“Cooling rooms from 110 degrees to 75 degrees requires less energy than heating them from minus 25 to 68.

Where the Water Goes written by David Owen is about the Colorado River. Read more quotes and comments by clicking through.

It is impossible to be doctrinaire about a doctrine that no one understands.

It’s big, thirsty, densely populated cities that make sparsely inhabited wild places possible— a package deal.

The gourmets infatuation with tiny vegetables has water and energy implications. So does the preference for organic produce, which, because the yields are lower, requires both more water and more land, thereby encouraging “agricultural sprawl,”

A new subdivision in some especially dry part of the West— say, on the outskirts of metropolitan Phoenix— will almost always use less water than any irrigated farm it replaces.

Las Vegas is a city whose modern existence depends on the availability of cheap jet fuel and the inability of the average person to understand basic arithmetic.

The area around Yuma is desolate enough to suit a love-sick poet.

This book gave me an understanding of why Arizona, one of the driest places in the world, has plenty of water. It inspired me to start my series of blog posts on Phoenix’s Phabulous Phountains.