We’ve all watched CSI and thought ‘what a cool place to live’. Yes it has a beautiful desert and fascinating culture. But it’s also having huge issues, as a city that’s warming faster than any other in the USA, and uses a colossal amount of energy thanks to the Las Vegas Strip with all the neon lights (our Blackpool lights have nothing on it).
Thousands of people are now suffering (due to incredible heatwaves and no money to afford air conditioning) and some people have died. This is a real case of consumerism gone seriously wrong, as the city won’t turn off the lights, due to tourism income from cabarets, casinos and people getting married by preachers that look like Elvis.
If you experience a heatwave, drink cool water and stay out of strong heats, eat foods with high water content, wear loose-fitting breathable fabrics and use fans and cool showers to reduce body temperature. Read tips on how to stay safe in the sun (for people and pets).
The local river suffers droughts (in a city that needs colossal amounts of water for luxury golf courses), and the city is the 12st most polluted in the USA, and one of the poorest (25% of the population are immigrants). It’s no doubt warm and welcoming, but just like the casinos, the city is betting on inventions, rather than solving issues at its source (traffic gridlock and aeroplane fumes).
Las Vegas already has barely enough water for the next 20 years, at current rates of depletion. The warming climate has led to rapidly decreasing snow pack on the Rockies, that feeds the Colorado rivers and its dams. Nevada is triggering a water war with neighbouring Utah, by drilling in Snake Valley, and it seems the lawyers will cash in. Las Vegas just gets more and more water and energy greedy. Professor Sue Roaf (environmental architect)
In England, locals in Blackpool are equally concerned at lighting up buildings which not only wastes energy but causes light pollution for wildlife (keeping lights out can help stop birds flying into windows). Local astronomers are aware the lights bring in substantial business, but say plans to create an artificial ‘aurora borealis’ (northern lights) by way of a 1KW laser to shine in the sky, would not just blight the night sky, but ruin views across the county (and also for Merseyside, Cumbria, North Wales and even Isle of Man).