The Colorado

In this thoughtful companion to Murat Eyuboglu’s 2016 documentary of the same name, river guide Sadler (Dawn of the Dinosaurs: The Late Triassic in the American Southwest) traces the conflict-laden and cautionary history of the Colorado River and its basin, following its evolution from untamed, free-flowing river to human-engineered disaster area. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book provides a flat if broad overview of the river’s history as, variously, sustainer of Native Americans, colonizing pathway for Spanish missionaries, incubator for rampant development, political and social cauldron, and victim of climate change. Explorer John Wesley Powell made the majestic Grand Canyon and Colorado River famous in the late 19th century, and proposed “commonwealths” with boundaries based on an area’s watershed instead of random development, predicting “a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not enough water to supply these lands!” Policymakers ignored Powell’s prophetic words, however, parceling out the “liquid property” to the competing demands of agriculture, urban growth, and industry, with the result that resources are now stretched dangerously thin even as climate change worsens conditions. Sadler’s in-depth exploration of the Colorado River and its rich legacy offers a thought-provoking if unsettling look at society’s destructive exploitation of the water and its failure to practice Powell’s concepts of conservation. (BookLife)