WEBVTT

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The roof of my
house in Tucson used

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to leak whenever the rain
was driven hard by the wind.

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The house where I
grew up in Laguna

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also leaked if the rain
was hard and steady.

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The leaks used to
appear at the edges

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where the walls
joined the ceilings.

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That's what used to happen
to the old time Pueblo roofs.

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The alternate layers
of clay and sand

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were nearly impermeable
except at the edges.

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The adobe mud that leaked
down the walls of our house

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was the color and consistency
of melted chocolate ice cream.

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There is an old story
about a terrible winter,

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which followed eight years
of drought and poor harvests.

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Heavy rain and snow
saturated the roofs.

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Storehouse and granary
roofs collapsed.

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The meager rations from
their scant harvests

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and even the seeds they had
saved for the spring planting

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were lost.

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The people starved and
they refer to that winter

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as "the winter we had to eat
our dead children in order

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to survive."

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I first saw household
water systems

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which use rainwater collected
off roofs in Ketchikan, Alaska

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where the annual rainfall
exceeds 160 inches.

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Due to the proximity
of saltwater,

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drilling wells for freshwater
is an unsatisfactory

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so rural home sites depend on
big wooden storage tanks which

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collect rainwater from tank
tops and from gutter systems

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off the roof of the house.

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If more than 10 days
pass without rain

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in southeastern
Alaska, households

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begin to run out of water.

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If more than 14 days
pass without rain,

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the level of the big
lake north of Ketchikan

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falls below the level
of the intake valves

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to the municipal water pumps
and the pumps shut off.

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Without all the rain, the lush
foliage and thick underbrush

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dry out And the
great Tongass forest

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faces imminent
danger of wildfire.

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My old ranch house in
the Tucson mountains

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has a similar rainwater
catchment system

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which routes all the
rainwater from the roof

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into a big concrete pool.

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Runoff from a
gravel covered slope

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is also harvested and
stored in the pool.

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Water in the Tucson mountains
has never been abundant.

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Wells must tap into
deposits of fossil water,

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underground pools and
lakes formed by steam

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trapped in molten lava.

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The two ranch wells produce
only meager amounts of water.

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When I first came to
this old ranch house,

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rainwater was the primary water
source for household uses.

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Tucson sits on an
aquifer which has receded

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so far that the 200-year-old
cottonwood trees, which

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grow along the Tanque
Verde Wash, are dying.

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City wells on the
south side of Tucson

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are contaminated with
industrial chemicals

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and are no longer pumped.

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Hundreds and hundreds of
miles of concrete canals,

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which cost billions
of tax dollars,

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carry salty Colorado
River water to Phoenix

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and most years to Tucson.

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But the river must be shared
with other western states

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and with Mexico.

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In the driest years, when the
level of the Colorado River

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falls, there will not be
enough water to go around

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and the canals to
Tucson will be dry.

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In Tucson and Phoenix,
more young children

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die from drowning than
from traffic accidents.

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Backyard swimming
pools are numerous--

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the clear still water, the
colorful tiles, pool steps

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and pool ladders are all
designed to be attractive

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and inviting.

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A safety gate is left unlatched.

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The parents always insist they
only looked away for a moment.

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The warm Japanese current
brings Ketchikan, Alaska

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more than 160 inches
of rain every year.

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Leaky roofs are inevitable.

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The jade green moss
thrives on roofs,

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forming thick
velvety slabs, which

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grow until the
weight of the moss

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finally collapses the roof.

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All this rain is necessary.

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Otherwise, the water levels
of the rivers and lakes

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decline so much that
the spawning salmon

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and steelhead trout can't
make their way up river.

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Dry summers cause the
berries to be scarce

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and the black bears get hungry
and come out of the forest

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to eat garbage and
small pet dogs.

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Tribal clans acknowledge the
kinship between human beings

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and other beings.

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Most of the clans in
southeastern Alaska

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are linked to the sea, coho
salmon, king salmon, humpback

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salmon, halibut, dogfish,
killer whale, and sea lion

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all have human clans
people in the villages.

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Freshwater clans include
beaver, otter, and frog.

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There are clans of grizzly bear,
wolf, raven, and eagle who all

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owe their existence to the sea.

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The tribal people
of the Alaska coast

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built great ocean going
boats of yellow cedar

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and sailed the coastal
perimeter of the Americas.

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Yet the clan totem
poles frequently

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include the wan face
of the drowned man

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used to fill space between
other totem figures.

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Great sailors, though they were
still the mighty North Pacific,

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often became so lonely
for her human children

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that she brought them
back home to her.

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