The Salton Sea is an example of the dynamism of the nonhuman world to integrate anthropogenic error and activity into the interconnected web of relationships between non/human entities. This error made the Colorado River an important water source for the saltwater lake, but over recent years, the reallocation of these waters to more distant areas for human use has caused the lake to recede. Losing the lake raises concerns for non/human life from the migratory patterns of birds and the degradation of other organisms’ habitat to decreasing air quality and the loss of human leisure activities. This situation raises the issue of how the water should be allocated, if humans should alter the water flow at all and how non/human life is affected by …show more content…
In the case of the Salton Sea, people have rerouted waterways to human benefit ignoring the costs to nonhuman life in the higher saline levels killing fish and higher selenium levels impacting seabirds and people with lower socioeconomic statuses (SES) such as the “many poor farmworkers” that live in Imperial County dealing with the reduced air quality most directly. These problems have been ignored and are only starting to gain recognition, but they are approached in a hierarchal manner that leaves non/human entities as means for some other group of organisms. The Salton Sea and the fish for the birds, the water for people in Imperial County and coastal areas and the lower SES workers’ for people who are better off. These relationships ignores the water itself as being an end, however, an anthropocentric view takes precedence over the ecocentric land ethic because of the relationship people have with water currently and its integral role in survival and industry. Non/human life is not conducive to water being anything more than means. Consequently, water as an entity, cannot have a say in its use or whether it can be used at