Drought “is the death of the earth,” wrote the poet T. S. Eliot.
An article in this morning’s Arizona Daily Star stated,” A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found.” Arizona continues to have water crisis, especially in rural areas, that is being lost in this age of COVID-19. Former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt has been speaking at community water meetings in rural areas.
“The way things stand now, former County Supervisor Richard Searle said, “we’re mining our water.” Searle farms pistachios on 20 acres in Cochise, where over the past two decades the groundwater level has declined about 50 feet. If the water keeps dropping, he said, the problem might eventually “solve itself” because it would become increasingly expensive to drill deeper and some growers would likely quit farming. But if that happens, Searle added, “it’s going to kill our ag economy.”
Today I’m reblogging a post from 2012, “Ecocide Arizona Style – The Cow That Ate The West.” Pistachio farmers and land developers have now replaced cattle. — kenne
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