A lot of the development southwest of the Rockies seems to be on some level a big ole ‘fuck you’ to nature. Like, oh hey, look, a fuckload of desert. Oh it’s not just a desert? It’s a desert that also shakes uncontrollably sometimes? And parts of it burn down regularly? And other parts of it slide away or fall into the ocean occasionally? Well fuck all that, let’s build a whole buncha shit all over it anyway, cause manifest destiny or whatever! We can blame the inevitable problems on some disenfranchised group later.