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Far from the lights, fountains and noise of the Las VegasAs the suburbs of Sin City burst, strip bulldozers are at work.
Las Vegas is expanding at an alarming rate. Clark county is where the city is situated. However, forecasts predict that the number will grow to 2.3 million.The population could rise to 4 million by 2055.
Attracted by the lures of lower living costs, lower taxes, and newly constructed homes More than Half a million people are expected flock to southern California. NevadaIn just 15 years. To accommodate them, the region’s arid landscape is being converted into strip malls and shopping centers as winding cul de sacs creep closer to the rocky hillsides.
However, balancing growth with climate change is a daunting task.
Temperatures from last year hit 116 degrees fahrenheit (46.6C) in June, setting a new recordThis is why it’s so hot and dangerously hot in this early part of the year. Concrete was hot during the day and continued to produce heat well after the sun set. Thousands of unhoused residents, outdoor workers, and communities that couldn’t afford the rising costs of air conditioning bore the brunt. 12 people died from heatstroke by July. The Clark county coroner will be retiring in 2020. We have 124 heat-related deaths.
It’s only going to get worse. The city Is Heating faster than anywhere elseIn the USA. The future will be hotter, dryer, and more turbulent, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a group of climate scientists from around world). BewareIn its most recent report.
The county is also grappling with a quickly waning water supply and intense air pollution that’s affecting the most vulnerable. These problems are made worse by heat, which will increase due to both the climate crisis as well as the building boom. The temperatures are going up and the people will continue to come.
Instead of curbing its growth, the city that is known for its excesses is betting that it can preserve itself from a climate disaster. Las Vegas leaders are making bold sustainability goals and promising to keep their word.
“We are one of the best-kept secrets in the world when it comes to sustainability”, said Jace Radke, a senior public information officer with the city of Las Vegas, listing off achievements. Radke stated that the city has already added 450 miles to its bike lane network, switched 52,000 streetlights from LED lighting, and all public buildings, parks and traffic lights are now powered by renewable energy.
Clark county A new sustainability and climate action strategy was adoptedIn 2021, the aims to decrease By 2050, emissions will be 100% The region relies heavily on recycling, even though water levels are expected to continue falling. Southern Nevada has the majority of indoor drains that return water directly to the reservoir.
The sustainability work has had a positive impact, but there’s still a long way to go.
2019 Clark countyLos Angeles generated more greenhouse gases than Los Angeles.According to a February report by the county, there are approximately 1.7 million more residents in this area. Nearly half of the county’s emissions are from energy used to power buildings and industry. Transportation accounted for 37% of the remaining emissions. Both of these industries are expected to grow as more homes and businesses get built and more residents use the roads. Construction equipment is expected to increase.As the county grows, so do the emissions.
Las Vegas It ranks 12th on the list of most polluted placesAccording to the American Lung Association (ALA), ozone is the most common form of ozone in the US. Residents in the hottest areas of the county are already feeling the effects.
In Cinthia Moore’s East Las Vegas home, two air purifiers hum throughout the day. The single mother said that her son still has breathing problems and skin rashes when the outside air is bad. Since moving to the area, she has also gotten more migraines and allergy symptoms that won’t subside.
The community This country has a 15% poverty-rate, and 25% of the population is immigrantsIt is hotter than its neighbors, and there are fewer trees to help with the extreme summer temperatures. The neighborhood’s Older homes have less ability to offer relief to residents and renters are often unable to upgrade. Many residents can’t afford to run their air conditioning as energy bills and rising rents have consumed increasingly larger portions of their incomes, Moore said.
Meanwhile, the slow churn of congestion on two major highways within a mile and a half of Moore’s home continues to spew pollutants. “There is a lot of traffic and cars are just sitting there,” she said. On weekdays, commuters move in and out of the city while tourists swarm in their cars to escape Las Vegas. “There are folks who are living right there and it’s going into their homes and they are experiencing pollution every day.”
If the air and the weather continue to worsen, she’s not sure how people will cope. “I always talk about leaving but it’s not that easy to just get up and move,” Moore said, noting the rising costs of living elsewhere. But more than that, she’d be leaving her support system, she said. “As a single mom it is hard. That’s why I stay here and fight for climate action.”
Moore is a real estate agent who has experienced the housing crisis first-hand. She is also the coordinator for Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition. This coalition is a network of advocacy groups that advocates for sustainability. She and others have called for the county’s attention to these urgent issues, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and people of color.
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For Marci Henson, the director of Clark county’s department of environment & sustainability, a controversial land bill, which would open up tens of thousands of acres of pristine desert to developers, holds the key in balancing growth and a sustainable future.
The federal legislation, introduced by the county last year in Congress, would authorize the sale of more 36,100 acres of public lands currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management.
The area is dotted with yuccas and is being considered as a new suburb. This area is home to endangered desert tortoises. The bill Would Create a new protected habitat to protect endangered species. This is part of the roughly 2m acre area that will be preserved elsewhere in the region. as new conservation and recreation areas.
It would also benefit local budgets. Clark County could receive funds from these land sales to help it achieve its ambitious climate goals.
They will be in dire need of them. The proposed expansion is located miles away from the city and could bring in scores of commuters. The heat will rise from concrete piled high on top of natural landscapes. This will cause more air conditioners to work harder to keep new buildings cool. Henson stated that the county is ready to address the problems.
“We can’t say, ‘We are full, you can’t come here any more,’” said Henson. “We were challenged to find the balance between making more land accessible and providing a relief valve for that urban growth without undermining the quality of life and the resources here.”
According to her, water is the greatest challenge. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies 90% of the region’s water, is mired in the worst drought in recorded history. Nearby, Lake Mead has a infamous and alarming bathtub ring that displays the 150-foot drop of water levels over the past two decades.
The region is trying to tighten its belt in the face of declining supplies and an expanding consumer base. The Southern Nevada Water Authority’s track-record is strong – per capita water use in the region decreased roughly 47% between 2002 and 2020 – but progress has plateaued in recent years.
Officials at the water agency state that they have taken care of the easy tasks and are now trying to reach the more difficult ones. Water waste is almost exclusively due to indoor use. This is due to older systems that cool large buildings, such as shopping malls or casinos, and to landscaping. Throughout the city, it’s easy to spot decorative grass lining parking lots or accenting the entrances to homes and businesses.
The agency works with the county and the private sector They will prohibit the installation of cooling systems that are too thirsty in new developments. They also restrict what goes to golf courses that are connected with resorts. 10% of the total supply. Lawns that don’t have recreational use are being outlawed, with plans for full eradication by 2026.
The system will be under increased heat pressure as a result. This will drive demand up by 10 gallons per capita per daily (GPCD). The current consumption is 110 GPCD. However, new homes and water-users will add to the burden. Although they are being crunched both ways, the agency has set a lofty goal to reduce consumption from 123 GPCD. Based on models that account higher heat demand, Current systems and expected growth, to 86 GPCD in 2035.
The agency is also exploring new sources of supply. After decades of resistance from ranchers, conservationists, and tribes, the SNWA has abandoned a controversial plan to build a 300-mile pipeline to pump groundwater from eastern Nevada. They still have water rights in this region, however.. The department will also help finance a water recycling program spearheaded by the Metropolitan Water District (Southern California), which would grant them some output when construction is complete.
Conservation will still be key in a dry future where water resources are scarce.
“Implementing conservation programs successfully are the things that allow me to sleep at night,” said Colby Pelligrino, the deputy general manager of water resources for the SNWA, adding that she isn’t concerned about continued sprawl. Las Vegas native, she has seen the city change and grow over the years and considers the shifts a hallmark of Southern Nevada.
“When people think about Las Vegas they think about living in excess, but we have been a world-leader in water conservation for at least the last decade and a half,” She said. “We have got work to do to balance our water use and our water demands.”
Patrick Donnelly, a tortoise biologist and the Great Basin Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy organization, doesn’t see it that way. He has been fighting against the lands bill from its inception and is concerned about the unrestricted spread of the lands bill in southern Nevada. The lands bills has caused a split in the justice and environmental communities, with different opinions on the net effect of increasing both development and conservation.
“The biggest issue with the Clark county lands bill is not the loss of tortoise habitat, it’s not even the water, it’s the climate crisis” Donnelly said, adding that it is “like hammering in the nails to our own coffin”.
He doesn’t think the region can conserve enough to make up for a new sprawling suburb, more cars on the roads, and more concrete in one of the hottest areas in the country. “It is perpetuating the same pattern of unsustainable development that brought us to the brink of climate collapse to begin with.”
Donnelly has been pushing for lawmakers to plan for growth upward, rather than outward. “There’s no doubt – Clark county does not have control over demographic shifts” he said. “But they are talking about Las Vegas metastasizing like a tumorous growth outside the valley. Is it true that all these people require single-family homes to live in? That is wrong.”
However, people will continue coming to the desert and their future there may be uncertain. People who are looking for more affordable options run the chance of becoming stuck as the landscape becomes less livable.
“There’s a gallows humor when you live here, like, ‘Ha ha, one day this place is going to be uninhabitable,’” Donnelly said. “It is a dark joke but actually it is true. One day, this place will be uninhabitable. And the question I pose when people say that is, ‘Who gets to leave?’”
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