Friday, Nov. 18, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The story “Death in the Family,” published Nov. 8 in the Sun, discusses the loss of Native American fishing on the Klamath River in California.
A similar article could have been written on just about any river in the western United States, and many east of the great divide. Even the Mississippi is suffering the loss of water resulting from the rise in temperature in the Rockies combined with drought.
But a lot of people depend on tourism, water recreation and fishing for livelihoods. If you owned a general store or sporting goods store in a community along those rivers, would you be shouting to the world about your financial plight? No, you would do just what is being done, hang a “for sale” sign and stay quiet.
There is no help coming, assuming the drought continues. They and the millions of folks moving north are just the vanguard of those who will be affected.
Next year, about 5 million people depending on electrical production of the Glen Canyon Dam are going to be out of power. Has anyone seen new production of wind turbines and solar cells to offset that loss?
At the Las Vegas Wash, you can see and smell the stink of water recycled from sewage flowing on the ground on its way back to Lake Mead. You can smell it because of its incomplete processing, and you can see it evaporating along the way, slowed by trash that has been allowed into that return.
