Originally published at: High temperatures are making Phoenix unlivable | Boing Boing
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The problem with trees as a solution is that they require a lot of water. Even if the city pays for it, it is clearly not environmentally all that great.
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Assholes are making Phoenix unlivable
FTFY
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Read about what happens next here:
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Around Phoenix there’s nothing native that resembles a suburban shade tree - it’s all low laying scrub. Canals and irrigation were what made the surrounding lands farmable and there is already a water issue as the Colorado is drying up.
Trees aren’t going to make that city livable long term. I’m not sure WHAT is going to make that city livable long term.
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Cooler global climate.
Phoenix should probably be considered a write off.
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Maybe shading as much of the area as possible under solar panel arrays? Might as well make use of the one resource they do have in abundance.
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That’s actually a really well thought through and reasonable idea. The state is a trumpist paradise in the upper levels of government, if not so much in the general population anymore… Never gonna happen barring serious political change of heart. Hear that AZ? 2020 was not the end of the race, just the point where it got interesting.
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So plant all those trees, I wouldn’t worry too much. The water commission will ensure Arizona gets their fair percentage of Colorado flow, what’s the problem? /s
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Once again: Dubai is not a model any American urban planner should be following (that’s Phoenix’s GOP politicians’ cue for extolling the virtues of imported indentured labour, of course).
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I’ve had this on my “to read” shelf for a few years but it never popped up to the top of the stack. Do you recommend it? (Sounds like it’s not a “fun” read in any event.)
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I have family that moved there and I don’t know why… well one moved there to be closer to their grand kids and to golf - but it sounds like you have to get up super early to golf and then go hide indoors. My former inlaws moved there. I dunno - I’ve visited AZ once for the Petrified forest and stuff - neat place - don’t want to live there.
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“If there is, in fact, a Heaven and a Hell, all we know for sure is that Hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix…”
– Hunter S Thompson, “Generation of Swine: Authors Note”, 1988
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It’s on my “to read” list as well. If you want a truly depressing book along the same lines but with oil, try Slow Apocalypse by John Varley. It doesn’t have any bright side.
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Yeah, the Water Knife doesn’t really have a bright side either. If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, I’d say it’s a must read, simply because the whole thing is so damn plausible. And Bacigalupi’s world building is so good. Of all the books in this genre I’ve read in the last decade, this one stayed with me the most.
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There are some trees that do well in very arid areas and don’t require a ton of water but will take time to establish even if they were to plant grown trees. And to make a difference they’d need to plant a lot of them, which i can’t imagine is doable with sourcing and money-wise unless they’re looking at the long term (which politically speaking rarely happens here in the US, they love short term wins and solutions).
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I suspect that the desert willows and honey mesquites don’t do as good a job at reducing the ambient temperature as other plants might. I have at least two desert willows growing as a weed in my yard right now without any water that I am debating whether to keep. The Rio Grand Cottonwood is a great local shade tree here in the Chihuahua but it has a reputation as sucking up all the water from the playas. I don’t really know if it is true or not and nobody deliberately plants it.
The Las Cruces city planners keep putting in oaks with an irrigation system. I’m not sure the thinking there, but at least they seem to have given up on grass except for some parks that use reclaimed water.
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