Zak 🦦 Podmore
@zakpodmore.bsky.social
Water, labor, outdoors / author of Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River / formerly at The Salt Lake Tribune, Canoe & Kayak magazine / zakpodmore.com
Trump administration could announce any minute which states are losing how much Colorado River water. In the meantime, check out my convo with @zakpodmore.bsky.social, who wrote a stirring book about Lake Powell and has some surprising lessons: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/lake-powel...
Lake Powell's dying days
Alfalfa isn't (always) the enemy — and other Colorado River lessons from 'Life After Dead Pool' author Zak Podmore.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Not too late: Join me today at 4pm PT to talk all things Colorado River with @zakpodmore.bsky.social, author of "Life After Dead Pool." Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Very much looking forward to this event with one of my favorite climate reporters, Sammy Roth. Sign up for his substack: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com
Climate-Colored Goggles | Sammy Roth | Substack
Finding climate solutions in pop culture, media and sports. Written by Sammy Roth. Click to read Climate-Colored Goggles, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Sammy Roth@sammyroth.bsky.social · 4w agoIt's crunch time on the Colorado River. Hope you'll join me on Tuesday 7/28 for a conversation with Utah-based journalist @zakpodmore.bsky.social about his super relevant book, "LIFE AFTER DEAD POOL," about the birth and death of Lake Powell. Sign up here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
It's crunch time on the Colorado River. Hope you'll join me on Tuesday 7/28 for a conversation with Utah-based journalist @zakpodmore.bsky.social about his super relevant book, "LIFE AFTER DEAD POOL," about the birth and death of Lake Powell. Sign up here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Finished "Life After Dead Pool" by @zakpodmore.bsky.social, a book not about surviving after the loss of a Marvel antihero, but about the death of Lake Powell and the imminent uselessness of the Glen Canyon Dam as drought lowers the water level past the generator intakes toward dead pool...
Great essay by @natehousley.com that gives a fresh perspective on water history in the West and challenges some common misconceptions about increasing water “efficiency” natehousley.com/posts/The%20...
The Other Face of Conservation: Toward a Better Understanding of Water in the West – Nate Housley
natehousley.com
"Somehow the Overton Window that frames what’s permissible in the discourse around Colorado River management has not shifted as rapidly as the Overton Arm of Lake Mead." Well damn, how long has @zakpodmore.bsky.social been sitting on that one?? zakpodmore.substack.com/p/the-overto...
The Overton Arm Has Shifted
The Glen Canyon Dam is failing and we need to stop pretending it’s worth saving
zakpodmore.substack.com
It’s possible for decision makers to hide behind competing narratives because water issues are so complicated. But after 15 years of reporting on water in the Southwest, much of the discussion appears to me as delusional." — @zakpodmore.bsky.social www.cityweekly.net/news/lake-po...
Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam is failing and Utahns need to ...
Breaking the Overton Window
cityweekly.net
"If you live in Utah or Colorado and you like healthy rivers, tell your governor you support vegetable and alfalfa farming in California! All power to the Imperial Valley!" Provocative and insightful, from @zakpodmore.bsky.social: zakpodmore.substack.com/p/why-river-...
Why river lovers should oppose water cuts for California farmers
...and why they should support cuts in Colorado and Utah
zakpodmore.substack.com
RIP to my Grandpa Jack (1924-2026), who died at 101 today while eating chocolate ice cream with a few of his 12 kids. He fought the Nazis in WWII, had a great sense of humor, and came from a “long line of extremely accomplished river-men.” Here he is in his Colorado River t-shirt.
Crazy story about the “legacy of imbeciles” in Corpus Christi: dreams of desalination, Saudi petro developments, lavish taxpayer-funded parties in Israel, and a city on the brink of collapse as the water runs out.
I helped the New York Times cover the bizarre murder spree in Utah’s Wayne County this week
A Killing Spree in Utah Rattles a Region and Puzzles Officials
nytimes.com
"Burning up the atmosphere and cutting down the trees The billion dollar bombing of a nation on its knees See the lightning, hear the cries Of the wounded in a world in holy war Mortal thunder from the skies Killing everything they say they're fighting for"
Kris Kristofferson 'In The News'
YouTube video by rspaceball
youtube.com
Dept of Interior map of proposed reservoir sites, 1950. (Every one of those black labels.)
Hold on brother, Jesse Jackson There's a better world a'coming Where a man can hope a man will show some heart You just keep right on believing In the better side of human They ain't ready for it yet, but it's a start youtu.be/_8N2AKdnzeA?...
Jesse Jackson
YouTube video by Kris Kristofferson - Topic
youtu.be
As I keep screaming from the rooftop, construction takes time, and we’re out of time! Things only get worse and worse starting around here 3,510’:
Zak 🦦 Podmore@zakpodmore.bsky.social · 6mo agoThey’ve been missing deadlines since 2022. It’s time to end the charade and begin drilling tunnels around the Glen Canyon Dam
Without an incredible change in the trajectory of winter precipitation in the CO Basin this may be the year we see catastrophic collapse of the system and it really feels like we’re just standing on the tracks watching the train saying “we don’t have the legal authority to step off the track”
The Colorado River Basin is having the warmest winter on record
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 6mo agoIt’s been the coldest winter in 15 years for parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with record ice cover on the Great Lakes and rare snow in the tropics. Meanwhile, the West has seen unusually warm temperatures. https://wapo.st/4tvMHJz
Reclamation won’t let Lake Powell get to 3,490’ because of increased risk to the integrity of the Glen Canyon Dam. Somewhere around 3,510’, Lake Powell will hit dead storage, with no safe way to release the millions of acre-feet of water trapped in the reservoir. We could reach that level by summer!
They’ve been missing deadlines since 2022. It’s time to end the charade and begin drilling tunnels around the Glen Canyon Dam
Ben Winslow@benwinslow.bsky.social · 6mo agoICYMI, the states along the Colorado River have agreed to keep talking, even though they blew another deadline for a deal: www.fox13now.com/news/colorad... #utpol #Utah
10 years ago, when the cat was still a kitten and before the 10,000 DFW think pieces were written
Utah's HB 245, which would require contractors to pay a prevailing wage on public projects, just moved out of committee. It's the furthest a wage-related bill has gotten in Utah in decades, and it would protect against out-of-state firms undercutting local workers. le.utah.gov/Session/2026...
HB0245
le.utah.gov
Is there a good popular history of the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover presidencies?
