Let’s start with the picture that is currently being imagined when folks talk about the Colorado River and its water. It starts with snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, two-thirds of which originates right here in the western slope of Colorado and ends up with cities and farmers along the way taking water out of the river so that it’s dry before it even reaches the sea. One of the solutions being touted to date is simply to pay farmers to use less water. There is, of course, a lot cities can also do to increase water efficiency and reuse waste water, but all of these solutions center around using less. A necessary hardship, yes, but perhaps an incomplete picture. It’s like only looking at the water when it’s in its liquid form, and forgetting that the other half of the Colorado River is in the atmosphere, coming from the oceans and recirculating through vegetation on land.