Forums > Areas > Jalisco's Lake Chapala Region

Bubba

Sep 17, 2003, 3:24 PM

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Living Lakes

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As Poster Bucky said elsewhere on the internet, that Living Lakes is a hell of an effective organization. They scared that lake so bad that it began to refill itself even before Lake Chapala was "officially" accepted as a member.

How full is the lake?

It's so full that Living Lakes has withdrawn Amigos del Lago membership and is asking people in Sayula for donations. But the incredibly fecund Sayula agricultural region, where disaster was predicted 50 years ago upon the disappearance of its vast lake, has demonstrated no interest in imperial recuperative alliances.

It's so full that, had it not been so low before this September, I would have needed an asbestos inner tube to float my barbeque after having swum from my front door to my palapa to start a weinie roast.

God help us when all these bureaucrats get here and need a boat to get to the former shoreline represented on the Amigos del Lago graphics.

This is way too funny.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Sep 17, 2003, 3:40 PM)

esperanza

Sep 17, 2003, 4:44 PM

Post #2 of 11 (673 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Living Lakes

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Hey Bubba, I drove around the Ocotlán end of the lake this weekend...way out past Ocotlán...where there are a whole bunch of lakefront restaurants and hotels. There's no lake there...and all the businesses are closed up tight. What used to be the lake bottom is planted in beautiful cornfields, and there are small houses built out there as well. If you squint your eyes real hard and gaze into the western horizon, you can just see a tiny strip of water.

I know the lake is coming up (because we see it on the Chapala end at the moment), but it ain't over till it's over. When I see the waves lapping at the foundations of those businesses east of Ocotlán, then Living Lakes and Amigos del Lago can go home and relax for a while.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

Bubba

Sep 17, 2003, 5:14 PM

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Re: [esperanza] Living Lakes

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Esperanza:

I have a lot of respect for you and know that you know that much of what I say is meant to be provocative to stimulate conversation. You are right that we have a long way to go. If we are lucky, we will be mutually pleased to see a return of a recurring wet cycle that will be beneficial for the lake and those humans and other creatures dependent upon its health. Of course, that will not permanently solve some of the indemic problems brought about by population growth, industrialization and resultant pollution. That is a far more complex problem which will test Living Lake's skills to the maximum.

What I said about Sayula came from my reading of the popular Dane Chandos book Village in the Sun where, upon driving through the Sayula area in about 1949, he lamented the fact that that rich agricultural valley would be environmentally destroyed by the impending death of the vast lake there which was on the decline. That agricultural valley is, today, an important breadbasket for Mexico and also an important supplier of agricultural products to the rest of North America despite the decline of the lake. Much of the produce there is grown with irrigation from deep wells and the region seems to be quite prosperous.

I perceive a certain shallowness to the "save the lake" movement here. That movement seems to me to have less to do with the lake or the people dependent upon its viability than with what I would term "Bay Window Esthetics".

I hope I am wrong.

Kip

Sep 17, 2003, 6:44 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Living Lakes

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Nicely put Bubba, I find your observations very informative and thought provoking.

Kip
kip

Uncle Jack

Sep 18, 2003, 6:16 AM

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Do I detect.....

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.....a little pun here?

"I perceive a certain shallowness to the "save the lake" movement here."

uj

Bubba

Sep 18, 2003, 10:57 AM

Post #6 of 11 (591 views)

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Re: [Uncle Jack] Do I detect.....

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Thank you, UJ, you are a most perceptive person.

Bubba

Sep 19, 2003, 1:35 PM

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Re: [Uncle Jack] Do I detect.....

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It seemed a good time to look into Living Lakes as an organization and political lobby. Bubba just spent some time reviewing their web site and came away suspecting that this may be a front for certain corporate interests with narrow, profit based motives. They don't seem to actually do anything except promote themselves and their multi-national corporate sponsors for profit. Could one of you cite one thing they actually did for lake Baikal, for example, besides simply talk about it?

Bubba

Sep 20, 2003, 2:57 PM

Post #8 of 11 (487 views)

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Re: [Bubba Black Hole] Do I detect.....

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Is the "Dead Sea" now the "Live Sea" thanks to Living Lakes? When I was floating on that body of water in the 1960s, there was the danger that one might be shot from the Jordanian side but one couldn't drown without making a huge effort to do so. Now, I suppose, one could drown in the newly liberated no-longer-dead-sea but not be shot by Jordanians. Which is better?

maryellen

Sep 20, 2003, 9:33 PM

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Re: [Bubba Black Hole] Living Lakes

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lake levels 2

Attachments:

lake level.jpg (34.6 KB)

maryellen

Sep 20, 2003, 9:35 PM

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Re: [Bubba Black Hole] Living Lakes

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Sorry I meant to send this photo attached

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lake level boats.jpg (39.1 KB)

Bubba

Sep 21, 2003, 2:09 PM

Post #11 of 11 (410 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Living Lakes

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The more I review the Living Lakes (Global Nature Fund) website, the more I wonder just what it is they do besides identifying problems and sweating bullets over those problems once identified. I can't figure out what they did to mitigate industrial pollution at Lake Baikal which is ongoing. They seem to have concentrated on the danger to some seal rather than the lake itself.

What are we trying to do here? Save the Lake Chapala Carp or restore nice bay window views?

We can all lament death ad nauseum but that does not prevent its ocurrence.

One of the dangers they identify at Lake Chapala is the development of truck farming plots in the receding lake bed. That is not a danger but a result of the recession of the lake. We don't seem to be flying too high around here.