¶ … American West as Living Space by Wallace Stegner, Stegner discusses the West with many different angles, but always as an arid area that must be contended with. No, Stegner's book is not a prophecy of doom; it is a realistic and quite correct assessment of the "arid" West, as he calls it. The entire region does depend on water, and many of his prophecies are indeed coming true, as in the evaporation of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the change of habitat and ecosystems along the Colorado River, and the gradual decline of the availability of Colorado River water. This is forcing all those communities who depend on it to seek water from other sources (i.e. Las Vegas wants to pump water from Northern Nevada to help ease its water woes).
Stegner wrote this book originally in 1987, and 20 years ago, it may have seemed that the West would not continue to grow as much as it has, or that global warming and climate change would drastically change water patterns, or that people could possibly use so much water. It may have seemed to many that Stegner was simply expressing a bitter lament or was being a naysayer, but in fact, what he predicted is actually quite close to the truth. The West is being settled as an insane rate, and there is simply not enough water to continue this growth. Certainly, there are other issues that make up the West, from its complex history to its varied ecosystems, peoples, and cities and towns. The fabric of the West is a patchwork, but if people do not evaluate it as "living space" above all else, and change their basic view of the West as never ending and always available, the West is going to undergo such a drastic and permanent change that it may not be inhabitable for a majority of those who live their now. Stegner, instead of being a negative doomsday predictor was a prophet who should have been listened to a long time ago.
It is the obsession for independence, in Stegner's view, rather than a real need for being mobile that is driving the Americans in general, and the Americans from the West to keep moving at all costs. To illustrate the idea of their inability to escape their own fate, Stegner uses the example of Wister's novel, the Virginian, whose hero, named after the region he comes from, although acting only
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American Terrorist Threat Since the events of September 11. 2001. Americans have had an increased concern about the possibility of more terrorism within United States borders. Although our government has made monumental efforts to prevent future attacks. A terrorist only has to slip through once. whereas our vigilance has to be 100% successful at all times. Because of that fact it seems inevitable that eventually. we will see more terrorist attacks
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