Environmental Nightmares

[Monte Davis]

Laura Kelber asks:

>What is it about building a city in the desert that appeals to autocrats..?

Oh, the appeal is democratic, too. Marc Reisen's _Cadillac Desert_ is a terrific history of "making the desert bloom" projects in the American West from the days when John Wesley Powell told us "uh-uh, no [sustainable] way." 100+ years of dams, irrigation and long-distance water transfers, to drive patterns of agriculture and settlement that don't make hydrographic, demographic or economic sense. Mormons & Israelis go for it too. Las Vegas and LA are just the spectacular, symbolic tip of the, uhh, iceberg.

-Monte