California's 4+ Year Drought

[GodlyBob]

That's all I really know about Xeriscaping. I do have two friends that work in landscape design (one has a master's degree in landscape architecture) so I might be able to pick her brain about cool shit like low water usage plants this weekend.

http://www.amwua.org/trees.html

Some low-water trees, some of them look pretty cool.

Here's a picture of the pincushion flowers I was talking about earlier



Telling you, it's miraculous how hardy the plants have been for me. I hardly water them, they don't die to frost, and I've hard my dog step all over them only to have them grow back within 3 months.

[Eaglehorn]

I highly doubt this will solve anything... a 25% reduction when we've only got a year's supply of water left? wtf is that going to solve? stop the geo-engineering and chem sprays and the rain returns... invest in desalination plants in the meantime.

[Sledfang]

I highly doubt this will solve anything... a 25% reduction when we've only got a year's supply of water left? wtf is that going to solve? stop the geo-engineering and chem sprays and the rain returns... invest in desalination plants in the meantime.

The 1 year supply is specifically in regard to reservoir storage. There is still ground water, some precipitation, and water stored in the form of snow pack, but less than we would like.

[Rukentuts]

The 1 year supply is specifically in regard to reservoir storage. There is still ground water, some precipitation, and water stored in the form of snow pack, but less than we would like.

the bolded is somewhat of an understatement

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...ts-record-lows

[Sledfang]

the bolded is somewhat of an understatement

Ya, like your article says, more so for the farmers. Since they use around 75% of the water and residences only around 7%, the farmers will eventually start losing a few percent so that residential utilities go unhindered.

[Eaglehorn]

the bolded is somewhat of an understatement

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...ts-record-lows

ya... i mean Governor Brown purposely held his press conference in an area that would normally be covered in snow, yet it was dried / brown grass instead... I don't think relying on our snow coverage is a smart idea.

everyone should check out this site. I had some guy I thought was a crazy come up to me while I was filling up gas, I'm not sure how much of it is true, but if you've seen the chem trails all over CA, it makes you wonder...

http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/

it's not hard to fathom that something of this magnitude could be whats ruining our rainfall.

exerpt from one site:

In an attempt to reduce greenhouse gases, and reflect the sun's light, these globalists utilize geoengineering to control the skies. Geoengineering, or the worldwide manipulation of atmospheric gases, sunlight, rainfall and temperature, has been introduced and implemented as a means to control climate and weather. These "heroic" efforts to save the planet from rising temperatures are far from intelligent. Studies now reveal that many unintended consequences come from geoengineering, including mini-droughts, reduced monsoonal rainfall across several continents and depleted ozone levels.

instead of trying to do something about lowering CO2 emissions, which we should've been doing anyway..., we may have sent the entire pacific northwest into a drought...

[Sunseeker]

yea the golf courses and waterparks should be the first to go. also this insipid desire to have a lawn needs to grow brown and die.

The problem with these solutions? They KILL business. Sorry folks but water parks, even theme parks that utilize some water (Disneyland), and golf courses are huge moneymakers pretty much wherever they are built, and moreso if they are built near the wealthy (which they usually are). Also, by eliminating laws, you eliminate the need for yard maintenance jobs (not all of which are illegals). The same is true for pools, get rid of pools? You get rid of thousands of businesses which make their money building, repairing and servicing them.

California has one simple thing that is increasing its water usage: a growing population. California's population has grown by millions over the last two decades. That alone is going to increase water consumption far and beyond what a couple new golf courses or water parks will.

Realistically, California can restrict water usage to nothing more than enough for a person to drink and survive, scrub your dishes with dirt! Take baths in patchouli oil! The only solution for California is to crack that whip on developing desal, the fact that California has survived this long without is is amazing. Not to mention the good it will do for the environment to reduce usage of groundwater.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Aside from the fact that both of those make extremely weak connections, even the language of the authors draws skepticism of a specific correlation.

When you ask for a source and get scholarly journals, you don't get to hand wave away unless you can provide a counter source with equal qualifications... which at that point wouldn't be hand waving.

[Celista]

The problem with these solutions? They KILL business. Sorry folks but water parks, even theme parks that utilize some water (Disneyland), and golf courses are huge moneymakers pretty much wherever they are built, and moreso if they are built near the wealthy (which they usually are). Also, by eliminating laws, you eliminate the need for yard maintenance jobs (not all of which are illegals). The same is true for pools, get rid of pools? You get rid of thousands of businesses which make their money building, repairing and servicing them.

California has one simple thing that is increasing its water usage: a growing population. California's population has grown by millions over the last two decades. That alone is going to increase water consumption far and beyond what a couple new golf courses or water parks will.

Realistically, California can restrict water usage to nothing more than enough for a person to drink and survive, scrub your dishes with dirt! Take baths in patchouli oil! The only solution for California is to crack that whip on developing desal, the fact that California has survived this long without is is amazing. Not to mention the good it will do for the environment to reduce usage of groundwater.

Please. Americans waste so much fucking water each year. The average person uses 2-4 gallons of water in the shower PER MINUTE. Older toilets can use 3 to 7 gallons of water PER FLUSH. I'm pretty sure there's a comfortable middle ground that can be reached before we have to "scrub dishes with dirt" and "take baths in patchouli oil".

[Sledfang]

California has one simple thing that is increasing its water usage: a growing population. California's population has grown by millions over the last two decades. That alone is going to increase water consumption far and beyond what a couple new golf courses or water parks will.

Yep, it's mainly about (over)population and agriculture. CA still has massive amounts of water even in a drought. This is not an environmental disaster, it's about economics. But the media has alarmed all of these people who have very little knowledge of the actual water system in California.

[Sunseeker]

Yep, it's mainly about (over)population and agriculture. CA still has massive amounts of water even in a drought. This is not an environmental disaster, it's about economics. But the media has alarmed all of these people who have very little knowledge of the actual water system in California.

California IS in a drought, and the drought is serious. Yes, if everyone stopped using even a single drop of water for a day, California would still have lots of water. By and large yes it is incredibly poor water management and that stems from this ridiculous idea that 1: you can privately own water resources and 2: that fresh water resources are the only place we can get fresh water from.

Please. Americans waste so much fucking water each year. The average person uses 2-4 gallons of water in the shower PER MINUTE. Older toilets can use 3 to 7 gallons of water PER FLUSH. I'm pretty sure there's a comfortable middle ground that can be reached before we have to "scrub dishes with dirt" and "take baths in patchouli oil".

Exactly my point, shutting down water parks and golf courses and personal lawns does NOTHING about the water wasted in the home, which as my post points out, one of the major reasons water use goes up is not more green lawns and water parks and golf courses, but more people.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Yep, it's mainly about (over)population and agriculture. CA still has massive amounts of water even in a drought. This is not an environmental disaster, it's about economics. But the media has alarmed all of these people who have very little knowledge of the actual water system in California.

It's about both.

[Sledfang]

California IS in a drought, and the drought is serious.

The drought really is not serious given the amount of water present.

Is water wasting, overpopulation, and inept government a serious problem? Yes.

[Cthulhu 2020]

The drought really is not serious given the amount of water present.

Is water wasting, overpopulation, and inept government a serious problem? Yes.

It's a thousand year drought, that's serious.

[Kanariya]

Too little, too late. California is in serious deep shit and it may never fully recover. I really hope it will end within the next year or two, but with 11 trillion gallons of rain needed, it doesn't look good.

I'd have thought tree rings would be quite strong, the main fallback being breadth of locations. Scientists use rings to determine weather in quite a number of species.

Haven't you heard? Trees have a liberal bias!

[Rhine101]

:/ like we're gonna find recorded data from a thousand years ago in North America...Native American history/traditions were passed down orally.

Yeah, but if you have no evidence from thousands of years ago, why make such a claim of "such and such etc etc thousands of years"?

Not supporting that climate change is a farce, i am simply saying that you probably shouldn't make such a claim when there is clearly no hard evidence to back it and use the fact that there is clearly no evidence as some sort of pass.

Anyways, I personally just think that people cannot live is arid dry locations and simply expect to use water like we have been. Plus we all know that California is not exactly the beacon of conservation for this country. And even now (according to OP) some areas are actually increasing water use. It's really stupid

[Sledfang]

11 trillion gallons of rain needed, it doesn't look good.

It's a thousand year drought

Precipitation has been increasing in the Contingous US for over a hundred years, we will manage

[Celista]

Anyways, I personally just think that people cannot live is arid dry locations and simply expect to use water like we have been. Plus we all know that California is not exactly the beacon of conservation for this country. And even now (according to OP) some areas are actually increasing water use. It's really stupid

Underlined is certainly true. Maybe it's the survivalist in me but I like living in places where I know that if shit hit the fan, I could dig a well or collect rainwater. :P I also don't mind a lot of rain.

[The Oblivion]

fcking almond farmers

[Cthulhu 2020]

Precipitation has been increasing in the Contingous US for over a hundred years, we will manage

Sure, we survived the dust bowl, when warnings of that were coming, as well as the great depression, when warnings of that were coming. We survived them, but they sucked.