Comment · Sat, December 3, 2022
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What they were answering
tractiontiresadvised · 76 points
Have you even seen the forests in Arizona? This and this are in the Tonto National Forest, and this has several nice views from the Coconino National Forest.
They may have juniper and scrub oak trees, but it's still desert. Even the high-elevation areas with Ponderosa pines are not exactly lush by most people's standards.
(edit: and I'm not trying to imply that deserts are somehow bad. They're just not well-equpiped to support the large populations we've put in them....)
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Flagstaff Arizona is the 3rd snowiest city in the United States, and Arizona is home to the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world. There are a lot more lush areas than many think.
Here are some pics from a hike up by Flagstaff/Sedona.
Here are some pics from earlier this year \(Jan/Feb\) in Flagstaff.
It actually snowed in August this year, which is crazy! It wasn't much, and it didn't stick around long, but it did snow in August. Also, Arizona uses less water than it did 50 years ago.
I hate the population growth, too. Please stop moving here! However, the population growth has actually reduced water use, because the homes are replacing farms. Farms use 80% of the water in Arizona, and only 5% of the farms have been converted to low water use strategies. Our water rights were written 100 years ago, and are super fucked up. Saudi Arabia and Qatar actually own tons of farmland here, where they essentially get to pump unlimited free water to grow water-intensive alfalfa, then ship that back to the middle east!
https://azpbs.org/horizon/2022/06/saudi-water-deal-threatening-water-supply-in-phoenix/
They're not the only ones, either.
Inefficient farming is what is really straining Arizona's water. If we actually did what it took to change our water laws, and force farms to use water efficiently, Arizona actually has really good water resources compared to places like Nevada and the California deserts, that almost solely rely on the Colorado river. We have many ground water sources here that are replenished from local rains. It's raining here right now, actually. The monsoons here are a big part of that ground water regeneration. However, that only works if farms don't keep overusing water, then drilling deeper and deeper wells to fuck up the aquifers.