Water irony

John Thackara's Designer Tweets from America:

"Obama's new energy secretary, Steven Chu, has just stated that 'we're
looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California'.
Immediately following our workshop, a state-wide water state of emergency
is declared.

http://www.vimeo.com/3195518

http://www.flickr.com/gp/92494461@N00/6161Hi

Chu's warning about 'no more federal water' contains an irony: The Central
Valley Irrigation Project, which enabled Caifornia's agriculture to flourish,
was authorised in 1935 as an infrastrucure project to beat the Great Depression.
Eighty five years later, the state's dependence on long-distance irrigation is
a structural impediment to sustainable water and agriculture. Now Obama
promises to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure -
to beat the depression.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warming4-2009feb04,0,7454963.story"

More about John Thackara.

(Via Beyond the Beyond.)