Virtual Book Panel Water & Science: A Conversation on the Colorado River

Eric Kuhn and John Fleck, authors of Science Be Dammed, discuss water management history and the challenges facing the Colorado River on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.

This virtual book panel, moderated by Ben Wilder, director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona, will delve into the conventional wisdom that the 1922 Colorado River Compact negotiators did the best they could with a limited gauge record. The data they used happened to be during an unusually wet period.

Please register for this free event here.

This event will be hosted on Zoom. You’ll receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day of the event via email. Please email publicity@uapress.arizona.edu if you have any questions.

The authors argue in Science Be Dammed argue that the politicians, states, and water agencies that shaped the development of the Colorado River had the science available to them to make better decisions, but political expedience prevailed and the science was ignored.

Today, the Colorado River is overused and facing a future where climate change is reducing the Colorado River flows.

As we shape the future of the river, will we learn from our past mistakes or will we continue to ignore inconvenient science?