California's 4+ Year Drought

[Frostyfire14]

That's more of a NV / CO / AZ thing. But I've seen it here in NorCal. But more so of rock gardens with smaller cacti. Not the tall ones.

[Celista]

Yeah it looks nice sure, but filling a yard up with freaking cactus' is not something most probably won't to do....

A lot of people have cacti in their front yard in the Southwest...the idea is that you use local plants that naturally do not need a lot of water (herb plants, shrubs, certain types of trees), so you can still have a nice looking yard without watering it.

Cacti aren't native to Oregon so obviously I don't use them. Also Oregon gets more rain than Cali does so plant usage would differ a bit.


A more West Coast example.

[Sledfang]

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/s...ge-092914.html

Study linking this specific drought to CC.

Not a definitive link, because of the statistical nature of everything under discussion.

Trees.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-a-millennium/

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

[Garnier Fructis]

What's your criteria for extremely weak, weak, strong, extremely strong, etc.

[Rukentuts]

What's your criteria for extremely weak, weak, strong, extremely strong, etc.

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.

[Sledfang]

What's your criteria for extremely weak, weak, strong, extremely strong, etc.

A scientist saying it "may" be linked is pretty weak. Extremely strong would be data recorded when it happened. Looking at certain trees rings from a thousand years ago is not strong by any means. There are a lot more factors to tree rings than just drought severity.

[Celista]

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

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/pictur...arn-tree-rings

[GodlyBob]

A scientist saying it "may" be linked is pretty weak. Extremely strong would be data recorded when it happened. Looking at certain trees rings from a thousand years ago is not strong by any means. There are a lot more factors to tree rings than just drought severity.

I would have thought that tree growth rings would have been a great bit of evidence given that yearly growth of a tree is going to be very closely linked to availability of water.

[Sargerasraider]

http://gizmodo.com/rich-people-are-t...t-r-1627178060

Someone should plot the number of tons of CO2 emitted versus number of speeches about climate change.

[Celista]

I would have thought that tree growth rings would have been a great bit of evidence given that yearly growth of a tree is going to be very closely linked to availability of water.

I think they're considered great evidence by most scientists.

[GodlyBob]

I think they're considered great evidence by most scientists.

I don't like the implication that Sledfang is not, in fact, a scientist.

[Garnier Fructis]

"data recorded when it happened" (Goodbye geology, goodbye astrophysics)


I've lost interest now that we're back to demanding an impossible standard of evidence.

[GodlyBob]

"data recorded when it happened" (Goodbye geology, goodbye astrophysics)


I've lost interest now that we're back to demanding an impossible standard of evidence.

Maybe we could go back to talking about...what was it called? Xeriscaping?

[Celista]

I don't like the implication that Sledfang is not, in fact, a scientist.

He is an Internet Scientist and that is good enough for forum discussion!

[Sledfang]

I think they're considered great evidence by most scientists.

For trees that were alive a thousand years ago, no they are not that great at proving the earlier statement. The type of tree, elevation, and selection area are all factors that make simplistic correlations on sweeping assertions less reliable.

[Kelathos]

For comparison's sake...
US West faced a ~400 year drought during the Medieval Warm Period. It'll be cited as two separate 200 year droughts due to a small blip in the middle, but as you can see they were unlike anything we have ever known.

[GodlyBob]

Zone turf areas separately from other plants and use the irrigation method that waters the plants in each area most efficiently. For grass, use gear-driven rotors or rotary spray nozzles that have larger droplets and low angles to avoid wind drift. Spray, drip line or bubbler emitters are most efficient for watering trees, shrubs, flowers and groundcovers.[8]

If watering by hand, avoid oscillating sprinklers and other sprinklers that throw water high in the air or release a fine mist. The most efficient sprinklers release big drops close to the ground.[8]

Water deeply and infrequently to develop deep roots. Never water during the day to reduce water lost to evaporation. With the use of automatic sprinkling systems, adjust the controller monthly to accommodate weather conditions. Also, install a rain sensor to shut off the device when it rains.

That's pretty good advice for anybody, not just if you plan to xeriscape.

[Celista]

Maybe we could go back to talking about...what was it called? Xeriscaping?

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.

[Nadiru]

Building those storm drains to pipe fresh water directly out into the Pacific was, in hindsight, a poor idea.

[TrumpIsPresident]

http://gizmodo.com/rich-people-are-t...t-r-1627178060

Ha, well done.