.
I’m often surprised at how ignorant… or is it overwhelmed and trapped? big developers are, what a narrow definition of self interest they have, are they really unable to imagine a better way to do things?. The people at the end who showed their is hope and demonstrated what to do are amazing. And young
Don't forget that corporations own land in arizona where they can pump groundwater unmetered as long as they own that land. The Colorado River is mostly used to resupply these reservoirs. Great video!!
Right. And, some states along the Colorado river basin won't even allow individuals rain barrels. My my.
China owns a big chunk here west of Phoenix.
@Wiscotac that's california. It has plenty of it's own water, but mismanagement caused them to take more and more from the river. Go talk to the farmers. It's the government coming in telling them how and what to farm.
@Epicbob-c2l do you work for the California state government.
american media never wants to point finger where it belongs, corporations and capitalism
Reporter: “What happened?”
Rodriguez: “We happened “
Me: 🤦🏻♂️ why do people ask questions that they already know the answers to.
Because some people are too stupid or selfish to understand this.
Because these "people" are professional or scientific reporter, not just regular vloggers, when their video involves experts or scientific data they always re-confirm before stating self assumptions, and also because data or research always updated, so anything they speak for the video always regards on peers and factual data and not self-observations, despite they sure 99%
This is a rhetorical question.
Something the video doesn't mention, the 1922 interstate compact set its allocation numbers based on average flow of the previous 10 years. Turns out those 10 years were the wettest 10 years in the West in the entire time we've been measuring it.
In Ca they use 22 gallons to grow one almond, agriculture and lawns are extremely wasteful of water.
@Epicbob-c2l Yes, stop wasting water on water hungry crops, it is a complete waste.
@Epicbob-c2l Why do you have to grow crops in the desert in the first place? It's not like the US has not enough land.
@Epicbob-c2l you know cows drink water right?
@@melikecomedyI’d imagine you can raise cows in a much larger area than you can plant crops. In those areas that don’t typically have crops but have access to plentiful water.
The use it or lose it water rights are a brilliant way of ensuring water is going to be wasted, meaning it ensures water is being used unnecessarily just to keep the right to use it.
Right? What an insane waste of water!
That and they are depositing more salts than needed into the ground, and washing away much of the soil health!
im pretty sure this is fundamentally the same way government budget gets allocated
@@badabing3391 I'm sure you're right, and that's why there's so much governmental waste,
Yes, it's insanely stupid. And all that waste forces people without water rights to tap their aquifer, which can be a problem for an entire region. And once you've drained your aquifer, you start getting sink holes. And once you lose your aquifer, it's hard to get it back. Some aquifers take thousands of years to recharge.
The Colorado River is facing a complex crisis due to a combination of factors. It's not so much that one entity "killed" the river, but rather a series of human activities and environmental changes have severely impacted it
This is why I left Arizona. I grew up there. And year after year no politician there had the guts to start addressing the looming water crisis in a meaningful way. In fact they did the opposite. And encouraged the cities to grow and encouraged people to move there. This past year it is coming to a head, the federal government gave an ultimatum to the states utilizing Colorado River water to divi up what was projected to be available to them or the federal government would allocate the water themselves. As the globe warms the drought in the southwest is only going to get worse and the water crisis will continue and worsen. If you are thinking about moving there. Don’t. At some point you will go thirsty.
What is the proper globe temp? Are we hot or cold compared to that mysterious number? Is this number static or dynamic since temp fluctuates.
@@bpsreston1
It is whatever industrial civilization was built on circa 100 years ago, aka fairly chilly
TX will be facing these issues much faster than they think.
@@bpsreston1 yours are disingenuous questions designed to put doubt into the actual science/evidence. It is a common tactic used by those who wish to believe that human induced catastrophic global warming isn’t real and want to bring others down with them or wish to profit in the short term off of the backs of our children.
If, however, you are seriously wondering about the answers to these questions then I suggest you review the evidence and science discussed in reputable, peer reviewed publications and educate yourself.
@@bpsreston1 Life is adaptable and can thrive under a broad range of climates. In that sense today's temperature is pretty arbitrary. But evolution is pretty slow, so life has trouble adapting to rapid *changes* in climate. In geological history, we see that past episodes of rapid climate change is implicated in global mass extinctions, which illustrates how vulnerable life is to rapid changes. So for the most part, it's not the end temperature that matters, it's how quickly you got there.
A geologist fellow named John Wesley Powell predicted this nearly 2 centuries ago. He was shouted down by land speculators and the Manifest Destiny ideology of the time.
Ah yes, And, *" the Manifest Destiny ideology"* or the real reason Mexico is a lot smaller than previously and the US's policy of making sure that real trickle down economics works to screw Mexico and the Colorado delta out of as much water as possible especially during drought years in the southwest.
It may be that the more Water consumed in the US side means less water for the Mecican side of the River.
Congratulations to all and every one who made this video possible. Thanks, will share the link and comments to people educcated enough to understand the issue.
Imagine knowing all of this and STILL thinking you deserve all the water you want to grow non native crops. Saying people don't care about "working farmers" as you demand the right to destroy your neighbors wells while complaining about government over reach... Nuts.
democrats
There isn't a group of people more firmly attached to the government's teat than farmers.
Don't forget it was St. Reagan who told us the government is the enemy
@@brokenrecord3523 Unfortunately, agriculture and politics can never be separated, because it's so vital to our society. Unless we can come up with a way to produce food that makes economic and environmental sense, nothing will change.
@@slappy8941 Things tend to be better when everything is honest and transparent though. If people had to pay the true costs for food people would make better decisions. For example if a pound of beef takes 4 times as much water as a pound of chicken, and the end consumer actually pays for that water and it was not given to the farmers though some loopholes - people would maybe pick the chicken over beef and everything would be better because of less water used?
You mentioned the beautiful green golf courses we have so many of in Phoenix...they are apparently very important because if you look at the school yards you just see dirt.
Why golf courses are a better use of our water than school yards that were once grass, I'm not sure.
Quite a metaphor
Because the people that play on the courses are rich and the kids aren't. Sucks to suck! /s
Effing rich people. Who else afford to go golf courses.
Well, there's public golf courses that are cheaper, but probably not as well watered. Then again, golfing equipment itself is expensive.
Aren't school yards either federal or State owned? And aren't the golf courses privately owned? Looking at both of those ask yourself who is wisely spending money?
The Emerald Mile is a good book about the river, although I suppose it's dated with respect to severe water shortages. As an easterner, I found the three deserts to be rather baren and hostile. Great experience to have, once, rafting 188 miles of the Colorado.
Plant Native Trees👍
Plant Native Plants👍
Plant Native Flowers🌼
Plant Native Seaweeds
indigenous species
Native Biodiversity
Biodiversity benefits👍
Ecosystem-Friendly
and Go Vegan!
Ok, in what way would that help feed people?
Get the guys from CRIME PAYS BUT BOTANY DOESN'T. They are here on YT.
@@samelioto476 well if you were to use crops that actually feed humans and were suitable for the place they are planted you would both have space and water that now is used on cattlefeed to have both nature and more than enough food ...
And you will need ruminant animals impact to build deep topsoils.
A non-trivial fact about the Salton Sea - it has all the chemicals that we dump on our crops - and the water there is essentially hazardous waste.
@@bradhuffjr777 the chemicals are all manner of fertilizers and insecticides - no lithium, I don't think?
@@NeilBlanchard
The Salton Sea in California is a rich source of lithium, a critical component in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and other devices. The Salton Sea region has some of the world's largest lithium deposits, and a Department of Energy analysis estimates that the region could produce enough lithium for over 375 million electric vehicle batteries
@@bradhuffjr777 It would be expensive to separate the lithium from all the toxic waste. Other lithium deposits don't have this problem.
The lithium is probably in the ground from an ancient sea/brine.
The salton sea is from river water and ag runoff.
There is lithium in fertilizer? The heck? Isn’t it toxic?
My phone is listening to my conversations. I mentioned to my friend's dad the the Colorado River was dried out at the end and now this video pops up in my feed.
Yeah. Pretty common knowledge nowadays.
As a grain and cattle farmer in Nebraska it is hard to comprehend how much water is being wasted in the southwest. I’m not suggesting the Midwest agricultural system is more sustainable in the long run, but in the short run, at least we have adequate rainfall.
Perhaps we could use a just transition to a post meet agricultural system starting with the ending of meat agriculture in the southwest just as a means to conserve water and to bolster our fruit,nut, and vegetable production
Sounds smart. Needs business entrepreneurs.
Industrial plant agriculture is the Problem!
People will not give up meat.
@@sabine8419 no said it isn’t. Consolidation of any industry is a problem but the point being made is an environmental one not a social economic
What we need is permaculture. Monoculture requires the overconsumption of water and the destruction of the ecosystem. Argroforestry is how the Native Americans grew crops for centuries before we arrived.
The use it or loose it reminded me of my many years in management. Every year when i submitted my budget i had to battle line items where we didn't fully spend all that was budgeted during previous year. This even included equipment maintenance and replacement. If we had done a good job of maintaining an instrument or machine and extended its estimated useful life they would cut our budget for the ensuing budget.
The owner needs to pay for his private jet
It starts at the headwaters where Colorado Water Company diverts the snow melt to the farmers in Ft Collins. The Grand Ditch!
They also divert the Laramie River through a two mile tunnel
This is so very true, I wish it could be reversed cause the fresh rain and snow melt runoff water is diverted directly in to another aqueduct and sent to the Pacific Ocean
The river wetlands suck away 18% of the rivers water?!?!? The ecosystems OF THE RIVER portrayed as fellow culprits?! Seriously?
The US should just accept that large parts of their land are arid or semi-arid. And then adapt strategies for the water scarcity.
They are artificial river wetlands
Capitalism says no, you can't have that water back.
It is ridiculous that we saw a big old desert and went "yeah, this is a great place to grow water-intense crops!"
Not to mention wetlands are absolutely crucial for carbon sequestration. Most ecosystems, even very productive ecosystems with a lot of plants, don't sequester carbon longterm because most carbon that ends up in the plants will just be eaten by an animal or decomposed by fungi/bacteria and get released back into the atmosphere as co2. Wetlands are one of the ecosystems where carbon that gets taken into plant tissues actually stands a chance at getting buried and mineralized
@@AnonymousFreakYT Not as ridiculous as the fact that politicians at almost every level are actively eager to roll over on the growers behalf. Then again, $5 will buy you a cup of coffee AND a Congresscritter.
We are not a smart race. Who the heck puts lush green golf courses in a dessert! We have a water crysis in the making.
Crisis* and yes, it isn't smart, though the golf courses are much less bad for the environment than the Alfalfa and Lettuce farms.
Your right, but the crisis started in the 80s...we are just now at the endgame.
@@johnperic6860At least the Alfalfa is good for something, golf courses are completely useless.
Going to guess more people will focus replies on the two spelling errors than the truth of the message. (dessert/desert, crysis/crisis)
There should be no golf courses in desert regions. We shouldn't be wasting water on anything unnecessary when it's in such short supply.
I cry, sis
I'm excited to see Joe getting into more projects. 10/10 host.
I visited the colorado river once when i went to see family in las vegas. It was so shallow i never wouldve guessed it was the colorado. We have rivers in pennsylvania that have so much more water.
The Rio Grande isn't much better. I remember driving onto a huge bridge over… what seemed like nothing. I've seen things we called "creeks" or "streams" bigger than the "Grand River".
Shhhhhh 🤫
@@AnonymousFreakYT you guys should open a book and read it , it'll blow your mind
People from the east coast don't understand how big a deal water is in the west. In the east there are hundreds of rivers that are bigger than the Colorado River and the climate in the east is just wetter. Average rainfall dwarfs what we get in the west. The majority of the west is a desert and water is much more of a precious commodity than in the East. There are only a handful of small rivers providing water to a vast amount of land. I've noticed that people from the east take water for granted.
@@jasonlongwell9192People in the western states are the ones that take water for granted. It's delusional to build massive cities with huge agricultural operations on the outskirts while being in the middle of a desert. I've been waiting 25 years for you fools to run out of water but everytime it gets close the skies open up and save you guys for a few more years. It's going to be an interesting experience when the water doesn't come back. I live in the mountains of Virginia. I highly doubt we'll be open to sharing the water we have in abundance, with people that care so little about the one thing humans need to survive.
Imagine if the river flowed the other way and Mexico had diverted all the water preventing it from reaching across the border into the US.
The US would have considered it an act of war and invaded Mexico.
Mexico gets 1.5 million acre feet per year
You don't have to imagine; it is happening exactly like that on the Rio Grande. People just don't realize that there are _two_ major river systems in the desert SW, both equally imperiled.
Yeah...
The Rio Grande is starting to dry up, too. The Falcon Dam reservoir is starting to evaporate and reduce in size. One of the last sugarcane refineries in Texas just closed down this year. Those crops shouldn't have even been grown here in the first place, but what do you expect when wealthy outsiders establish these industries without thinking of the long-term consequences? Most of the guys that established farming here didn't even have knowledge of our biological province, and when that info came out, they just continued to put pressure on the environment.
@@justicia_azul So, too is Elephant Butte Reservoir, the "Lake Mead of the Rio Grande"; it is at 17%! The water there is not only used for deliveries to Texas and Mexico, but also to grow the famous Hatch green chiles in New Mexico that the nation is starting to get so fond of (as well as Europe and Japan). These chiles lose their flavor if you grow them in the wrong dirt or temperature or humidity or altitude and have been grown in the region since before Columbian times.
The reservoir also provides power to the Hatch region.
Imagine if the State of Colorado put dams on all its borders. The South Platte, The North Platte, The Arkansas, the Colorado, the Rio Grande, all ours! I agree with your point about U.S. imperialism vis-a-vis Mexico.
Excellent overview...thanks PBS Terra. Thanks.
Sounds like a very similar to Australia's Murray River. It has a history of not making it to the ocean. Not sure if we have alfalfa growing there but there is enormous amounts of water going into rice crops and almond crops. A lot of both of these are for export and about 1000km downstream of where the rice and almonds are grown the river delta is dry and salty.
The Murray actually doesnt have a “not reaching the sea” problem at all. The Murray flows directly into a lake and that hasnt had an issue since 1981 where it got blocked. It does have a flow rate issue. There isnt enough water flowing into the lake that enough water flows out to the sea to stop sea water from flowing into the lake.
Now for water usage, rice and cotton are huge users of water but are variable to rainfall, low rainfall and production goes down by 90%. The biggest consistent users of water are pastures and cerals like lucerne, fruit and nut production and wine production(grapevine). As well as cotton but water usage can fluctuate 80% down or 400% up based on the rainfall.
Almonds suck if you compare them to rambutan.
You can eat the fruit, blanch and roast the seeds and they’re just like almonds.
Rice uses much more water than alfalfa. because you have to flooded the bank where it grows
I am all too familiar with this river. I used to work at the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the bureaucracy behind this waterway is legendary!!!
Please elaborate.
@@wastedShaman This river was one of the first ever to get multiple states and entities together to write a contract for the use of the future water... with no real history or data to predict what kind of water will be coming down that river. There has been battles ever since deciding how the lack of flow will accommodate so many people that now rely upon it. For me the most insane reality is that because of this lack of foresight, these old agreements give California more rights over any water that originates in that river basin than Colorado does. =( There are montly meetings between several states and Mexico about how to survive going forward. It was one of the motivating factors that lead to The Colorado Water Plan , first of it´s kind 💕, which I was lucky enough to work on. I an free to chat more if ya wish... can DM from most socials if you don´t wanna continue here.
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Central California also suffers from the same issues. The problem is the water is over 'contracted'. In my opinion, these contracts need to be reassessed. At the base an allotment needs to be assigned to a 'healthy' river flow. From there contracts should be assigned on a percentage bases. This impact ag and urban use in a big way, but storage and alternate water sources need to be exploited. The use of solar energy to desalinate ocean water is one possibility. We cannot keep going on just to go on. New solutions and infrastructure needs to be developed.
Screw Cal just a waste of time
Wait till farmers have to pay the real cost of desalinated water and watch alfalfa crop production get lost in an instant. Then remember many CA valley farms are also robbing from the water table with wells to offset some of the water lost. The good news is that the downriver court battles are going to land and farmers downriver have no other choice but to sue for a better managed deal. Ironically the CA valleys crops outside alfalfah if not grown will cost upstate consumers in food bills. The use it or lose it rule in literally insane. The hoover dam may be the last one to disappear but dam removal is coming and reliance on the dams locally is a sure one way bet (not the good type). It won't matter if there is more rainfall in the winter if there is no water in the summer.
@garrybaker6725 exactly
They pump water uphill to the golf courses in Tucson. What a waste. They use the Colorado for ponds and water features in upscale housing in Nevada. I know, lets go to Mars.
The rich people trying to get to Mars will figure out a way to pump Earth's fresh water all the way to Mars just to have water features.
As stupid and wasteful as they are, you could remove every golf course and water feature in the southwest and not even notice the difference. It's just a distraction to focus on that instead of what's really using the water.
I'm pretty sure all of the golf courses in Tucson use reclaimed water from the city.
Residential use and golf courses are insignificant compared to farming in the desert.
@@AnonymousFreakYT"Rich" isn't everything
A big part of rivers is they reduce evaporation by facilitating habitats like forests that provide the river with tree cover that reduces evaporation. And as the river is established beavers build small damns that help the ecosystem grow and also help water seep deep into the earth refilling the water table.
What makes me the most upset is the corn and vegetables used to make biodiesel, probably the worst type of fuel we have in terms of waste
Literally using more energy to produce them than the energy we can get out of them.
Who is still using biodiesel? Haven't seen it on the market since 2011
@@livefree1030 regular diesel is made in part with ethanol from corn
Thanks for digging deep into this complex topic. Truely gives more insight.
Sea level rise will make it all OBE. Much of the area shown in the video is but a few meters above current sea level, and the rest is already below sea level. A couple of meters of sea level rise, a high probability by the year 2200, and the current delta will be underwater, as will large areas of Imperial County.
Thank you for an honest video. The salinity altered in the Golfo de Cortés (what USAers call Golf of California) in such a way that it damaged the whole ecosystem.
The selfishness of your style of agriculture and cities like Phoenix that should not exist killing whole ecosystems. Water for beef and golf courses. Ridiculous.
Where did all the water go? Golf courses, swimming pools, lawns, and agriculture...sucked it bone dry.
Air conditioners
@@Kehk-in-a-MiG air conditioners don't use water. Swamp coolers on the other hand...
@@JimmyMon666 "Swamp cooler" is just another term for evaporative air conditioner. You are probably thinking of refrigerated air/heat pumps, which do not use water, but use way more power. Those are not very common here.
If the world would consume less meat, we would not need that much plants in the first place, because feedkng an animal to than eat it is extreamly inefficient. Sadly, the world is going the oposite direction, because more and more people around the world get access to the money needet for meat. Not that better living conditions in third world countrys are a bad thing, but more meat consumption is.
so many people are about to find out about our terrible water management laws
The compact makes me so angry. It’s such a blatant and shameless grab for power over the environment that we all rely on, human and otherwise, and as expected they took all its resources and now it’s ruined.
We talk about the tragedy of the commons, but this is the seizure and depletion of the commons. And they felt entitled because they had the economic, political, and military power to push the consequences and incredible costs onto a future generation. It was so short-sighted, selfish, and arrogant that it makes me sick.
Like why would you not invite the people who lived with that river for centuries?? If there was any amount of good faith in terms of trying to use the river in a sustainable and responsible way, surely their knowledge would be invaluable. But there was no such intention; they knew the native voices would want to keep the river as it was, and they had so little respect for that position and the knowledge the native people had that they excluded them entirely.
There is, and was, no 'tragedy of the commons'. It was ALWAYS the wealthy and the powerful who fenced in what was the common land and declared they owned it now. The entire concept of the 'tragedy' was those people and their lackeys gaslighting the people they stole it from.
Lighten up. Water is fairly well run in US. Wholesale it's 1000 pounds for $1. The earth and sky produce so much water. And ugly truth is West is a desert and not much plants and animals so not much to hurt. Better to build cities in ugly desert than Everglades.... Americans never had it so good, thanks to businessmen of past, say thanks you ungrateful jerks, stop 99% of the righteous moaning .... I have no car or AC, but I bet you do, it's just hilarious how ungreen people like to call others evil..
Rich, white men never consider the wants or needs of anyone other than other rich, white men.
I discovered that the Colorado goes dry into Mexico by following it on Google Maps one day. You can clearly see how it reduces down to a sandy wash soon after it crosses into Mexico. Sad also to see dry irrigation channels that would work if the river had any water in it. Although I knew that MX and the US had some agreement about how to share Colorado River water, it's also clear that the US uses basically all of it and doesn't leave any to Mexico in the end.
Mexico should say no to desalinating water from the Sea of Cortez that AZ is already eying.
And it is not only the Colorado river, the same water hoarding happens with the Grande and Bravo rivers in the East side of the border.
America fixing to steal even more Mexican territory.
First, the USA took the land from Mexico, then the water.
@@snookmeister55 Coca Cola actually owns all the water resources in Mexico
I, as a man from central Europe, never understood the numbers behind the water needed for raising 1kg of beef. It's hard to see from here, where our beef is raised as a free ranging. So thank you, I understand it now, and it's silly...
Don’t forget the rich families who have most of the water rights
PGE and Edison own most of the water on the west coast lol
Because they're more likely to go to the polls and vote.
Well, I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again; it should be illegal to write any resource allocation system which engenders a "use it or lose it" attitude.
Missouri here, just got 10 inches of rain. And no , California is not stealing water from the Midwest. People will have to move from super expensive world to the Midwest. 2.87 a gallon gas you can buy a house for the rent you pay put west. No water restrictions. Guess we’ll have to grow it all someday here.
I think working on water waste from evaporation and pipe leakage would be a good start. Las Vegas is actually a great example because they didn't really have a choice.
The reservoirs and canals seem like a perfect place for floating solar because the southwest is so sunny, it would help with the evaporation problem, and it's a lot easier than trying to deploy floating solar in the ocean or on navigable waterways.
Make the farmers pay the same for water as the residents in Vegas and the problem would be instantly solved.
LV actually does a great job with water management. I was kind of shocked.
There you go making sense again!
@@The_Savage_Wombat yeah maybe the farmers should pay more, but turning river water that's suitable for farming into potable water, and then distributing it without contamination should cost more than just using the water for framing, so no, they shouldn't be paying the same rates as city water.
@@thamiordragonheart8682 Good point. But right now, residential rates can be more than 100 times what farmers pay for water from the Colorado. That seems excessive even if you factor in the cost of purification and distribution.
Excellent video. People need to know what's happening.
America's gluttony is tragic and shameful.
I’ve read once that the Colorado River was once one of the most beautiful places in the United States. Congress commission a U.S. army officer to go on an expedition in the 19th century and he came back and said that the west was a totally different country and shouldn’t be sold in square lots and that besides the Colorado River there wasn’t huge availability of water. Well they ignored him and then built the dams which destroy the beautiful canyons and ecosystems in them with beavers and all kinds of wildlife and now we’re here. We really should get rid of that alfalfa or at least punish them for leaving the water on. Just waste fraud and abuse at its finest. I saw a lot of it in the army as well.
We don't need that many almonds
they are sold world wide
@@ocskywatch1let rest of countries make own. I know not cool cuz some one not get rich but nat resources finite. Must have limit on wealth.
Or that many cows! Stop eating the unhealthy beef!
Livestock animals in the Southwest do more damage to the water table than almonds could ever possibly aspire to in the next 1,000 years.
@@MbisonBalrogthis is the most obstructionist viewpoint.
people shouldn't live either, then there would be so much more natural resources.
Just finished vacationing in Arizona for a couple of weeks. When I stopped in Yuma. I was amazed at all the farmland there. They were growing all sorts of crops in late October and early November. Like cabbage, soy, cotton, corn, sorghum etc. Apparently they have year round nice weather and get water from 2 sources the Colorado and the Gila River. That Gila River is not a particularly long river, but the state does rely on it for a number of reasons. Like most rivers its starts up in the mountains looking clean and pristine. In particular it starts up in the middle of mountains of the Gila national forest in New Mexico.
PBS Terra has the most unique videos.
Southwestern American history drinking game: take a shot every time Americans ignore Mexico
No thanks, I want to live.
Can't do drinking game in Mexico, there's no water we could drink
USA give to Mexico 1.5 million acre-foot of Colorado water every year.
@@veitforabetterworld How about tequila?
Mexico don’t give a shit about the us. The us shouldn’t give a damn about any other country
In Tamil, there is a proverb that my grandmother always repeats: 'anai peruga kudi karuga', which means that more dams cause more harm to lives.
As a resident of Arizona, this is terrifying! 😢
We need more current content like this PBS. 🙏
Thank you
I have a ranch in Western Colorado that's right on the river. This video and its content is just one piece of the puzzle. I became interested in this topic a couple years ago and have been pursuing research ever since. What I've discovered is that it's far more complicated than any normal person could imagine. What's mentioned in the video are all good points, but it only briefly mentioned one of the most significant factors, and that's Colorado's front range (Denver, Ft Collins, Boulder, ect). They take massive amounts of water directly from the headwaters of the river which is more detrimental than the two reservoirs and diversions down stream. But the biggest problem is a plant introduced long ago from Asia to control erosion called Tamarisk. It is impossible to kill and has taken over the banks of the river causing major issues like blocking wildlife from accessing the water. Most important is they consume unbelievable amounts of water, to the point that the entire water shortage could be solved by their elimination alone. Many things have been tried and all have failed to get rid of them. That's the biggest problem and the only solution though, besides not building mega cities in the desert. Going after the farmers and ranchers is popular, but very arrogant. We're not the problem and won't be the solution, it's just destroying an industry for no reason just as we have a long history of doing and regretting.
Interesting post!
The unfortunate education to do what you want versus what is needed that both benefits you and the environment is terrifying beyond comprehension.
That mentality started with slavery. The people that benefitted from slavery then invented capitalism and started giving their slaves a wage.
Such an incredible river. We simply don't have rivers like this in Australia.
We have still lots of these rivers in the Philippines, well they are not going to deplete because we are always strucked by typhoons
Murray Darling system and it is blighted by the same greed bullshit and overallocation. Cotton almonds rice none of which should be grown in dry country. But the minute you say anything the water thieves on the Darling scream and the National Party throws a hissy fit.
Great video! Thanks for sharing this with people. We all deserve tonunderstand our impact on ecosystems and our future.
0:57 “It can fill 9.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools in 1 second” sums it up best.
Piecemeal, we've been killing ourselves off. Now it's all coming together in one big crash. How can you have sympathy for deliberate stupidity?
I've crossed from Yuma into and out of California more times than I can remember from the mid-1980's thru the late-1990's and NEVER saw water in the river's bed.
River ecosystems being portrayed as "taking" the water out of the river is weird ...
that's like saying a river emptying into the ocean means the ocean takes the riverwater away
Yeah, PBS really pooped the bed in this specific point in such an astonishingly classic Capitalist POV.
Just another reason why you can't run a "public" broadcast on corporate donations.
Remember, PBS= Petroleum Broadcast System.
He was referencing "Oases" , the small areas areas designated as protected ecosystems, not the entire length of the river
@@28704joe maybe i am not familiar with the spcifics of those oasis - but: if a river forms a natural wetland on its course i dont see how that would be "taking" water from the river - it is not uncommon for rivers to spawn wetlands in their vicinity there are specific ecosystems like that - e.g. alluvial forests
@@hmhmoinsdk I interpreted it as so much broad slow running water being exposed to evaporation and being soaked up to go to aquafers'
@@qarljohnson4971 Sounds like someone here is wanting to defund Public Broadcasting and let corporations control the narrative.
Ecosystem-Friendly ideas
Marine Life-Friendly design👍
We need to invest on Desalination plants throughout the coast. It's a must now
Pretty fucking grim, but hardly a surprise to anyone that knows even a little about the area, sadly.
It is so stupid that there isn't a concerted effort solve this problem
Look at everything the government has deemed a threat that we need to domestically declare war on. War on crime, war on drugs, etc. It all stuff that can generate money. That’s what’s it’s all about. There’s no money to be made here…
We have to figure out abortion first. Keep your priorities strait.
"what happened"?
"we happened".
Powerful words
Exchange between water and river riparian zones. Water retention is key.
"Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, it's a straw, you see? Watch it. Now my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I... drink... your... milkshake. I drink it up!"
Lol!😂
No short cuts, the only solution to save the river and land is to work hard for protection and plant local trees and grass, just like the Chinese people did for more than 70 years in northwestern China.
Whelp, this episode leaves me with zero hope for the future. The profit motive will only die when humanity dies.
It’s not just the profit motive, notice how they say “you may think this will end up as produce on your dinner table” but immediately switch to blaming exports? As if the overuse is okay as long as it feeds people, meanwhile there are plenty of other states that could support this level of agriculture use of water. Yuma Arizona provides a majority of the leafy greens for the country during the winter months. Then the big AG propaganda comes in and fear mongers that people won’t eat if they can’t farm in these specific (very cheap water) areas.
@@basedoz5745
What's worse is that the Colorado River Basin only produces something like 5% of the nation's Alfala. There are small counties in Iowa that produce more Alfalfa than the entire Colorado River Basin but with relatively little impact on the environment.
So we're destroying one of the world's most important and unique rivers to produce a crop that could be produced cheaper and with far less environmental impact in Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, or Mississippi.
Those reservoirs and canals should be shaded to prevent evaporation
Solar PV over channels
@@Hansulf Connected to what grid? There isn't any infrastructure to connect a solar generation system to, for most of the CAP canal.
@@teebob21 Run a power line alongside the channel, put an inverter every 500m or so... Yeah, infrastructure needs to be built, as it has always been.
@@teebob21 The reservoir is by definition next to a dam, which is, ideally, connected to the power grid. Not saying it's a great idea, but this is a silly counterargument.
@@kallehalvarsson5808 Please show me on a map where there is a reservoir on the Central Arizona Project canal with a hydroelectric dam or substation.
They shouldn't penalize farmers who don't use all of their allotted water... Instead, reward them for coming up with new ways of conserving it... With the promise of adding more in the future if needed...
Great video. Pretty soon in the No. 6 are all these computer servers that needs water for cooling for cloud storage, AI computation and don't forget any Bitcoin related stuff.
aggree
I drove from Estes to where US-34 crosses the Colorado river and was surprised how small the river looked.
That doesn’t have much to do with this. The river starts pretty small up there. Colorado doesn’t take much water from the river anyways.
You saw it when it before it converged with most of its tributaries.
That said, I don't agree with the comment that Colorado is an uninterested party. Denver gets 50% of its water from the Colorado basin and the rest from the Platte (water rights fights with Nebraska involving graveyards and canals).
Good golly, it is call headwaters. They all start as trickles high in the mountains.
What an educational video from both sides of the camera
Scary fact number 1 “we are allowed to take out 5 trillion gallons”. 2:47
An example of market failure in capitalism.
You're talking about suspects but never say AMERICA KILLED the Colorado river
Sounds like California killed 52% of it and likely more since cities like LA were listed among the 18% consumption of the other cities.
I didn’t realize California was the representative for the whole of the United States.
To quote King of the Hill, Pheonix Arizona is a "testament to man's arrogance"
7:25 - "fair share"?
0:54 That shot is off potash road by wall street climbing area.
Having seen in person the headwaters of this noble river in the majestic Rockies, this offends me greatly, especially the Imperial Valley farming.
@Epicbob-c2l well now we know better, so it should be un-formed.
There's an ancient indian proverb:
You can't eat or drink MonEye since they're just 0's and 1's in a computer...
Definitely an ancient proverb
Great video!
Animal agriculture? Low effort of regulation?
THOSE BEER MAKERS AND ALSO THAT REDBULL FACTORY IN PHOENIX ALSO PEPSICO MAKING GATORADE..etc etc etc PLUS IT DOESNT SNOW THAT MUCH LIKE IT USED TOO
10:00 Saudi bought thousands of acres in AZ to build alfalda (heavy water use) to ship home.
Oh hey, you said the thing
Arabia already a desert why need grow in AZ?
@@MbisonBalrog Arizona water rights are really messed up. Businesses in the right position can harvest excessive amounts of water for cheap.
@@MbisonBalrogArabian desert doesn’t have our natural resource aka Colorado river so that’s what they are stealing. Water from the rest of the south through our broken legal system of non-protection
@@MbisonBalrogthey pumped water out of their water table faster than it could be replenished to grow crops so they dried it up very quickly
Amazing, thank you for sharing!
you left one culprit off your list.
an outdated, like the water policies, socio-economic system,
that has stratified into something that very closely resembles the feudalism,
it claimed it was replacing.
you have an odd use of the return key
@@MichaelfromtheGraves that'll be the tube'y'all, and the sizing it imposes combined with the window size you employ.
there's not much i can do about that.
It isn't the cattle, it's how they're raised, that's the problem. Properly managed cattle raised on grass will enhance the land and the water cycle. There are cattle breeds, that manage well in these arid areas.
Cattle per se are not to blame. Industrialized monocrop plant agriculture is extremely destructive.
You missed the part where the alfalfa grown in these areas is shipped to OTHER countries cattle, not even used for our own. We need updated legislation and regulations to fix this.
This story looks like the disaster of the Aral Sea in USSR. Good thing that the ocean is in the California gulf, because it would have dried up just like that sea.
The Aral Sea is refilling! Without the cursed Soviet 5year plan,the Aral has a chance.
@@teddylee9545 Only then northern part and only after construction of several dams that prevent the water from flooding too large area crating too shallow waterbody with excessive evaporation. The Aral sea will not return to it's former size unless water flow is more than fully restored. Sure, large modernization programs for irrigation could help, lining of canals could help (on the other hand that would prevent recharging of water tables, but unless more water is available in Central Asia, then the sea will not return to it's former size.
The problem is that geography of Central Asia virtually prevents construction of channel that would, without pumping stations, bring significant amounts of water into the region. Diversion from Ishim and Tobol would not make significant difference. Also I doubt that this water would reach Aral Sea, it is too far away and would most likely only slightly impact humidity and rainfalls in the region.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein