Comment by lenerdenator
19 hours ago
Well, to a point. I honestly don't get why, for example, we're building anything that requires a lot of water in Arizona.
19 hours ago
Well, to a point. I honestly don't get why, for example, we're building anything that requires a lot of water in Arizona.
Why are we growing crops that depend on monsoon amounts of water in the desert? Because people with money and power have decided that's what they want to do.
The explanation has never made intuitive sense to me and the political power of almond and alfalfa farmers continues to elude me. Yes, almond farmers have money but Larry Ellison, Musk, and Sergey Brin have a shitload more. As do non-tech industries like Californian real estate developers. California has ~40 billionaires from real estate alone. That industry, and tech, and manufacturing, and everyone else is also competing for water supply.
What makes almond farmers so good at procuring and maintaining political influence?
I don’t even know if they need to maintain political influence, they own water rights which are worth a ridiculous amount of money which entitles them to a share of water based on when the water usage began. It’s complicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior-appropriation_water_righ...