Way back when, when I was young and dumb and optimistically naive (5 years ago) I truly believed Americans would wake up, face the water and climate crisis, and start making changes. Oh, sweet summer's child! Oh, foolish dreamer!
It was not to be and never will. We seem determined to run headlong into that tall and thick brick wall some call reality. We seem determined to push it - not to the cliffs edge but over the edge. We seem determined to condemn our grandchildren to some fresh apocalypse simply to maintain the fantasy of limitless growth among the grinding desert sands.
Damn! It's been awhile since I've been to Kanab, but not all THAT long. I really used to like it. A pub in a Mormon town even. Small, cute, outdoorsy, affordable. I guess that was then and this is now. I'll go through Kanab, but not TO Kanab. Bummer. People with money...there's not much they don't buck up.
I suspect the Four Corners states will continue to react to their shrinking amount of water much as Texas has to its overabundance of water this week … not until after catastrophe hits. The behavior pattern seems to be wired into our species.
In Imperial County, 130,000 acres is in fruit, veg, etc, which benefits from the warm southern CA climate, but 250,000 acres plus is in hay/alfalfa/grass. There is no need to "preserve farmland" or whatever related rallying cries are saying about fallowing for solar there or elsewhere. Not a whole lotta farmworkers laid off if 20,000 of that turns into 5000 MW of solar. Milk is bad for most of us anyway, and there is nothing wrong with concentrating it into cheese in Wisconsin or Oregon and hauling it to the SW for our pizzas and enchiladas.
Also in a Western coal or nuke power plant about a half gallon of water is evaporated for every kWh generated. A little math shows that for each acre in solar substituting for our old coal plants is reducing that evaporated water by 3/4 of an acre foot in addition to the two acre feet avoided by fallowing. Already reduced use of water at coal power plants basin wide has been one item actually delaying the day of CO river water reckoning.
And wells to disguise river water use. Will we ever learn? It's like building on sand barrier islands. Didn't I hear this was a bad idea in 1970?
Confession: I love Kanab! For sentimental reasons. My husband and I got married there while on a 900-ish mile trek across Utah at the Kane County court house, by Judge Gary Johnson. I couldn't help myself at the time and explained to Judge Johnson that we were getting married THERE because of our love of Utah's public lands. (The geologic formations of Kane County continue to embody some of the places we love most on this magnificent ball of water and rock we call Earth.) When my partner initially suggested getting married in Kanab, I wasn't so sure I wanted to support the regional economy; given all sorts of things that happen in and around the county (no, not just the practice in the towns a little further to the west, but ordinances that were anti-LGBTQIA+). However, conversations with some locals and business owners over a couple of rest days and hitches revealed their hypotheses that enterprises such as Best Friends were paving the way for a more diverse and inclusive community to grow in Kanab, little by little. Maybe that was too optimistic on their parts and mine, but that perspective tilted my scales into thinking it was okay to have a marriage certificate from Kane Co. on our fridge.
Now I'm wondering if that "growing diverse community mindset" somehow got squirted into a radioactive petri dish for gentrification; similar to how it seems to be happening in other communities around the West that appeal to target markets of upper income, outdoor enthusiasts. It also boggles my mind to think about how there's been a shortage of affordable workforce housing around Kanab for years (just sit in a coffee shop for an hour or so and listen to locals chat) and now most of the housing that gets built is for luxury vacation homes. Oh, and developers are sourcing water that probably took a very long time to pool underground. Sigh. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Gentrification is, indeed, a weird phenomenon. It seems that the folks who are most opposed to gentrification are also the ones who often spark and enable it (in the sense that they are the ones who bring art and culture and amenities to backwater places first, in part because they are remote and more affordable). That is to say, the "diverse community" folks clear the way for gentrification, but when it starts to manifest they are also leading the fight to stop it. Problem is, by then it's usually too late ...
It depends on what you mean by all of that. Certainly the amenities economy is extractive, and Kanab is charging headfirst into the amenities economy. At the same time, it's surrounded by BLM land, which seems to be heading back to the Bureau of Livestock and Mining days, so that's another form of extraction that could return to the area (if there are resources to be profitably recovered).
Way back when, when I was young and dumb and optimistically naive (5 years ago) I truly believed Americans would wake up, face the water and climate crisis, and start making changes. Oh, sweet summer's child! Oh, foolish dreamer!
It was not to be and never will. We seem determined to run headlong into that tall and thick brick wall some call reality. We seem determined to push it - not to the cliffs edge but over the edge. We seem determined to condemn our grandchildren to some fresh apocalypse simply to maintain the fantasy of limitless growth among the grinding desert sands.
Alas.
The comment section in the youtube video seems to to agree with your sentiments.
Damn! It's been awhile since I've been to Kanab, but not all THAT long. I really used to like it. A pub in a Mormon town even. Small, cute, outdoorsy, affordable. I guess that was then and this is now. I'll go through Kanab, but not TO Kanab. Bummer. People with money...there's not much they don't buck up.
I suspect the Four Corners states will continue to react to their shrinking amount of water much as Texas has to its overabundance of water this week … not until after catastrophe hits. The behavior pattern seems to be wired into our species.
In Imperial County, 130,000 acres is in fruit, veg, etc, which benefits from the warm southern CA climate, but 250,000 acres plus is in hay/alfalfa/grass. There is no need to "preserve farmland" or whatever related rallying cries are saying about fallowing for solar there or elsewhere. Not a whole lotta farmworkers laid off if 20,000 of that turns into 5000 MW of solar. Milk is bad for most of us anyway, and there is nothing wrong with concentrating it into cheese in Wisconsin or Oregon and hauling it to the SW for our pizzas and enchiladas.
Also in a Western coal or nuke power plant about a half gallon of water is evaporated for every kWh generated. A little math shows that for each acre in solar substituting for our old coal plants is reducing that evaporated water by 3/4 of an acre foot in addition to the two acre feet avoided by fallowing. Already reduced use of water at coal power plants basin wide has been one item actually delaying the day of CO river water reckoning.
And wells to disguise river water use. Will we ever learn? It's like building on sand barrier islands. Didn't I hear this was a bad idea in 1970?
Confession: I love Kanab! For sentimental reasons. My husband and I got married there while on a 900-ish mile trek across Utah at the Kane County court house, by Judge Gary Johnson. I couldn't help myself at the time and explained to Judge Johnson that we were getting married THERE because of our love of Utah's public lands. (The geologic formations of Kane County continue to embody some of the places we love most on this magnificent ball of water and rock we call Earth.) When my partner initially suggested getting married in Kanab, I wasn't so sure I wanted to support the regional economy; given all sorts of things that happen in and around the county (no, not just the practice in the towns a little further to the west, but ordinances that were anti-LGBTQIA+). However, conversations with some locals and business owners over a couple of rest days and hitches revealed their hypotheses that enterprises such as Best Friends were paving the way for a more diverse and inclusive community to grow in Kanab, little by little. Maybe that was too optimistic on their parts and mine, but that perspective tilted my scales into thinking it was okay to have a marriage certificate from Kane Co. on our fridge.
Now I'm wondering if that "growing diverse community mindset" somehow got squirted into a radioactive petri dish for gentrification; similar to how it seems to be happening in other communities around the West that appeal to target markets of upper income, outdoor enthusiasts. It also boggles my mind to think about how there's been a shortage of affordable workforce housing around Kanab for years (just sit in a coffee shop for an hour or so and listen to locals chat) and now most of the housing that gets built is for luxury vacation homes. Oh, and developers are sourcing water that probably took a very long time to pool underground. Sigh. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Gentrification is, indeed, a weird phenomenon. It seems that the folks who are most opposed to gentrification are also the ones who often spark and enable it (in the sense that they are the ones who bring art and culture and amenities to backwater places first, in part because they are remote and more affordable). That is to say, the "diverse community" folks clear the way for gentrification, but when it starts to manifest they are also leading the fight to stop it. Problem is, by then it's usually too late ...
So you think the area/region is heading from pristine to extraction, through service to the service & extraction economy?
It depends on what you mean by all of that. Certainly the amenities economy is extractive, and Kanab is charging headfirst into the amenities economy. At the same time, it's surrounded by BLM land, which seems to be heading back to the Bureau of Livestock and Mining days, so that's another form of extraction that could return to the area (if there are resources to be profitably recovered).