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A review by superzygote
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition by Marc Reisner
3.0
Sweeping saga of the history of the water wars in the American southwest. Details the incredible corruption that led to the birth of Los Angeles and its surrounding counties -- a series of lush irrigated oases where Mother Nature intended to be a barren desert. He writes the book to foreshadow the end of empire, not as a warning so much as a blunt statement of fact. Along the way he catalogues all the vices and ill deeds that have been committed in our quest for water.
There is literally nothing in this history of water acquisition that is not dirty, from Los Angeles' outright theft of water from the Colorado River to the forced displacement of already displaced Native American tribes, from the construction of useless dams as state pork barrel projects to the gross irrigation subsidies for corporate farmers. It makes me deeply, deeply ashamed to be from Southern California.
There is literally nothing in this history of water acquisition that is not dirty, from Los Angeles' outright theft of water from the Colorado River to the forced displacement of already displaced Native American tribes, from the construction of useless dams as state pork barrel projects to the gross irrigation subsidies for corporate farmers. It makes me deeply, deeply ashamed to be from Southern California.