Stewardship in the Southwest

Each year in the United States 600,000 die of cancer. It is one of the deadliest sets of diseases in the Western world; these cancer varieties can be summarized as rampant cell growth into tumors which can then spread to other parts of the body, bringing down the patient’s entire physiological system in extremely unpleasant ways. While these diseases are certainly a plague on our society, there is another form of cancer, a malignant tumor festering in plain sight, encouraged by both big business and big government, taking hold of much of of the American West. The cancer I refer to is that of population explosion.

While population growth, particularly of Yankees and foreigners alike, is not novel to the South, the Mountain West areas of the country, loosely including parts of West Texas, are not, and have never been able to sustain that kind of population. As of the time of this writing, the state of Arizona is undergoing a record heat wave, resulting in weather advisories for people’s safety and the closure of many outdoor facilities and events normally scheduled to take place in early summer before the monsoon season and large spikes in temperature. While heat in the Southwest is not unexpected, the severity and timing has caught many residences and public services off guard. The principle issue one would expect is the power grid; so long as AC’s and cooling devices remain functioning, all is well. Or, so one might think in their naivety, in truth the problem is one of hydrology and requires real action rather than the lip synced environmentalism peddled by the Democratic Party.

Since Democrats are typically in favor of ever increasing rates of people and consumption, they are entirely hypocritical for both championing immigration and environmentalism. In fairness, however, Arizona’s Republican leadership is just as much to blame for both facilitating the population explosion and allowing massive immigration from notoriously leftwing states. Governor Doug Ducey and the state Republican Party expressed disappointment in not gaining a congressional seat from not having enough newcomers to the state. Liberals want to bring as many immigrants to the state as possible, to fundamentally transform it into a California colony; they are not secretive or shy about this, they laugh as they tell native Arizonans their intentions, from actual elected officials to the ever increasing amount of dough faced outsiders taking advantage of the state’s economy and (formerly) cheap land. The state is more liberal than ever, to the point of (supposedly) narrowly declaring for Biden in the 2020 election. Yet, Republican leadership is as blind and deaf to the issue of transplant conquest as they are to the water and housing situation.

It may not seem evident on the surface, but the issues in Arizona and the Southwest concerning water and climate are entirely connected with population growth. The line peddled by the Left is that “climate change” is human caused. Ergo, we have to tax and regulate to death energy sectors and your average Joe who drives a diesel truck for work. It is undeniable that climate change and environmental destruction is partially attributed to human activity, but not at all in a way any government official wants you to know. Population growth and urbanization is the cause of environmental devastation that requires little more than common sense to digest.

Arizona is a notoriously dry state, with very limited water resources; yet the state, especially the Phoenix metro area, has been the fastest or second fastest (depending on year) growing urban area in America for the past decade. It is also ranked 4th nationally for GDP growth, due to to Arizona becoming increasingly known for being at the forefront of technological development, medical advances, aerospace research, and the traditional basis of mining and mineral acquisition. Good news for Arizonans, right? Wrong. Less than 40% of the state’s population was born there: ~10% of the state population are California natives, 4% are from Illinois, with similar figures from Minnesota and Wisconsin, 2% of the population are from Ohio, and another 3% are New Yorkers. 25% of the state’s population are migrants from California and the Upper Midwest. That is not even taking into account all the other states and immigration from outside the United States. Government officials and their toady citizens support see these numbers and their eyes roll back with dollar signs, either from the booming state economy, or the prospect of selling off their land and assets to newcomers (who will pay over the mark for it). While not the subject of this article, it should be noted that Arizona is in the midst of a housing crisis, with “out of state investors” (to the degree of companies literally called “Bear Coast Investors”) are paying 20-50k more than properties are worth, regardless of their condition, in order to “flip” them and make a profit off of selling it to a newcomer who can afford it.

While the cultural and economic impacts of these migrants are strenuous enough on the state, the far more sinister and long ranging issue is the fact that most of these people are not conscious about living in an arid environment, and the government, regardless of party, seems not to care in the slightest. As previously stated, Arizona is a very arid state, one of the driest in the nation after Nevada and Wyoming. Reservoirs and rivers in the state are extremely low; the Colorado River, the lifeblood for the American Southwest, is only at 38% capacity and on its way to the first ever shortage. Two years ago, state representatives from those states who depend on the river signed a series of accords to limit their water usage to ward off a water crisis; despite this, water levels continue to decline. Lake Mead is a mere five feet above the marker for an official shortage/crisis. As a result, the state government has determined that farmers in rural counties, such as Pinal County, are first on the chopping block for having their water access cut. Simultaneously, elected officials celebrate our booming population growth with bipartisan applause. To these people, it’s all just dollar signs and votes, even as the land withers and dies.

Arizona is also undergoing historic heat waves, and experts predict that these sorts of things will become “the new normal” (a phrase this author is entirely sick of hearing). The reasons for this are again, population growth. The urban heat effect is very real, and as much of Arizona’s population goes from rural to urban or suburban, the warming is inescapable. Not only that, but the lowering of the state’s water table and water sources like Lake Mead and the Colorado River affect the climate, due to the soil losing its moisture. Not only is this bad for agriculture and wildlife/wild ecosystems, our climate will only get hotter and drier if this keeps up. The real danger of this reckless population growth isn’t the cultural shift, toxic as that has been. It is the very real, very inescapable fact that it is quite literally killing the state, from the soil to the sky.

All peoples, regardless of political, ideological, or religious belief, should hold conservation and sustainability as a primary value or virtue; our planet’s health is our health, and ignoring her illnesses and wounds while we foster ever more growth and expansion is exponentially making everything worse. The Left likes to spin stories of doom and gloom of environmental catastrophe, yet egg it on with cheers. The Right is mostly blind to these issues, because their primary concern is holding office and making money. It will be up to us, the people who actually care about our communities, to vanguard them. If we fail to do so, the unavoidable cataclysm will certainly be the death knell for life in both the arid American West, but all over the country as well.

We must steward the land properly, or risk losing it forever.