Water is for Fighting Over

When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. In recent years, newspaper headlines have screamed,"Scarce water and the death of California farms,” "The Dust Bowl returns,” "A ‘megadrought' will grip U.S. in thecoming decades.” Yet similar stories have been appearing for decades and the taps continue to flow. John Fleck arguesthat the talk of impending doom is not only untrue, but dangerous. When people get scared, they fight for the last drop ofwater; but when they actually have less, they use less.Having covered environmental issues in the West for a quarter century, Fleck would be the last writer to discount theserious problems posed by a dwindling Colorado River. But in that time, Fleck has also seen people in the Colorado RiverBasin come together, conserve, and share the water that is available. Western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or US environmentalists and Mexican water managers, have a promising record of...