Colorado: The Highest State, Second Edition

19. Natural Resources

281 Protecting our state’s natural resources from pollution, destruction, and overuse is one of the biggest challenges Coloradans face. How much of our land should be used for agriculture? How much for houses? How much for shopping malls? How many mountains should be left untouched and how many turned into ski areas? How many forests should be used for timber or be protected as wilderness? How much water can be diverted from rivers before it causes shortages downstream? Balancing the need to conserve resources for future generations with today’s needs for those same resources requires hard choices. Coloradans have always faced questions about how best to use the state’s natural resources. How can we both use and preserve our limited oil, coal, natural gas, water, and other resources? These questions remain major challenges in the twenty-first century. As the price of gas climbed from a dollar to nearly four dollars a gallon, people began to realize that oil, like other riches of the earth, is becoming scarce. Millions of years ago, when Colorado was swampy and had inland seas, it swarmed with dinosaurs and other creatures. As these animals and plants died and rotted, their organic matter decomposed over thousands of years and created fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas. Coloradans have been using up these fuels at a rapid rate, and their prices have soared as a result. Natural resources 19 282 N a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s As more and bigger homes are built, more and more natural gas is used to heat them. Despite the early 2000s boom in natural gas, it, like coal and oil, is a nonrenewable resource. Coal has been the main source of energy for power plants that generate electricity. It is still mined and has become one of Colorado’s major imports to neighboring states such as Texas. Environmentalists point out that we are rapidly exhausting the state’s coal supply. They also argue that burning coal pollutes the air and creates much sulfur dioxide, the major cause of global warming. Water Thoughtful Coloradans also realize that water is scarce in the state. How we choose to use it affects everyone. Coloradans have learned to provide water to places that need it. Dams, irrigation ditches, and tunnels redirect water to thirsty farms, ranches, and communities. Most of the state’s rain and snow falls on the west side of the mountains, but most Coloradans live on the east side of the Continental Divide. As a result, a large amount of water is diverted from the Colorado River and the Western Slope to the cities on the Eastern Slope. Dinosaurs such as Diplodocus, whose skeleton can be seen at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, once thrived in what was then a swampy Colorado. Dinosaurs and other decaying animals and plants were transformed into fossil fuels, such as the oil and coal we use today. Courtesy, Denver MuseuM of nature anD sCienCe. N a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s 283 After it has been diverted, Colorado River water goes to thirsty cities and towns along the Front Range. This urban area stretches from Pueblo in the south to Fort Collins to the north and contains three-fourths of the state’s population. Waterisourmostimportantresource.ColoradowriterThomasHornsby Ferril was aware of this when he wrote the poem “Here is a land where life is written in water.” Fire Climate changes have also increased the danger of wildfires. The year 2001 constituted the driest twelve months in Colorado’s recorded weather history . Some areas of the state had been dry for more than five years prior to that date. Unfortunately, summer rains had not come as usual, and winter Fossil fuels are refined to make gasoline, whose automobile exhaust pol­ lutes the air. As early as the 1960s, smog caused parts or even all of metro Denver and the moun­ tains to disappear from sight. Photo by Otto Roach. Courtesy, Denver PubliC library. 284 N a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s snows were smaller than average. Farmers and ranchers watched their fields and pastures dry up. Many communities faced water shortages. Coloradans who lived in the mountains wondered what a fire might do to their homes. Fire stations were far away...