M. A. Booth | Red Phoenix correspondent | Kentucky–

Over the course of the 20th century, an endorheic rift lake — a collection of water within a basin with no evident outlet — in the California desert has become the center of an ongoing environmental disaster. Fueled by a lack of effective water management from the state, over-irrigation, climate change, and extremely wasteful private farming practices, the Salton Sea of southern California represents the future of desert biomes across the United States. Under our current profit-driven socioeconomic system of Capitalism and Imperialism, this life or death situation will only continue to worsen with time.

The Salton Sea was originally formed by an inflow of water from the Colorado River between the years of 1905-1907. As a canal was being dug from the river, water from spring floods broke through the dam and made its way into the formerly dry lake of the Salton basin. This is what created the modern, stagnant body of water we see today.

During the last hundred years, this “accident” of history became a major hub for cash crops and tourism. As water rights were privatized by people moving into the area, a “use it or lose it” type of mentality began to take over. This contributing factor, combined with the inescapable profit incentive of capitalism, led many to practice various forms of unsustainable agriculture.

The Salton Sea peaked as a tourist destination in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time, it received more visitors than Yosemite National Park. Many famous celebrities and wealthy individuals frequented the lake for its unique fishing, swimming, boating, and “desert oasis” experiences. In the decades following, the sea began to shrink. With each passing year, former beaches began to sit farther and farther away from the water’s edge. This marked the beginning of the end for this man-made “accident” of history. The decrease in total water volume over time increased the salinity of an already hypersaline body of water, contributing to massive die-offs of fish in the 1980s and beyond. Their carcasses littered the shoreline to decompose in the blistering sun every so often for years to come.

Not only did the receding water levels kill off thousands upon thousands of fish, but the only source of “freshwater” for this terminal lake was agricultural run-off from the surrounding farms. This introduced massive amounts of pesticides into the water, which eventually settled to the bottom and soaked into the sand.

When the shoreline recedes, it opens up previously submerged areas of dry lakebed known as playa. The playa is highly toxic. Winds from incoming weather fronts spread DDT, arsenic, and selenium-laced dust into the air. This toxic dust then enters the lungs of nearby residents, resulting in instances of respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis to be 20-22.4% higher on average in the area around the Salton Sea than California’s 14% state average. Exposure to the dust can also cause various forms of cancer, leading to a plethora of health problems for the poorest individuals living closest to this inhospitable cesspool of a “sea.”

“Green Tide” events have also become more common in the Salton Sea. Gypsum blooms contribute to massive die-offs of fish, compounding the issue with the abnormally high levels of salt in the water. Whenever these events occur, the noxious odor often becomes overwhelming to humans. The stench of fish and rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) has made its way to areas as far away from the Salton Sea as Los Angeles County!

The lake serves as an important breeding ground and water source for a number of different bird species, and incidents of avian botulism have been on the rise. Birds eat the infected fish and invertebrates, then succumb to the deadly bacteria they harbor within them. Being a closed body of water with no real inflow or outflow, the bacteria that causes botulism lies dormant in the lake for generations. Current conservation efforts haven’t been able to keep up with the exponential decline in the conditions of this unique ecosystem.

Circling back to the capitalist-owned farms of California, we can see how their agricultural run-off and wasteful use of scarce water resources have contributed to this ongoing environmental catastrophe. Two-thirds of our out-of-season fruits and vegetables are grown in the area around the Salton Sea. Lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, and onions are all harvested out there in the middle of the desert. While you may enjoy this luxury while you’re shopping at the grocery store, it’s simply unsustainable in the long term. As the lake shrinks and the Colorado River continues to dry up, less water will be available for these rich farmers. With the “right” to “private property” (not personal property!) being enshrined in our bourgeois legal system, our capitalist socioeconomic system can not provide a long-term solution to deal with the problems we’re facing today.

This crisis is yet another example of how capitalism has finally reached its ultimate limit. While the bourgeois propagandists, con artists, and paid political hacks of all stripes tell us that everything is fine, those of us who have eyes to see know that this is a lie. The lithium reserves that exist in the Salton Sea do not represent any form of salvation for the locals. In all reality, it’s their death sentence. As the rate of lithium mining is expected to increase in the upcoming years, the environmental situation will continue to worsen. A small number of specialized white-collar workers and scientists will get jobs, while the rest of the local population will remain trapped in economic misery. The profiteers in the battery industry don’t care about the people or the environment. They only care about lining their own pockets with the biggest profits they can possibly extract from both labor and natural resources. 

Taking everything into account, we see that capitalism has driven the Salton Sea to complete disaster on a scale that’s almost incomprehensible to the human mind. This cannot be rectified under the current system that gave birth to it. A new system must be put in its place instead: socialism, and eventually communism, in which the profit motive will be abolished, and workers will have collective ownership of industries and resources under a political structure that serves the interests of the masses.

With vested interests working against us from all sides, the working class must struggle harder than we ever have before to secure a future in which we can thrive. The time for reforms and legislative bandages is over! We can fight to preserve and conserve what little we have left of our desert biomes, but under capitalism it will be a never-ending uphill battle. A society that serves the bourgeoisie will not allow for real solutions to be implemented. When the profit motive has been forcibly removed from society as a whole and we instead have a scientific, socialist, centrally-planned economy, we will finally see the end of man-made environmental catastrophes like the one occurring today at the Salton Sea in Southern California. 

Revolution is our only solution! Anything less simply will not do!

Down with Capitalism! Down with Imperialism!

Long live the working class!

Long live Humanity!

Categories: Environment, U.S. News