GODPARENT FOR THE ANTHROPOCENE

THE GRAND CANYON:  

ENVIRONMENTAL ICON OF THE EARTH SYSTEM --

AND FOR US AS A PART OF IT

Let's stand at Mather Point on the Grand Canyon's South Rim, looking out over the world's most famous layout of this Earth’s geological epochs--

not all of them, but some of the earliest, and certainly the latest, the Anthropocene: the epoch of us, humanity’s own. Just a skim on the mighty schists of the Archean, the gigantic walls of the Mississipian Redwall, the white band of the Permian Coconino, yet here it is, our Anthropocene of the concrete and asphalt right under our feet :

and spreading south in acres of parking lots & sidewalks, metal protective railings and, off to our right, the sturdy tanks storing water brought from springs out of sight on the north side. through 12 miles of pipeline, crossing a steel suspension bridge over the Colorado way down at the bottom before climbing up the old walls beneath us.

Not too far off to the west, once even visible from nearby Maricopa Point, are the remains of a uranium mine, a 1500’ hole dug down through and behind the Canyon's walls to reach the mine's toxic treasure. These Anthropocenic evidences may rust and erode, but traces will remain to tease geologists in the far future with the power and glory of Homo sapiens, a species that wrote its passage into the stone for the ages, as we altered the Earth System, Gaia some call it, to burn its forests and melt the ice sheets remaining after the last glaciation's end, the event 12 millennia ago that set us off to populate, explore, tame, and exploit that System beyond its capability to support us.

Fortunately for those of us who consider ourselves advocates for, lovers & protectors of, the Grand Canyon, 50 years ago the United States, after a grand public debate, chose to abandon a grandiose Anthropocenic dream, a scheme that would have produced the most long-lasting and visible industrial artifact of them all -- the electrification of the Grand Canyon founded on two large concrete hydroelectric dams with all their accompanying powerplants & high-tension lines, highways, residential & commercial urban support sites, mass recreation facilities, etc., etc.

I've lived to see the day!!

Biggest US reservoir declares historic shortage, forcing water cuts across west

           --headline in today’s Guardian (and lots of other places):

"Officials issue first-ever declaration of tier 1 shortage at Lake Mead as it falls to lowest level since its creation"

And aren’t the shades of the 1960’s water warriors rising up in their righteousness at the declaration that the Colorado River is officially water-short in the lower basin:

There’s Mike Ely of California, elevated high above his grave chortling over his victory at securing the priority of California’s Colorado River allotment regardless of anybody else—no cuts for his masters.

And rumplestiltskin-like Wayne Aspinall of Colorado, hopping up and down—“I told you so! I told you so! I told you there wouldn’t be enough water.”

And Washington’s Henry Jackson serenely contemplating from on high the full-flowing Columbia, untapped by pipes from the Columbia to Lake Mead in order to service Los Angeles and Pinal County farmers.

And the Arizonans, as always at each others’ throats, roaring about how they were cheated of their fair share of the Colorado — “I got my canal; who cares if its not full”, boasts Carl Hayden, slapping down the states-righters. “We did the best we could”, chorus the Udall brothers — “It was those damn anti-dam people”; “It was those insatiable Californians." “It was the Northwest refusing to share its bounty — we’re glad its burning.”

And Floyd Dominy, roasting in his own special hot spot: “They should have let me build my dams; I would have saved the world.”

And David Brower, well, I bet he is off somewhere in the mountains, scaling still another peak. I hope so.