But from time to time, doors open, and out comes molten political fury.
And, of course, with global warming comes melting of ice, expansion of the oceans due to warming of the water, and a sea level rise due to both of those factors.
This year, though, torrential rains unexpectedly filled the reservoir to levels that had been reserved for a record-breaking snowpack, forcing the dams to begin releasing water to make room for the coming melt.
Water in the river was icy cold because it came from melted snowpack in that Rockies but the temperature on the sand by late afternoon was more than 100 degrees.
The sinking is "another addition to what's going to come from melting Greenland and melting glaciers," says Paul Bierman, a geologist at the University of Vermont in Burlington, who worked on the study.
The authors conclude that the fresh water came from melting of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.
It comes with melted Swiss and sweet sautéed onions all heaped on a soft bun.
But one day I come in melted down by a recurrence of obsessive thoughts and by the milky, sickening feeling my medication is giving me.
In a delicious combination, a roasted green apple came with melting goat cheese dribbling from the fruit's cored center; and Pascal's excellent rolls made fine sops for finishing off the sauce from a casserole of mussels, tomatoes and chopped olives.
The metal that comes from melted weapons is about 95% iron.
"We think it was some type of alluvial fan and we were very near the end of it, perhaps near a body of standing water like a lake or pond". The conference heard that it was likely this water ultimately came from melting snow, at a time in the past when significant water-ice may have been present at Mars' equator.
