Climate Change and the Hoover Dam Epiphany

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Rather than build more water storage reservoirs and dams, California Governor Jerry Brown is planning on pursuing building two giant water tunnels. This is after throwing away California taxpayer monies on a bullet train that nobody wants to ride, and the costs that go along with the unconstitutional, Supremacy Clause violating, Sanctuary State status the State of California has decided to pursue.  Then, after essentially flipping the Trump administration the bird through rogue leftist legislation and cries of defiance by the State of California through claims that the State will do whatever it wants, regardless of the rule of law, Brown has now asked the federal government for help in paying for his water tunnel project.

The Trump administration said no.

The reasoning behind building water tunnels rather than dams is because the environmentalists in the Democrat Party hate dams because they “spoil the natural landscape” of our “stolen” land.  Tunnels are underground, and would not disturb the animal life.  Never mind that it is much more expensive, and still does not address the water storage problem.

While the dam-hating environmentalists of the liberal left ideological persuasion screams, “destroy the dams,” what they don’t stop to realize is that dams are good for more than water storage, water distribution, and the generation of electricity.  It turns out they also protect the land, and make it hospitable for both humans, and animals.

Man-made climate change hysteria claims the latest drought in California is due to man-made climate change, and the resulting heavy rainy season of last year was also the fault of man-made climate change.  It turns out, once again, that the liberal left logic is wrong.

I visited the Hoover Dam on October 30, and here’s what I learned. . .

Prior to the building of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s, and before the mass exodus of Americans to the American Southwest, engineers realized that if Southern California and the surrounding areas were to be ever settled, they would have to tame the Colorado River.  The river went through cycles of a dwindling flow and flooding as a result of the drought and heavy rain cycles experienced by the American Southwest.  The Salton Sink periodically would fill up with water from the Colorado River during cycles of heavy precipitation in the American Southwest.  After the turn of the twentieth century, not fully respecting the natural cycles of weather, engineers tried to divert more Colorado River water into the Imperial Valley in Southern California for crops, but heavy rains sent waters flooding into the area, leaving it the victim of the Colorado River’s waters through two new rivers for two years.  In short, it was realized that as a result of natural drought and flood cycles, unless a mighty dam was built to tame the Colorado River, Southern California, and perhaps much of the American Southwest would be uninhabitable.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the great dam was built.  It became one of the seven wonders of the world, and along with taming the Colorado River, it used the electricity generated by the dam to help pay for the effort to build it.  In the long run, all money spent was paid back to the government from the sell of electricity from the site.

Here’s what we have learned from this short history lesson.

1)  California’s drought is not the result of man-made climate change.  It is a natural cyclical occurrence that has come and gone many times throughout history.

2)  California’s (and the American Southwest’s) big rainy season last year was also not the result of man-made climate change.  As with the drought cycle, the muddy season also is naturally occurring.

3)  Dams do more than help with water storage and the distribution of water.  Without the Hoover Dam, much of the American Southwest would not be inhabitable, as a result of flooding.  Also, much of the area is also inhabitable because of what the Hoover Dam provides, in terms of the distribution of water and the electricity provided by the modern marvel.

The truth is out there, if only we are willing to look at true history.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary