My former newspaper colleague Win Quigley came over to the UNM Water Resources Program offices the other day to talk to Bruce Thomson and I about central New Mexico’s water problems and the virtue (or inevitability) of muddling through:
“We know how to do this. Humans are adaptable,” Fleck said. “When people have less water, they use less water.”
(Hard to explain how weird it felt to be on the other side of the microphone/notebook. Kinda nerve-wracking, but fun.)
John, I’m disappointed that you’re not writing more about Drought Schadenfreude. There are some interesting aspects to exploring what it is and who suffers from it.
Kathryn – We do all rather seen to be enjoying California’s pain, don’t we. But no one more than the Californians themselves, it seems.
Sadly enough, Win took home the wrong part of your conversation.
To me it’s all Schade and no Freude, but then Phoenix exists in a perpetual drought.
Kathryn – I’m beginning to think Phoenix isn’t *really* in perpetual drought (hasn’t central Arizona had enough surplus to sock away 3 or 4 million acre feet underground?) but that *thinking* you are has served you well. 🙂