Dust to Dust

If you were listening to NPR this morning, you may have heard the piece on the surmounting dust storms of the American Southwest. Unfortunately, and to no surprise at all, humans are destroying a key layer of crust which protects us:

"Dust storms are largely the result of tires and hooves, which are destroying natural biological barriers that once kept dust on the ground."

In fact dust kills reefs in the Caribean while contributing to rapid snow melt in the Rockies. And it all leads back to us. Is the desert a place we should be inhabiting with our version of reality?

All this trauma compounds the fact that we continue to build outward. As the sprawl of Phoenix, AZ grows, it will engage Tucson, AZ, once a city almost 2 hours away. Remember the biosphere project? That sustainable eco-experiment in the early nineties? Well, all 1658 acres of it have been sold to Fairfield Homes of Tucson, which will, you guessed it, create more single family, stick built, energy eating, dust creating, sprawl.

A little research on Fairfield homes leads to a long list of environmental destruction.
"David Williamson, the Scottsdale Baby Boomer who owns Fairfield Homes, is fighting conservationists and residents who oppose his plan to build a city of suburban houses and strip malls on the 5,954-acre ranch."

Once a key migratory area for jaguars, the ranch will now become part of the Phoeno-Tucson Megaburb. Be afraid, be very afraid.