Las Vegas' losing gamble

Las Vegas has a hard won reputation as the gamblers' paradise. The multitude of glitzy casinos do their best to entice the multitude of tourists to risk their dollars in a variety of games.

But Las Vegas is a synthetic city in the Nevada desert. It has developed behind nothing more than the common lust to make money the easy way. However,  even such edifices cannot operate without an adequate continuing supply of water. The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River as a make work activity during the Great Depression. This created Lake Mead which provided the source for the water essential for the construction, operation and maintenance of all the infrastructure, including the multitude of casinos, of Las Vegas as well as the needs of the populace.

But the authorities got their sums wrong! If the water out exceeds the water in then the container will empty and then the water out will dry up. That is what is happening to Lake Mead and panic is setting in amongst the authorities and citizens of Las Vegas. It is ironical that the sponsors of Las Vegas gambled and are now losing much more than those who have been enticed there by the false promise of easy money.

Of course, Las Vegas is only an example of the muddled thinking of Homo sapiens that has resulted in the intractable devastation of Planet Earth for the sake of the illusory wants of some of the global population.

Tangible and intangible wealth

Time goes by. We all know that and we become more aware of it as we age! So does energy go by as it always dissipates as it flows and does work. We know that personally even though governments, industrialists and the media tell us that fossil fuels and nuclear will continue to meet energy demands, without taking into account the deleterious consequences. We also know that all organisms, including us, have to get rid of gaseous, liquid and solid wastes as well as waste heat. So material also goes by when it is transformed in a process.

But we are told we can make money out of thin air to increase our wealth. Many do this by fair means and foul. That is the accepted view in Myopia simply because society believes that it is free to use natural resources and devastate the environment without paying for it. They do not realize that they are destroying tangible natural wealth in an unsustainable process while the fortunate few play with their intangible wealth - whilst it is worth something. A high proportion of the crustal store of fossil fuel has already gone up in smoke

Tityas raping Gaia

Gaia has evolved slowly over eons with the Sun providing most of the energy needed by the vast range of organisms and biological systems. The hydrological, carbon and nitrogen cycles have played a crucial role in this evolution. The occasional outburst of powerful natural forces promoted geological development. Movements of tectonic plates has caused earthquakes while the eruption of volcanoes has done much to improve the fertility of a number of regions. This is how Gaia developed for eons with the occasional missile from outer space causing a temporary disruption.

Then Homo sapiens developed to the stage when the tools they invented enabled the usage of natural resources to provide their developing needs and wants. Crustal stores of many minerals were found and there extraction has enabled the mining industry to make a major contribution to the increasing standard of living for millions of people around the globe. This ravishing of the eco systems has grown exponentially in recent times, largely because of the availability of 'cheap' energy from the fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and uranium. Society has fallaciously regarded these natural resources as being free for its use. Industry has promoted the use of these natural forces and skilled workforce to build, operate and maintain the vast organism, Tityas, that provides the services that many people are addicted to using. Tityas is effectively ravishing Gaia to feed its rapid growth in recent times and will continue to do so in its coming senescence. However, the demise of much of Tiyas in coming decades is certain. Cars, airliners and container vessels are doomed species. Roads, bridges, pipelines, power grids, skyscrapers are just some of components of Tityas that will become derelict. Many cities will become virtually uninhabitable.

But it will take the natural forces of Gaia eons to recover from the devastation caused by Tityas.