Colorado River in Crisis: A Los Angeles Times documentary
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- Journalists from the Los Angeles Times travel along the Colorado River to examine how the Southwest is grappling with the water crisis.
The Colorado River can no longer withstand the thirst of the arid West. Water drawn from the river flows to millions of people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles and irrigates vast farmlands.
For decades, sections of the river have been entirely used up, leaving dusty expanses of desert where water once flowed to the sea in Mexico. Now, chronic overuse and the effects of climate change are pushing the river system toward potential collapse, with depleted reservoirs near the lowest levels since they were filled. A water reckoning is about to transform the landscape of the Southwest.
Colorado River in Crisis follows Los Angeles Times journalists traveling throughout the river’s watershed, from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the river’s dry delta. These stories reveal the stark toll of the river’s decline, responses that have yet to match the scale of the crisis, and voices that are urging a fundamental rethinking of how water is managed and used to adapt to the reality of an overtapped and dwindling river.
This documentary was filmed and produced by Albert Brave Tiger Lee, with reporting by Ian James and other L.A. Times journalists. Consulting producers included Maggie Beidelman, Robert Meeks and Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein. (46 minutes)
Read the L.A. Times series Colorado River in Crisis: www.latimes.com/environment/s...
0:00 Intro
2:20 The Headwaters of the Colorado River
8:03 The River Keeper
15:50 Tribes push for change
19:53 Agriculture under Pressure
27:54 Growing suburbs in the desert
34:53 A Water Reckoning
40:01 The River’s End
READ THE SERIES:
www.latimes.com/environment/s...
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Hello, everyone! Ian James here, the reporter on this project. My colleagues and I traveled throughout the Colorado River Basin to produce this documentary, speaking with scientists, environmentalists, water managers, farmers, tribal leaders and others. Thank you for watching. Let me know if you have any questions!
i@ianjames-latimes . Thank you !! Would like to know if any reporter has ever been invited or on the agenda for a Palo Verde Irrigation Board metting 'a very different atmosphere' , and ask the question how these water managers are elected or appointed onto to these water boards. One thing is for sure, the 10 x 12 'honorable mention' bronze plaque that mentions the Colorado on the walkway on Olivera Street downtown Los Angeles.
Thanks, Mr. James! For the stories.
Keep us UPDATED on this subject ... THANK YOU!
Great documentary, very insightful. Sad to watch though!!
Great job on this documentary Ian and your crew!👍 Lots of great data points in the video. You hit just about every facet of this complex issue. Each state along the river has their own unique problems to work out and they really started coming into the public light when Lake Mead dropped in 2022. It's great to see all the increased attention surrounding this issue and we hope the push will get everyone closer to understanding how to fix all this. If you are ever in the Lake Mead / Las Vegas area again to cover this topic feel free to reach out to us here, we continue to watch the reservoir and changes in the river.
Marc Reisner's great book Cadillac Desert written in 1986 explained that even John Wesley Powell tried in the 1870's after his trips down the Colorado to convince the country to NOT develop the arid west for irrigation agriculture. You can't grow a lasting society in dry place without water. We didn't, we built a short term place to PROSPER........ for awhile. Nothing is in balance in our American west. Despite my gloomy words I thank the LA Times and Ian James and entire team for their good work here.
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, It's your problem ! Tell the developers and politicians no more, your population has exceeded resources ! And good luck with that !
Crazy, folks who have to have water pumped long distances from the river insist they have more of a right to use water to make money than people at the end of the river who live very close to the river now has zero water do.
Ranchers think their rights are more important no matter how ridiculous the situation gets.
The end of the river is in Mexico.
Exactly why is it Mexico has no say when they river is supposed to flow through there. It's gross.
@@artransue By treaty, Mexico has rights to about 10% of the Colorado river's total flow.
Humans LOVE learning the hard way!😢😢 we didn't plan....we took as much as we could....now we suffer...
Yes its called OVER POPULATED DESERTS.
Overpopulated with cows, yes.
The dead Colorado river delta indicates that the catastrophe already occurred whereas the consequences will arrive for civilization soon enough as blowback from climate change.
the cannot fix water overconsumption, but hey yes they can fix "climate change"
23:37 “Then we need to be compensated for our cost.” Translation- “I should be entitled to free money from the government.”
I wonder how this guy feels about other people getting monetary help from the government.
Heres an idea, stop watering the desert, its a desert for a reason
21:19. In the background is one of the many mountains of harvested hay or alfalfa. Much of that animal feed, grown on government subsidized water, is for export to Saudi Arabia, China, Japan and other money rich but water poor countries
25:16. Fatmers talking about installing sprinkler systems yo irrigate their anim🎉al feed. Because sprinklers, inefficient as they are, are more efficient than what they have bee using, which is flooding the fields, which is the least efficient, misr wasteful method of irritation there is.
California needs to get their act together and start capturing more precipitation from atmospheric rivers during el nino years.
And bake a pie in the sky too. Please provide us the technology to do that.
They are running out of places to put the dams
California needs 50% less people.
yes, they will build a new Capitol and spend on "experiencing homelessness" by killing the economy.
@@HandofBlake and one hundred percent less illegal aliens.
There are two choices here:
1. Make significant changes now to avoid catastrophe or
2. Fail to make significant changes and have a catastrophe.
My money is on option 2.
3. Just stop breeding cows
It will be 2. It is the USA, enough said. They just TAKE, and never mind the consequences.
@@MrNick3742as illustrated in the video, cattle are a small percentage of the water consumption. Sure, the area can't support the ranches that are there but the issue is largely water heavy crops and over population.
@@TheHonestPeanut Water-heavy crops like alfalfa?
@@MrNick3742 and wheat and corn and soy and fruit and nuts and veggies.
There are just some places humans are not meant to live, and this is a prime example. Irrisponsible growth for no purpose other than greed. Dont complain down the road people about your water issues, you chose to live in a desert. Ridiculous.
thank you for this reporting, excellent work
Thanks very much.
He sets out to deceive and succeeds.
food forests can restore hydrology.
First sensible comment I've seen to this video. We need to replace all the pastures, mono crops, and other conventional agriculture with biodiverse permaculture food forests ASAP.
High progressive water prices can fix the problem in 1 sec.
Incredibly interesting and well made documentary!
Now the question is how do we fix this?
Start with recreation that is taking up water like Golf Courses in desert?
Or start with restructuring water rights and how those are sold and bid for?
Stop breeding cows
Combination of multiple good ideas. Sacrifices will have to be made. Survival over leisure. Corporations needs to cut back demands. Teamwork? What is that says the capitalist!
Golf courses don't consume that much water compared to things like agriculture
The river is not in crisis
Denver Water has stolen the water and us pumping it to the Mississippi.
Fundamentally Denver water is not compliant of the basic water law of returning the water to its original watershed.
Helli, as for the agricultural fields, they should be smaller with more confines with some trees and bushes. Their shades help to hold more water in the soil and their leaves in autumn give nutriments to the soil...
I totally agree, but it is like doing things the old fashioned way is out of style.
Very convenient that California was not covered much if not at all, when California takes most of the water……
19:53
Great civilizations come and then they go.
This one will be no different.
The decline has already started.
"Driven by the burning of fossil fuels."
LAT has been predicting end of Sierra snow for decades including right before the 5th biggest snow in recorded history, 2022/23.
SOooo...let's burn more fossils to feed the rivers?
California needs to stop wasting Water..
Excellent video.
Politicos ,sociedade civil,agricultores deven unir forças para salvar o rio Colorado, a unica solução e a reflorestação, o tempo não espera é preciso agir con urgencia mãos a obra por favor...!
The planning for Hoover Dam was based on erroneous climate data. Lake Mead has only ever been close to full for a few years since the construction of the dam. Urban and agricultural development in this desert region which is dependent on the Colorado river system was *NEVER* fundamentally sustainable over the long term.
Sad thing is that it will have to collapse. The US government will not admit what needs to be done until it's the only option.
Farmers will be pitted against cities. And it will be ugly.
I live in NH So much water. Its awesome.
River Kepper!! go visit the knot 'the core' that holds the River, Palo Verde Diversion Dam and the several water district entity's that wheel and deal for the control of it.
Thank you LA times for highlighting. Also really appreciate your frequent articles advocating for native plants and lawn removal
Putting dams on rivers results in huge evaporation losses. So how crazy is building dams to use water to make electricity in the driest places on earth?
So why has one of the largest manufacturing plants built in North phoenix?
The guy who wants dams to be demolished has no idea of the disaster he is calling for. "Spirituality"... Just leave the area and return it to first comers... no... Mine!
I have one reason why those rivers dry up, that's DAMS! or Hydroelectric Dams, we have seen multiple cases where dam removals cleared the way for biodiversity and normal river levels
Dams are no good, but the real problem is cows & their feed. Alfalfa crops use 62% of the water we obtain from the Colorado.
You really need to know your history guys.
Study up on Powell.
He proposed basing County and state lines based on watersheds just like the original Spanish settelers who laid out the territories who learned it from the African Moores.
Hmmm crazy…. Wasn’t the times and its owner heavily involved in the consolidation of farm land and water rights from other areas of California to feed your city….
The guys saying Alfalfa grows best here...... but it is a water intensive crop. Then obviously it's not best for there. Crazy concept.
Grows best isn't the best crop.
Build more farms in the desert that’ll help. Maybe California with all their money can build desalination plants and make the Colorado great again.
Remember, before the dams they had floods. And we have all eaten food from the Imperial Valley
The Aral LAKE and Chad LAKE are being overused for irrgation. But both lakes have less than 40 million people depending on them.
Just like the Panama Canal, is a RIVER going belly up just due to men's necessity !
The amazing thing is how does the west have so many water issues??? You people would shit your selfs if you seen how much water is diverted from the Niagara River right above Niagara Falls even with them diverting half the flow Horseshoe Falls still has 675,000 gallons of water spilling over in every second and another 75,000 gallons of water spill over the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls per second even with all this diversion it doesn't effect Lake Erie's or Lake Ontarios water levels
Abuse Mother Nature at your own risk....there is plenty of water....too many people😂😂😂😂😂😂
Too many cows*
Lets also look at Vegas... Alot of that water is bought by Casinos to run their fountains and pools..
cali could incorporate new energy production, like small modular reactors and start desalinating salt water
Does noone else think its weird that they're farming in an "arrid" area as one farmer said? Why are we farming in what would be desert or a "dustbowl"? They need to change what theyre farming or move out of the desert. I live in the midwest and we farm crops that are appropriate for the water levels, terrain, and environments.
There are all sort of reasons to grow crops in arid areas, just off the top of my head.
1. Land is cheap, which is a huge factor in agriculture.
2. Less weeds that are adapted to the conditions your crop grows well in.
3. A huge reduction in pests and diseases that can affect the crops.
4. Because of reasons 2 and 3, you can use significantly less agrochemicals, which are expensive.
4:00 The cattleman states that he will do whatever it takes to fill his water rights even with lower flows.
Let's see when the millions start moving up to him as he "gets what's his"
612k views only 140 comments it truly deserves to dry up
You forgot to plant big trees, like the baobab, all tree is usefull, planted by a mexican family in baha.
Everything good always have a downside.
Some people might say it's too late to solve these problems and I strongly agree.
the fact we think we can live anywhere we want ,building subdivisions and golf courses all over the deserts of our country will lead to our own demise....yet most of humanity is seldom aware of these issues while profit margins remain high, its hard to say no to 6 figures, mansions and country clubs ..when the mansions burn down the country clubs and golf courses dry up , no one is buying your mansion in the desert it will be painfully clear how stupid we have been .... the amount of areas that are completely unlivable without water being diverted into these areas are so widespread that they are beyond counting ... gotta say when people in the high desert complain about their neighborhood not having enough water i find myself saying ....well yea you live in a desert dumasp good call
The 40 million people use the Colorado River they said.40 million people depending people wake up
16:17 yall messed up. these people knew how to live with the earth, we are so greedy today
I hate Liberty mutual. I wish they'd stop showing me so many ads
Water rationing.
When it runs out don’t bring yall ass to the east coast 😂
Americans and water, trouble? Nah, they just lay the blame somewhere else.
"Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today" Benjemin Franklin. Humanity going down the plughole to a chorus of 'blame somewhere else'. "Off with his head!", Neptune's. The arrogance 'and the ecstasy' of 'The Affluent Society'. Slainte (gaelic for, look after yourself). "Be daring but not" John Patric* daring, Ferdinand Foch. *1902 - 1985
If everyone P ed In a jug and flushed it once a week how much water woud that save? ⛲️
Thousands of times less than if everyone stopped eating cows
This whole video is "but I need to make my money".
The only one who actually gives a shit about conservation is the conservation expert.
The farmers only see $ going away.
Well golly I thought it was all just hunky dory. The head in the sand squad did their government overreach dance, they got some rain and then it was all good for a day. Problem solved!
Rethought or reallotments? Good luck.
[Ecclesiastes 5:10] If you involved players don't start growing your "onions" and "almonds" in places where God sends more than enough free annual water from the sky ... sooner rather than latter ... no seniors or juniors or anyone else will have water. Just continue doing the same thing ... and the writing is clearly on the wall! The answers here are simple ones ... but the players just don't want to except them!!!
Why would you want freshwater running into the sea? This documentary starts out terribly
aktivistai juk žino, kad kuomet vanduo garuoja atsiranda debesys ir lietus ir jei aktivistai sako, kad upės seka dėl klimato kaitos, tai juk ir vandeninai turėtu sekti.
...and who told you that God didn't answer? He knows what you are going through, he listened and the answer, given, is on its way...
🙄
Yes. It costs money to provide the world with more than half of its exportable daily bread. And the Northwest has a huge surplus of water that just runs into the oceans. There has to be an increased effort to move that surplus water to where it's needed. Recharge that great supply where it's needed.
All these millions of people with their lawns that they never use to any extent and all of the single family dwellings that these lawns surround which is the least efficient form of housing there is. Time for a change in this process. The river was never made for Los Angeles or Phoenix or Las Vegas. Without these cities, the Colorado would prosper. But like anything else in North America, the system will be used up until its failure.
make forest.. same the land
I have no compassion for these beef farmers, their product is seriously water intensive. People aRE cutting down on beef, I don't want to give these climate crisis enhancers one more drop change your product, there are lots of them to choose from. As far as I am concerned they are poor stewards of the land and don't deserve water from a river miles away....sad
Millions and millions of ppl eat beef they love it so many steakhouses to eat at I don't see beef farming going away wut so ever not in urs or my lifetime anyway think how many ppl be without a job not just farmers but all ppl work at steakhouses restaurants truckers that haul beef way to many ppl that beef farming isn't going anywhere facts
@HibouRondo Regenerative ranching is a greenwashing scam. See "Grazed and Confused" by Oxford or read Regenesis by George Monbiot. Regardless, 62% of the water we use from this river is being put on alfalfa mono crops, which are incredibly water-intensive. Globally we use 60 of all agricultural land to grow cows, and they produce only 2% of our calories. Cows don't just eat all the alfalfa, they eat more soy, grains, and fish than people do, while emitting unsustainable amounts of methane in the process. When analyzed by real scientists, cows grown in the methods employed at White Oak Pastures, Joes Saladin, et al are generally about 500% worse.
Bring a farmer means driving something. I almost never see anything about farming and the guy is driving something. Years ago I believed that being a farmer ment,I dunno you fix stuff and herd cows
@@JamesPilkenton-se5cx Being a farmer means creating a bounty of food for your community. Creating a bounty of food requires a biodiversity on the land we steward in order to increase its productivity and make it better for the generation that will follow us. It doesn't mean relying on gov. handouts and cheap chemically-saturated foodstuffs to feed one kind of inefficient animal for a few months before sending them off to slaughter. Cows, goats, and other grazing animals that are protected from nature by profit-seeking farmers is what turns good & marginal land into deserts. The more varieties of life we allow on our land, the more it will yield. That's how nature has always worked.
This is the dumbest comment section that I have ever read.
People wake up!
I wonder how the river looked around 1100 AD during the 250 year drought that hit the west. 250 years, and another 150 year drought after that one, must have really dried up the river. That well before "man made global warming", automobiles or coal fired power plants. All they have is about 150 years of actual weather data to go by. And that record has few data points in the early years. That doesn't include 200, 300 or 600 years ago either. I'll laugh if the next 30 years brings "above average" precipitation through out the region.
You're more likely to have to drink your own tears.
Decades ago America should be sending Mississippi River water and Great Lakes water to the Deserts South West. Where humans can better use the water. And the evaporation cooling process would cool the planet down
Stop the BS there is so much snow pack
This is propaganda, is it not?
Let the water go to the sea and turn to salt, talk about waste.
Water is supposed to reach the sea. Living deltas rank among the most productive and sustainable sources of food for humans. Agriculture is a dead end as the United States will discover in the West and Midwest.
Is Donald Trump as US president again bad for the US climate management n water resources or environmental crisis.
As usual, I have to explain how capitalism started all of these problems! We never should have had 30 million farmers in 1900, now 1 million, because we NEEDED housing for +50 million people, and we should have built only Tower cities connected to maglev Trains, worldwide, and no wage, so we could have built desalination plants worldwide (because in capitalism that “costs too much” to pay wages) and probably no dams like here at the Colorado River. And every Tower could have had rainfall catchments, and other ways to catch water (like water towers or who knows, from too much rain that caused floods) and we could have caught the RAIN/flood water and sent it to nations that needed it (which is too expensive in capitalism). Then people wouldn’t have suffered through floods and hurricanes etc and it killed millions that would have lived longer if not in houses and cars. We should have had fewer farms, and NO fertilizer which we now know is very bad. And could have taught people not to eat so much beef, which the government was paying millions in ads to teach people to eat lots more beef because then farmers could sell more and have a better income, which wouldn’t have existed because all people should have owned all things and we could have eliminated money, and had equal wealth so billions weren’t left to starve to death, because they should have built T&T too, and there wouldn’t have been the drug cartels, that are taking over small and large farms in Mexico and everywhere, started by the CIA probably to help poor people have something (drugs) to sell for an income! No CIA, no crimes, no prisons, no law enforcement killing innocent people sometimes. Then we could have started rethinking growing food vertically without soil, indoors, so farmers aren’t ruined when tornadoes, hurricanes, floods etc destroy all their crops and houses leaving them destitute, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, after all that hard WORK! In T&T all people could have worked part time, no debt or rent (causes poverty because it IS POVERTY!), because most jobs never would have existed (think especially low wage McDonalds etc jobs). No colleges would have been teaching slavery for wages! Equal wealth means no people could have been unable to AFFORD to live in T&T! And so much more. Renew your mind and start thinking differently!
40 million people use the Colorado River they said. I wonder how much that number would be knocked down if we removed the 33 million illegal immigrants. Not only does illegal immigration cost Tax Payers 162 Billion Dollars a year but also stuff like this. Huge water loss. Just imagine the water savings from 33 million people not being in the USA o
Since they're the ones farming all the food, it would decrease by about 100% when everyone starved. If we stopped farming cows and instead grew food for humans, we could easily pay everyone a living wage and there would be more than enough food and water for all of us.
They are not 'illegal immigrants'. They are undocumented Democrat voters.
LA times?😂😂😂😂