“And also a Brief Review of Some National Parks.”
Apparently I might have accidentally started a new tradition for myself, because just like last year with Los Angeles, I recently took an off-season winter trip to a much warmer location. Except this time, there was still snow, because I went to the city of sin, Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s pretty convenient that I turned 21 just a few months ago because it meant I was able to lose all the money I invested in gambling and also buy a thirty-six-dollar vodka slushy that only got me very slightly buzzed. Isn’t being an adult great?
I went to Las Vegas with my dad and my brother about a week ago, mainly since we’d never been there before and my dad wanted to take a vacation. It was the first time I’d been in either Nevada or Las Vegas, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. We did the normal tourist things, like seeing the Pawn Stars pawn shop and the Neon Museum, and of course we walked up and down the strip, going in and out of hotels and casinos all along Las Vegas Boulevard. We even drove past the Old Mormon Fort, which looks nothing like it does in Fallout. That was the only disappointing part of the trip.
I won’t lie, the strip both amazed and disgusted me. The lights and the noise were fascinating, and there was never a dull moment, even just walking around. From the Bellagio Water Show to the Treasure Island boats and everything in between and beyond, it was sensory overload after sensory overload. Everything was glitzy and glamorous, with more bright lights than you can shake an LED stick at. It was loud, it was rambunctious, it was exciting, it was different, it was fun. And everything there was, of course, designed specifically to be as enticing as possible. And by enticing, I mean that everything is designed to take your money. For example, the gambling.
I’d never been gambling before, besides my old Chuck E. Cheese days and the occasional loot box. But for the first time I got to experience slots, roulette, craps, and video poker with real money on the line. My real money, no less. It was pretty exhilarating, and I can see how it might be incredibly easy to become addicted to it. Good thing I only had about fifty bucks to lose, because I lost all of it within an hour. For Vegas, that’s pocket change, of course. But at least I had a good time.
That’s part of the genius of Las Vegas. Initially founded by Mormons, the city experienced massive growth both before and after World War 2, mainly fueled by the construction of the Hoover Dam. And then, from the 40’s into the 50’s and 60’s, Vegas had its explosive growth into the entertainment industry. The mafia moved in and built lavish, extravagant casino-hotels which acted not only as massive money-makers but probably also as fronts for money laundering, drug running, and the like. And don’t forget that atomic testing happened not far from the city, meaning tourists could see both the neon lights and the uranium lights. Hence the occasional nickname “Atomic City,” and the occasional radiation poisoning.
The city is inherently designed to make as much money as possible. It’s a service town, so it doesn’t have to worry about many exports or imports beyond the bare necessities. Its export is debauchery and imaginary money. And it’s in a relatively warm, dry place, so it’s open all year round. Only about four hours drive from Los Angeles and southern California, and conveniently located along a major highway, it’s in a prime location to make money hand over fist. And while Vegas isn’t in the prime that it was back in the 70’s and 80’s, it’s still pretty damn lucrative, I would bet. That’s something I would gamble on.
What’s insane about it, of course, is something that’s similarly insane about a lot of western US cities, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, and a few others; it’s built in the fucking desert. There’s no fucking water anywhere. The growth of Las Vegas, much like William Mulholland and the growth of Los Angeles, can be attributed to equal parts human ingenuity and bull-headed stubbornness. The only reason that Las Vegas can sustain millions of people in the middle of fucking nowhere is because of Hoover Dam. Lake Mead and that vast reservoir of water is what lets Las Vegas thrive. That, and the massive electricity that Hoover Dam produces.
This is, of course, an incredible feat. Just like Phoenix, Las Vegas may be a city that is dedicated to and monumentalizes American hubris. Why do we need a giant metropolis to be built on land that can naturally sustain only a handful of people? Because fuck you, that’s why. We’re gonna build this big-ass city and we aren’t going to let nature stop us. Las Vegas made the desert its bitch, and it isn’t letting go of the leash anytime soon.
I won’t lie, it’s deeply impressive. The scale of everything, the infrastructure required to keep it all running, the creativity and passion that had to go into making Las Vegas live, everything about it, is incredible. That city shouldn’t exist. Neither should Los Angeles. But they do, and they are ginormous. But this doesn’t come without costs.
Energy isn’t really that big a deal. Impressively, all of Las Vegas’s municipal services are run on renewable energy. The beating sun lets solar panels be massively more effective out there than in a lot of other places across the country, so a lot of the city is solar-powered. And what isn’t solar-powered in powered by Hoover Damn and its hydroelectric generators. Hydropower is actually the most efficient form of renewable power generation, when looking at things by the numbers. But then again, power isn’t the problem.
Space isn’t really the problem, either. Sure, Las Vegas is expansive and its suburbs take up a sizable area, but if you look at it compared to the rest of the land out there, it isn’t that big of an issue. Land use for cities, in general, is only a small percentage of overall land use; agriculture takes up the most space, by far. So the issues with land use in Vegas are the same as in any other city; all those people need food, and that food needs land to grow on. The actual, physical footprint of the city isn’t that big. Sure, the desert ecosystem would be healthier if it wasn’t squashed under five million people, but the Chicago suburbs are way worse in that department.
No, the biggest problem that makes Las Vegas so environmentally problematic comes down to one thing; resource consumption. Building hotels and casinos takes materials, like concrete and wood and chemicals. Those aren’t always cheap to produce, and moving materials into Las Vegas costs fuel to transport. Vegas eats raw resources like nobody’s business, I would imagine, and it doesn’t really produce a whole lot in return. All this takes a toll on the natural world, both through the inputs of raw materials and the output of pollution in using those materials (cough, single use plastics and oil, cough). But maybe the biggest resource consumed is water, and that’s what’s I predict is going to be the limiting factor on Las Vegas’s existence.
I’d be pretty surprised if I was the first person the make that prediction. In fact, I can guarantee I’m not, because from an environmental science perspective, it’s pretty obvious. Water is what many scientists think future wars will be fought over, presumably Mad Max-style. Some wars and revolutions, like the Arab Spring, may have already been indirectly connected to water crises. Fresh, easily accessible water is running out around the world, from India to California, and if we aren’t careful, eventually everywhere else. The world is getting hotter and less predictable, which not only speeds up evaporation and the melting of glaciers, but also decreases the reliable frequency of precipitation. Plus, for a lot of places that get their water from underground aquifers, that shit takes thousands of years to recharge. You can’t drink a glass of water and then expect it to refill from condensation.
The limit on agriculture is water resources, and the limit on Las Vegas is Lake Mead. Around 18 million people rely on the reservoirs behind Hoover Dam for their water supplies, and if those 18 million people use more water than is being produced (i.e., by having giant fucking fountains in the middle of the desert), then eventually it’s going to run out. And if things get hotter and more water evaporates from Lake Mead or less gets precipitated in, then it’s going to run out faster. It’s a water-depended world, and we aren’t careful enough with our water. And that doesn’t even mention the massive ecological damage that Hoover Dam produced. That’s a whole other story.
To the city’s credit, they are working on some sort of sustainability plan for water. Several of the casinos have water retention plans for their extravagant fountains and the like, or some sort of water recycling system. That doesn’t change the fact that most of the water used in Vegas apparently happens in hotel rooms, and that, I feel I should reiterate, Las Vegas is in a desert. As long as Lake Mead stays at a reasonable level, Las Vegas will be fine. But if climate change or overuse throw things off balance and Lake Mead doesn’t have enough water, eventually Las Vegas is going to need a new source. I don’t know where that’s going to come from, but I hope they find it.
I don’t want to slam Vegas too much. I had a great time and a lot of fun, and also wasted a lot of money. Or, rather, my dad wasted a lot of money for me since the trip was on him. Thanks, dad. But on the trip we also went to three national parks in Utah, and the national parks were my favorite part of the trip. I might right about them more in the future, but I just felt like writing a piece about Vegas would be fun. Anyway, here’s a brief overview of the parks we went to.
Capitol Reef is pretty neat. It’s in a dark sky area, so the stars are amazing, if you don’t mind driving a few miles to get away from the lights of whatever hotel you might be staying in. Unless you’re camping, then you don’t have much of an issue there. The natural bridge was cool, and the rock formations are impressive.
Bryce Canyon was perhaps the most picturesque of the three parks we went to, but the drive up to it, on scenic byway 12 through Grand Staircase Escalante, was almost even better. Highly recommend that drive. And also highly recommend inspiration point at Bryce. It’s, as my dad says, the moneyshot. Hiking down into the amphitheater is a great time, too, if you have the inclination to hike instead of only driving along the scenic road.
And, finally, we saw Zion National Park, which was my favorite because the hiking there was so great. Where at Bryce Canyon you’re on the top of the rocks, Zion puts you at the bottom of the valley, and you get to drive or hike through, staring at these massive canyon walls. We tried to hike Angel’s Landing, but there was too much ice on the trail to go all the way to the end. But we did get to see the canyon narrows and some pools of water, which were pretty neat. Out of all the parks, Zion is the one that I want to spend more time at the most. And maybe Grand Staircase. But, without a doubt, I think that everyone should get a chance to see places like Zion or Bryce Canyon sometime in their life. The view is unlike anything else, and for someone who hasn’t seen anything like that before, it could be life-changing.
The same can be said about Las Vegas, I guess, but to a lesser extent. Viva Las Vegas, baby. Make sure you’ve got cash to burn.
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