Las Vegas: City of Unreality

So I started this one when I had a job, which was a long time ago! Now that I am a total bum I have a bit of time.

Whilst standing at any of the overland train stations each morning, one can't help but notice the large billboards and posters trying to sell you holidays in Ibiza, a better mortgage or new and upcoming property investments. There is one advert that caught my eye a while ago: it had a large picture of the Vegas Strip and the usual assortment of things tourist boards like to show off: massages, shows, panoramas of the city and a golf course with a water hazard the size of Lake Mead. The caption summing up all of this tantalizing imagery is "Escape Reality, Temporarily." I stood on the platform in the cold rain on what was probably a Monday morning and thought "yeah, a trip to Vegas would be sweet right now" and realised that Las Vegas really is a far cry from reality.

Think about it. Whoever developed Vegas was both a genious and an fool. The idea to construct an artificial oasis in the middle of the desert, miles away from any existing infrastructure, water tables and resources, arable land and moreover, a livable habitat certainly does not rank among the best. Unless. And that "unless" is the kicker.

The city has nowhere to go but down and by that I mean die out. As the rising sea level is beginning to drown Venice, the rising price of oil is the beginning of the end for Vegas. The city is a product of the industrial expansion in the United States. It was built around the idea that humans can find a solution to any natural problem as long as we have a glutunous amount of oil. While it is starting to attract other sectors of the economy in order to diversify, Vegas remains a city based mostly around tourism from its gaming and easy flowing alcohol. Now there is an even larger service industry because Vegas decided to become a family friendly destination (good-bye Sin City). What is going to happen when the people stop coming? And I believe that it is perfectly reasonable that people will stop flying themselves half way across the country or from around the world; at some point in the future the question will arise "Does society use this fuel to go on holiday to Las Vegas or power the tractor to harvest the crops?"

Energy prices/scarcities will not only determine the economic livelyhood of the city but also the lifestyles of its residents. Making a livable habitat in the middle of a desert has required a massive amount of energy inputs. It probably is not much of a coincedence that Vegas became a city right as the US started to become the largest oil producer in the world. When the tourists source of income disappears with cheap energy, the city will not function as daily life becomes more and more difficult. Cooling/refridgeration, transportation, irrigation and clean water are most likely to be the biggest problems of the desert city. People and food don't last long in temperatures of 117º. Lake Mead is already polluted to the point where drinking water is quite dodgy when it happens to rain a bit too much. On the other hand, we really don't have to worry about such things because in 15 years the free market will come up with supply side salvation in the form of free energy.

Ultimately it will not be just Las Vegas that has problems adjusting to the "post carbon" world, I just find it amusing that its tourist board admits the city exists as a real life fantasy land. All cities will undergo major restructuring - some more than others. Cities that were built and developed before the industrial revolution and still have intact urban centers will have an easier time of it. Vegas was built at a time when the industrial expansion of the United States gave way to the mentality that man can control nature and its systems. We will fall hard when we learn our lesson.