This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Re "Pipeline pipe dream: Las Vegas water greed is too much" (Our View, Jan. 2):
Water is life, which makes the proposal to pump water from Utah's west desert to Las Vegas ludicrous. Places like Vegas and Phoenix are completely artificial. They could not exist without a massive influx of — and waste of — water, energy and everything else.
As classic examples of sprawling unsustainability, they should not exist. They will be among the first to go down when man-made calamity befalls us.
It's just stupid to transport life from the real world to Sin City. It would be like giving a brain-dead patient a heart transplant. Don't do it.
Vegas needs a heavy dose of reality, and the rest of us need to preserve as much of the natural world as possible.
Steve Russell
Moab