Leaving Las Vegas
Giving up technological fantasies, getting back to reality
Yesterday I met Nicole, a lovely woman in her 30s who was visiting from Las Vegas. We had a good conversation, but her words filled me with sadness and fear.
I asked her what it was like living in this summer’s heat, which has reached over 116 degrees F (46.6 Celsius). Nicole’s smile faded and she looked toward the floor. “I’m grateful,” she said. “I’ve got a garage and air conditioning. Things are OK.” I got the sense that she was happy to be in San Francisco where the temperature was closer to 60 degrees (15.5 C), but things were definitely not OK. People in Vegas are dying in the streets from heat and dehydration.
Las Vegas could be the poster city for America’s disconnect from reality, but people continue to move there and use up their fast disappearing supplies of water. The Guardian newspaper reported, “Las Vegas’ population is booming and the city is sprawling into the surrounding desert. On hot days, the highways and roads are littered with broken-down automobiles — commuter cars, ambulances, delivery trucks and buses that overheat as they made their way to and from the city-center.”
Many Americans blissfully ignore the realities of global warming, if they think about Nature at all. Most refuse to accept ecological limits on their…
