Letter: Utah cannot support unlimited growth

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Lane Beattie ("Water and business must mix in Utah", Tribune, Aug. 6) is begging the business community for help in solving the wrong problem.

Rather than fretting over how to provide water for the doubling of our population, he should instead ask, "How many people, living the lifestyle we all crave, can Utah's limited supply of water, clean air and farmable land support?"

The Chamber and their friends in government expect us to ignore the fact that unlimited exponential growth on a finite piece of real estate is impossible. Their concern is only that growth continues long enough to enrich themselves and perhaps the next generation with little care for those who come after. This strategy worked well for their huckster cousins of the last century who convinced farmers to move to the western plains where "the rain will follow the plow."

Let us hope future Utahns are not the next Dust Bowl Okies.

Kirk Thomas

Salt Lake City