Opinion: Calif. tries to cope without water
By Timothy Egan, New York Times
In a normal year, no one in California looks twice at a neighbor’s lawn, that mane of bluegrass thriving in a sun-blasted desert. Or casts a scornful gaze at a fresh-planted almond grove, saplings that now stand accused of future water crimes. Or wonders why your car is conspicuously clean, or whether a fish deserves to live when a cherry tree will die.
Of course, there is nothing normal about the fourth year of the great drought: According to climate scientists, it may be the worst arid spell in 1,200 years. For all the fields that will go fallow, all the forests that will catch fire, all the wells that will come up dry, the lasting impact of this drought for the ages will be remembered, in the most exported term of California start-ups, as a disrupter.
“We are embarked upon an experiment that no one has ever tried,” said Gov. Jerry Brown in early April, in ordering the first mandatory statewide water rationing for cities.
Surprising, perhaps even disappointing to those with schadenfreude for the nearly 39 million people living in year-round sunshine, California will survive. It’s not going to blow away. The economy, now on a robust rebound, is not going to collapse. There won’t be a Tom Joad load of S.U.V.s headed north. Rains, and snow to the high Sierra, will eventually return.
But California, from this drought onward, will be a state transformed. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was human-caused, after the grasslands of the Great Plains were ripped up, and the land thrown to the wind. It never fully recovered. The California drought of today is mostly nature’s hand, diminishing an Eden created by man. The Golden State may recover, but it won’t be the same place.
California isn’t trying to cope without water. Our noble leaders are trying to force the people of California to cope without water while the ruling class continues to live exactly as it is accustomed to living, on the backs of the middle class and the money it extracts from them in fines for daring to use the water they pay so dearly for.
The politicians and the environmental lawyers created this problem. Now we’re letting them tell us how we have to live till they can fix it for us.
Why do you still let these buffoons treat you this way?
Because they are liberals and think anything that dribbles out of the old goats mouth is good for the people.
Dog, what the h€!! Do you care about the workings in California. I am under the impression you migrated to the great state of Nevada because california cant meet your high standards anymore. You, like others of your ilk, seem to want to continue bad mouthing every one and every thing. Our state is much better off with out you and your negativity and finger pointing. Just wait till nevada cant live up to your expectations.
The ugly truth that the hate gubmint blowhards fail to mention in endless diatribes is their alternative-privatization of all our commons-such as water resources- auctioning them off to global corporate conglomerates-what could possibly go wrong when these soulless entities care for only one thing-profit at any cost-who’s the buffoons at that point
Dog, not sure what you are referring to? Politicians and environmentalists did not cause the drought. Provide evidence, simply parroting something talk show host say is not evidence.
The environmental community has argued for 40 plus years that water is our most precious resource and in fact our most limiting, particularly for the west – to ridicule I might add.
Fact – this is the worst in the last 1200 years; the warming climate has exacerbated the drought. Fact – California has nearly 100% more people then it did from the four year drought in the 1970s.
Fact – agricultural water use is far more intense then it was in the 1970s and 1980s.
Fact – areas with limited water have been settled over the last 40 years at realitively high rates.
Fact – our reservoir storage is at the lowest levels since they were developed.
Fact – the entire west is suffering from a drought and Arizona and Nevada may have it much worse then California. Lake Mead is the lowest it has ever been since it was constructed.
Fact – the west in general operate on arcane water laws, and these should be changed. BTW many of our water laws in the west were based on the wet North East and an unusually wet period in the west.
If you want a peak into how bad the history of water laws and water use are read Cadillac Desert – Provides a clear historical perceptive of how we got to where we are. – More reservoirs will not solve the problem by the way as we do not have the water to store. Current reservoirs in California are at all time lows. Tahoe has dropped below the rim with no snow melt to speak of to bring it back, we may well hit or get near all time lows for the lake.
There are things we can do, learn from the Israeli’s about how to maximize water – water purification and desalination are two examples of maximizing water. See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-13/israel-desalination-shows-california-not-to-fear-drought.
Keep in mind that desalination is expensive. Santa Barbara developed a desal plant in the 1990s, then a wet year hit and they quite operating it because of the expense. Now they are looking to retrofit and fire it up again at the tune of $32 million. I suspect this time they will not mothball it once we hit some wet weather.
I have attached a couple of articles which point to the growing water concern well past California – read that as Nevada and Arizona for starters.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/look-out-arizona-california-isnt-the-only-state-getting-hit-by-drought/
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8593707/lake-mead-water-arizona
So I would suggest, that instead of making some snide remark that is demonstrably false, you make solid suggestions on how the entire west can better confront the growing lack of water.
This is not a simple problem to solve (has multiple moving parts) and thus defies advocating simplistic solutions. We will need a whole host of solutions, that will for the most part a paradigm shift on how we think about water – for a start, we all need to realize water is very limiting in the west and should operate our daily lives with that mantra.
Rick
Next the liberals under senile Jerry will make it illegal to posses more than a gallon of water in any public place and serious crimes to be caught drinking more than a gulp of it, then they will ban smoking a water pipe and using a water mister and a slip and slide will be a major crime if caught using or in possession. All the while the lakes are full down south in the desert called LA and the true theft from the north continues.
Strong showing today from the local conservatives and the guy who probably continues to hear voices after the right wing talk radio shuts down for the day.
Not even one fact between them. Typical.
Rick, none of that has one single bit of relevance to whether we in Tahoe have a water scarcity problem. Most of California does, some places don’t (northwest).
We in Tahoe don’t, and there isn’t any reason for residents up here to take any drastic actions, particularly when weighing wildfire as a hazard.
The lake just isn’t that low compared to recent past droughts and El Nino is building, just like it has in the recent past.
What about the bottled water industry? They can take as much water as they want without any problems.