Letters to the Editor: Coachella Valley luxury beach resorts are a climate change ‘jack-boot stomp’

To the editor: Thanks for shining a light on the outrageous excesses being approved in the Coachella Valley. Not only is the Thermal Beach Club on the way to approval, but the Palm Desert City Council just approved another surf resort, and La Quinta and Palm Springs also are considering proposals.

The private Thermal Beach Club is the most egregious, sitting as it will amid the abject poverty of the workers who are the backbone of the Coachella economy. It offers no benefits to the community, and like the other proposed surf parks, will suck up water, a precious resource in our arid land.

Furthermore, these planned resorts would not have a carbon footprint so much as a jack-boot stomp, producing increased traffic, plastic waste and light pollution. They do nothing to address the looming disaster of the Salton Sea. Between climate change and toxic gasses from the desiccated lake bed, the Coachella Valley could be uninhabitable in the not-so-distant future.

But addressing urgent threats to the desert communities is not as exciting as the colorful slide shows put on by the builders for government officials and their staff. So the rich will be rewarded with opulent pleasure domes, and the workers who live nearby will die younger.

Dave Middleton, Rancho Mirage