deliberate climate change

Back when I lived in Nebraska, I once heard a story about how some scientists decided to try and transplant a forest into the Western plains of Nebraska. They planted thousands of seedlings and watered and nourished them to try and get them to grow. The idea was that if they could make them survive, it may cause a radical climate change for the state. The experiment was a failure as it required more constant maintenance than they had the resources for.

But I was recently thinking that this is pretty similar to what is happening in areas like Denver or Phoenix, which are essentially desert climates. The only green grass you are going to see is the transplanted type that requires lots of water to make it survive the low humidity. My uncle once made a comment to me that if everyone stopped watering their lawns (as they are sometimes forced to do due to water restrictions), the area would be as brown and dried up as the desert, and I believe it.

But it doesn't stop people from moving there and propping up their vision of utopia. In Arizona luxury real estate is selling like hot cakes, and in Colorado the high-end homes don't appear to have been affected by the national slump that the rest of us are going through. Some may blame it on the West Coast transplants who come with big bucks to scoop up what is (in their collective mind) a great deal. For natives who aren't accustomed to paying $300k for a start home though, it can be quite disparaging.

A good friend of mine is in this exact predicament. He is a single father and never finished high school, but he managed to work his way up to a decent technical job. Unfortunately, because of his lack of education and other experience, he is a slave to that job and that company. He worries about getting surplused. He can get approval for a loan for a home, but there are no homes to be had for what he has been approved for. Even with the buyer's market and housing slump we are seeing for non-luxury markets, the prices have not fallen very far from the inflation tree just yet.

I'm trying to convince him to move somewhere else. Move somewhere greener and cheaper, I tell him. Somewhere that you don't have to be so concerned about getting let go and struggling to find another high-paying job. Move to a place where you can find a home for so cheap that you could work for anyone and still pay the bills. And start to develop multiple streams of income. Just like a retirement fund, why put all of your eggs into one basket? As nice and (over?) developed markets like Denver appear to be, they are still one or two sprinkler cycles short of a sandstorm, and with our nation's approach at conserving resources (like water), I'd be looking at (naturally) greener pastures instead.