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> “Over the last 20 years, there’s been several years where there were opportunities to not take all the water from the system, but we still did,” said Christop

> “Over the last 20 years, there’s been several years where there were opportunities to not take all the water from the system, but we still did,” said Christopher Kuzdas, a senior water program manager with the Environmental Defense Fund. “So we kept drawing down our water supplies in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. And so those water supplies in those lakes, almost roughly 60 million acre-feet of water, that’s been our buffer that has allowed us to keep going forward using more water than actually provided by the river each year.” Almost a textbook tragedy of the commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons > ...the federal government on Tuesday announced new water allocation reductions, including nearly 25 percent in cuts to Arizona. > In a news conference Tuesday, federal Bureau of Reclamation officials announced cuts to the yearly water allocation to Arizona and Nevada, as well as Mexico, which is also party to the compact. The bureau will withhold about 21 percent of Arizona’s yearly water allocation next year, as well as 8 percent of Nevada’s. In context, Arizona's population is expected to increase by 26.1% by 2040. Given that population increase, if their water allocation remains the same, then the average Arizonan in 2040 will have access to 62.6% as much water as the average Arizonan did yesterday. https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/how-arizona-s-population-will-change-in-the-next-20-years/article_86c80054-4e38-5825-b0d1-ede98be1c649.html https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/how-arizona-s-popula...

eesmith 4y ago
This empharically isn't a tragedy of the commons situation. Your link starts: > In economic science, the tragedy of the commons is a situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use,[1][2] act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource through their uncoordinated action Note the unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use? The formal rules which govern access and use were put into place 100 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact > The Colorado River Compact is a 1922 agreement among seven U.S. states in the basin of the Colorado River in the American Southwest governing the allocation of the water rights to the river's water among the parties of the interstate compact.
- deleted 4y ago
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- AftHurrahWinch 4y ago
  Good point! Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me.

eesmith 4y ago

This empharically isn't a tragedy of the commons situation. Your link starts: > In economic science, the tragedy of the commons is a situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use,[1][2] act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource through their uncoordinated action Note the unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use? The formal rules which govern access and use were put into place 100 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact > The Colorado River Compact is a 1922 agreement among seven U.S. states in the basin of the Colorado River in the American Southwest governing the allocation of the water rights to the river's water among the parties of the interstate compact.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
AftHurrahWinch 4y ago
Good point! Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me.