Font ResizeopinionDitmer: "Rebranding?" There are bigger issues in Colorado,beats by dre, governorBy Joanne Ditmerdenverpost.comPosted:
02/22/2013 12:01:00 AM MSTGov. John Hickenlooper is looking to "rebrand" Colorado. (Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg) Gov. John Hickenlooper wants to "rebrand" Colorado to attract more tourists, businesses and professionals. The governor told tourist officials last month that "brandCO" would "take a look at what Colorado is and capture that in a brand." Colorado is wide open spaces, ranches and farms, spectacular scenery, magnificent parks (42 state and 17 national parks), wondrous recreation, historic towns, clean air, blue skies,true religion outlet, and much more,louis vuitton purses. "Branding" diminishes how great the state is, blessed by nature and with caring, resourceful citizens who appreciate what we have. More importantly, Colorado's challenges are far beyond "play-pretend" branding. They are issues that the governor and other leaders should be thoughtfully and diligently addressing.
Start with water. We're in a drought and forecasters say it will continue. One study predicts that over the next 50 years, the Colorado River will have 9 percent less water, reducing food production on ranches and farms, depleting wildlife, and providing less for towns and cities. In the Colorado River Basin's seven Western states, the flow will drop from 15 million acre feet to 13.7 million acre feet, a loss of enough for 2.6 million households. At the same time, the population of 40 million is expected to nearly double. Developers look at pumping more water, utilizing "renewable water" from underground aquifers, but underground water levels in recent years have fallen by as much as 30 feet per year. State law says pumping must not deplete aquafers sooner than 100 years, but climate change may tip the balance sooner; at least 440 municipal wells tap the aquifer now. We're under siege by the petroleum industry, with oil and gas drilling seemingly sprouting up everywhere,http://www.pilewu.com/coach.html, guzzling untold gallons of water. At a Sept,http://www.acheu.com/. 15 hearing in Rifle,pilewu.com/truereligionjeans.html, one oil man said a typical gas or oil well uses as much as 126,000 gallons of water during the drilling process. The fracking process uses much more than that.
There's disagreement over how contaminated water is after oil and gas drilling, so the state recently decreed that water must be tested once before drilling and twice afterwards. The industry complained bitterly. Many communities are fighting over how close oil and gas wells may be drilled to homes or schools. And earlier this month, the Bureau of Land Management withdrew some 20,000 acres in the North Fork Valley that had been targeted for oil and gas lease sales after protesters pointed out the BLM was using a 1989 resource management plan to pinpoint the parcels.
Our national parks are irreplaceable treasures,foceng.com/chanel.html, attracting 5.8 million visitors who spent $292,pilewu.com/louisvuitton.7 million last year and providing 6,300 jobs. A national parks budget cut by 5 percent under sequestration means fewer rangers, fewer programs, hours, and less protection of cultural resources and artifacts.
Decisions should be made on how threatened budget cuts would affect Colorado and our irreplaceable quality of life, not whether the petroleum industry, developers, or any private company makes money. Forget branding. Work on the real issues. Joanne Ditmer's column on environmental and historic preservation issues began in the Denver in 1962.
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