http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20180308-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
…“significant transcontinental infrastructure is necessary to support the development, spur economic growth, and boost intraregional trade on the continent.” But that infrastructure—for example, urgently needed new electric power—is exactly what U.S. policy does not help with, and China’s does.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his trip to Africa this week
A Note To Readers
A momentous point of history is upon us. The U.S. faces today, as it did in 1957, a scientific and technological challenge which was presented by President Putin on March 1, announcing revolutionary new weapons that make the U.S. missile defense system useless. See the last section, “Feature” in this report.
The point is, that as President Trump has said again and again, we must work with Russia. President Putin has made an offer that the President must accept, and I am sure he would like to accept.
That can begin the necessary dialogue in the United States of thinking 50 years into the future. And guess who is the first to do so?
John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, who said this week that with the Las Vegas area population growth that,”The projections have SNWA seriously thinking about a desalination plant on the shores of the Pacific Ocean to turn ocean water into drinking water for Southern Nevada, he said.”
That should remind us of the “impossible project” initiated in 1905 by William Mulholland to build the Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913.
With this issue of this report, I do declare that the drought is back. There is about a zero percent chance of a “Miracle March.” The question a drought always presents to us humans is, have we prepared ourselves to manage whatever it is that nature decides to hand us? For now, the answer must be, “not yet.” William Mulholland did prepare Los Angeles for the future more than 100 years ago, building the Los Angeles Aqueduct. So did Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and Governor Pat Brown in the 1960s. It is time, and the opportunity to do so, is once again before us.
So, the governor and everyone else can argue about the Delta tunnels, which, as you can read below, they are still engaged in such, but we will discuss in the weeks to come, the great projects that will meet the needs of the state and the nation for 50-100 years to come.
There are a few more items on California water in this week’s report, but the “Feature” this week is my focus. The quote above from Secretary of State Tillerson is from an item in that section that is part of the report on the biggest infrastructure project on the planet that just moved forward– the Transaqua Project to refill Lake Chad in the heart of Africa.
Of interest too is the President’s announcement and signing today of tariffs on steel and aluminum. Several items are included in that report. I’ll just say here, that in itself tariffs will not do much for an actual real industrial recovery of the nation.
That requires that the U.S. return to the “American System,” and that system as several items highlight, is exactly what has been adopted by China, and it works.
