Where Population Meets Desertification

Re “Wasting Water Pours Our Future Down the Drain,” Voices, Aug. 16: Yes, let’s conserve water so we can pack more people into Southern California. Many of us used to hope that water, or the lack of it, would limit the population. Ha! Just steal more from somewhere else. I say water everything and water it all the time, or the zealous water vigilantes will have us using water only to drink. Humans only, oh boy.

Water is in a cycle. Our water evaporates and heads east, where it waters trees and returns via the Colorado River or through the ground -- that’s the “no-brainer” that Henry Schlinger condescendingly refers to. The problem isn’t “wasting” water; rather, it’s expecting ever-increasing population growth to be sustainable. See desertification.

Rex M. Lesicka

San Diego