News that’s fit to print

The delta at the Sea of Cortez from outer space. Thank you NASA

What you see, for the most part, if you still watch the evening news on television, is not news. It’s what reporters used to call the police blotter – fires, robberies, car chases, murders, etc. Things that cause the police or fire department to respond.

If you live in a city of half a million or more, there’s probably enough of that to take up most of the news. Add some politicians blathering, weather and sports and that’s a wrap.

Which is why you don’t hear real news. So here is some: For the first time in 50 years, we have returned a little of the Colorado River water that we have been stealing/wangling/finagling from Mexico – I’m not sure what the arrangement has been – so that the river actually now runs to the sea.

To the Sea of Cortez, to be precise, between Mexico and Baja, where the Colorado once fed the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta. The delta was about 2 million acres of marsh which supported migrating birds, a great variety of flora and fauna – just what you would imagine.

For decades the delta has been reduced to about 90% hardpan, agricultural run-off the only source of water for the other ten percent. You can see the desertification of the area in the photo from space.

A good summary of events can be found here  and an up-close and personal report with lots of good fotos can be found at National Geographic. I’d post a link but the gremlins have attacked the ‘insert media’ button, so you’ll have to cut and paste this: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/25/water-flows-into-colorado-river-delta-in-historic-first/

For some of us, that is big news.

 

 

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