Why Las Vegas Is a Model for Saving Water

In Nevada, Kal Penn investigates the lasting impacts of the Colorado River Compact, the 1922 agreement that doles out water rights to seven states. The system, over-optimistic from the start, is on the verge of collapse as water levels in key reservoirs approach dead pool-status. But in nearby Las Vegas, Kal explores strategies that have led that city to become one of the most successful in the US when it comes to water conservation.
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Getting Warmer is Bloomberg's exclusive new show about climate, clean energy and business, anchored by actor and former White House aide Kal Penn.
Accompany him on his journey as he takes an up-close look at bold climate solutions and discovers new facets of the global transition to clean energy.
In a hosted studio segment, Penn sifts through the overwhelming news about our climate and breaks down the facts and trends to understand with a dose of humor and optimism. Why are the recycling symbols on your plastic cups misleading? How does the carbon credit market work and does it actually help? And what is the future of water in a drought-ridden world?
On the road, Penn meets the innovators, researchers, communities and businesses pivoting to new energy sources and spearheading low-carbon technologies. In documentary segments, Penn speaks to the self-declared “crypto cowboys” of Texas who claim Bitcoin mining can help stabilize the state’s troubled electrical grid, and travels to Nevada to visit the company attempting to build America’s first closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles. In New York, Penn explores the urban designs proposed to save the city from the next Superstorm Sandy and goes inside New York’s Empire State building to investigate the challenges of decarbonizing our cities and landmarks.
The show builds on, and includes contributions from, Bloomberg Green’s award-winning team of climate journalists as well as London-based climate storytellers Jack Harries and Alice Aedy. With a focus on the most pressing questions for young viewers, Jack and Alice unpack one big idea each episode. From recycled wastewater to regenerative agriculture and the challenges of a just transition for workers in the energy sector, they’ll break down how countries across the world are finding intriguing solutions to our climate crisis, and outline the challenges ahead.
Watch Getting Warmer starting February 1st at 8p EST streaming on Bloomberg channels on Connected TV Devices including Samsung TV+, LG Channels, and Fire TV. And on & Bloomberg.com.
You can also watch on Bloomberg TV (BTV) at 10p ET.
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[@jaynegreppin948]

as a bred and born battle born, i am proud of the vegas's water conservation efforts. maybe getting such a small slice of the colorado river pie way back when will perhaps end up being a blessing. i now currently live in denver, co and it blows my mind to see a place that is so green and wet still have sprinklers everywhere even in street medians. it's confounding.

[@kasondaleigh]

Knowing how wasteful the agricultural farms are with their sprinkler systems and their water pollution history, maybe it’s time to reevaluate this division of water.

[@___Me_]

As the video shows: 80% for agriculture, 20% for everyone else. I can buy californian almonds for just 10 Euro/kg here in europe and that took 10.000 liters to produce. My suggestion: cut water intensive agriculture in arid climates. Its not those few sprinklers that's the problem, Big Agro is.

[@CHIEF_420]

🤘

[@peppersaltman1805]

The video points that out then immediately blames people watering their lawns

[@carlbegnaud4851]

If you would see how much water Salt Lake City Utah wastes before it can get into the Colorado River to Las Vegas , everybody wants a green lawn ( grass ) and there's water running down the side of the road. That is wasted .

[@id10t98]

The solutions exist, but the powers in charge dont want to spend the money. My parents bought a house near Lake Havasu in 2012 and were told by 2026 there wouldnt be any water for those south of the Hoover Dam. They said they didnt care because they would be dead by then and they were right. RIP Mom & Dad, Miss and Love You.

[@wida123]

Dark mate

[@wildwanderer6025]

It is dark, but showcases the problem with politicians, decisionmakers an the people with the most money in general. They will be gone by the time climate change hits the rest of us the hardest, so they dont really care all that much.

[@ChuckSilva]

Great reporting!❤ thanks!

[@falsificationism]

This was wonderful reporting! So interesting that Vegas is actually pretty efficient w/water resources. Now we need to talk about how water intensive it is to raise animals for food and dairy. I think we can all back off on that in a HUGE way with no impact on health but a huge impact on water.

[@reinkjhazrl]

Her version of American dream sounds logic futuristic and universal.

[@matthewsheythe2733]

The water from Las Vegas is shipped to the Olympic peninsula (Rain forest) via the Fastenal company using trucks. 1200 miles to deliver plastic bottles of Lake Mead water.

[@cadarok1079]

I'm curious about golf course's in Nevada now and what's the solution for that if so.

[@anthonymartinez4307]

They never did anything about those golf courses they only said it was their own water as if they drove out of state to get it. 59, years of lawns and golf courses and they keep building. They don’t care and that city will suffer the consequences.

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

They just jack up the rates on single family homes to help pay for the golf course water.

[@mooonlight778]

i know this is a long shot, but we could easily preserve the river itself if we plant more nature along the edges. cheesehead here, and trust me, it’s hard to manage water at every level

[@larsbotany]

I WANT THIS CAREER SO BADLY OMG WHERE DO I SIGN UP??

[@Drakelett]

Cover lakes/reservoirs in solar panels. Reduces evaporative loss and generates electricity. Win-win.

[@arthurfoyt6727]

Or tear down the man-made dam and have real desert again. The dam was not natural nor is the explosive city growth. Not enough water in the desert? NO KIDDING!

[@arthurfoyt6727]

It's not a symbol of drought nor "climate change", it's a symbol of an explosion in people that moved into a desert. So yea, by definition, human activities both created a reservoir and also drained it.

[@charlesfries]

3:00 this guy looks like an AI simulation

[@r3dp1ll]

wow yes ! Just noticed.

[@peppersaltman1805]

Intelligence can always solve problems

[@chi-jenyang9752]

Yes, we can solve the water crisis by converting all the farms into casinos and turning all the farmers into gamblers.

[@public.public]

Build a huge wall round Las Vegas and shut the water supply off.

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

Vegas is upstream from AZ and CA. So nyahhhhh!!!

[@jimysk8er]

Grass is dumb

[@peregrineslim4446]

I'm not sure replacing grass with plastic grass seems like a bad idea.

[@blackworldtraveler3711]

Probably a material with extreme heat resistance like roof shingles. I guess you would need a vacuum cleaner instead of lawn mower.

[@maximilianmander2471]

Also those water cops sound like a bad idea. If there is a huge leak of water, it will get fixed anyway. This person drives around all the time and this uses a lot of gas. I have a very simply solution: Plant trees! Planting trees dramatically reduces the temperature in the city and this way you also don't have to water so often.

[@ppawtallywacker9982]

just a lil more petro based plastics fuckn with people's hormones, no biggie

[@heyhihello9677]

I have artificial turf and it’s made from recycled plastic and bamboo to keep it cooler. I haven’t had a problem and it’s been 4 years under the hot Las Vegas sun :)

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

Try running around and playing frisbee on it. It sucks. The kids don't want to touch it. Dogs will go to a real lawn to relieve themselves.

[@PhoneStandChannel]

Detroit mi, has hundreds of broken water hydrants that water runs 24/7 into the street and they don't do anything . Detroit needs water cops for the city government

[@blackworldtraveler3711]

Detroit has the Great Lakes.which is holding oceans of fresh water (probably the size of the state of Navada) and plenty of snow melt in spring.

[@PhoneStandChannel]

The satanic losers rush to reply to any comments I make. Hey let's not fix a identified problem that's wasting taxpayer money because of the great lakes! And the ignorance is highlighted ☺️👌🏾

[@justkidding5758]

Every single solitary thing that happens in this life is all for money, nobodyis allowed to just live their lives anymore unless daddy government says so.

[@backcountyrpilot]

1) Farm desert 2) Hunt alligators in Minnesota 3) Get a sun tan in Alaska Which of these doesn’t belong? If you guessed “all of the above” you would be correct!

[@wlonsdale1]

You mean Arizona.

[@Nimb0s]

1:16 "What do we call this...?" -- Global warming perhaps?

[@arthurfoyt6727]

No, we call it a desert. It's been that way for a very, very long time.

[@ppawtallywacker9982]

also there will be floods this spring

[@jaridkeen123]

I got rid of my grass lawn and i grow produce for my Family. Now i don't need to go to the Grocery Store and i produce over $5,000 of vegetables a year. I tell everyone they should grow food, not grass

[@r3dp1ll]

How large is your surface ?

[@jaridkeen123]

@Red Pill Only 1000sq Feet, I do intercropping to get higher yeilds and always have seedlings growing to go in the ground as soon as something else comes out

[@GamerbyDesign]

What do we call this, climate change, over population of a desert aera, mis mangement of a precious reource.

[@Alej0731]

“Water cops”

[@anthonymartinez4307]

Yes it’s not the residents wasting water it’s the big places casinos and big buildings they all plant trees. The casinos don’t recycle their water only the fountains. They only say it to avoid further criticism. For instance they have over 100 golf courses how many gallons do they need to keep those green? Even Encore Wynn has a golf course so do you see why they keep all that quiet? They waste on visitors it’s their business without water they die.

[@t4cchi]

for a while now, i have no longer looked at this as a worrisome fear, but a delight as someone who has been screaming about conservation for 1/3 of my life. i hope deadpool happens and people really start to realize that the additional water will just not be there. There is no magic solution, people have to make sacrifices.

[@anthonymartinez4307]

Las Vegas casinos and golf courses are your worst wasters 50, million visitors. Las Vegas has met its match.

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

The residents pay through the nose for water while the casinos and golf courses get a pass. Nevada is so corrupt.

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

Notice how the water waste investigator video shows no one playing on a lawn. Also, that one tube watering a huge tree doesn't need an emitter. An emitter wouldn't provide enough water to a tree that size. All the money raised by these water thugs reduces the use of Colorado River water by less than 0.01%. Lawns cool the house which reduces water use from electricity generation. Lawns reduce particulate matter which reduces lung cancer rates (currently very high in Las Vegas). Lawns provide areas for people to exercise with pets and avoid all the associated health risks from staying indoors all day. The shortsightedness of these people is astonishing.

[@chinesememer]

How about incentivizing people to move back to detroit or cleveland 😂

[@chadwickhjones]

7:00 that’s impossible. You would lose some amount to evaporation.

[@anthonymartinez4307]

The evaporation is in their Casinos and golf courses end of story.

[@chadwickhjones]

@@anthonymartinez4307 sure. I’m just saying what they said at 7:00 is impossible because of evaporation. That includes evaporation at commercial establishments

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

@@anthonymartinez4307 It's dumped into a wash and travels for miles to get back to Lake Mead. Losses to ground and evaporation are significant.

[@francescopaci9435]

why removing grass give water? the problem is that they irrigate grass not the grass itself.

[@knowbert]

Plus they need to stop building professional sports team stadiums and building so many new communities that invite all these degens and interlopers to move to my native city of Vegas.

[@CHIEF_420]

@🗺 "Blanco" personas están responsables de la mayor porcentaje de CLIMÁTICO CAMBIO 🪦