Marc Reisner: Water Flows Uphill
on Tuesday, October 5, 2021Marc Reisner Money Quote saying that water defies physics to flow uphill when there is money above and mentions the thirstiest places with uphill money. Marc Reisner said:
“In the West, it is said, water flows uphill toward money. And it literally does, as it leaps three thousand feet across the Tehachapi Mountains in gigantic siphons to slake the thirst of Los Angeles, as it is shoved a thousand feet out of Colorado River canyons to water Phoenix and Palm Springs and the irrigated lands around them” — Marc Reisner
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In this quote, author Marc Reisner seems to be commenting on how the pursuit of economic gain and growth can literally move water resources against natural forces. He notes that in the Western United States, water is frequently transported over long distances and to great heights using massive infrastructure projects in order to supply the demands of large cities and irrigated agriculture.
Reisner suggests that the West’s economic development has been built upon an assumption that “water flows uphill toward money” – meaning that where there is potential for profit, people will find ways to defy geography and bring water to those areas through extensive engineering works.
So the quote serves as an observation on how financial incentives have allowed humans to overcome natural hydrological limitations in shaping patterns of settlement and land use in the Western US.
Birthday: September 14, 1948 – July 21, 2000