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California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

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Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#161

Post by sampo »

DantesKite wrote: post #58
eplanit wrote: post #11

These droughts were anticipated, but here in California preparing for climate change means preaching at others, and setting up a carbon exchange. Not a single new reservoir has been built since 1979. It's impossible to take California seriously about much of anything, but especially not regarding the environment: "In 1979, California’s population was a little more than 23 million. Today, it is more than 39 million. Y…

I’m all for building new reservoirs but you’re incredibly wrong. It’s weird hearing this because I live 500 feet away from a new reservoir built in the 2000s. Literally. I take walks out there, stare at the man-made lake, walk pass by the museum where all the archaeological discoveries were made. I don’t know what kind of subpar journalism goes on at the National Review but they couldn’t be more wrong. https://en.m.w…

> a new reservoir built in the 2000s

Wikipedia says, planning started in 1987 and construction was from 1995 to 1999.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#162

Post by tuatoru »

The descriptive comments here look like they come out of the "Two Degrees" chapter of Mark Lynas's 2007 book, Six Degrees.[1]

Lynas summarized climate science as it was in about 2005, and organised the summary by temperature increase. Each chapter is named after its upper bound, so "Two Degrees" describes changes expected with the global temperature increase between 1 and 2 degrees. Lynas gives up after six degrees.

Let me repeat the 2007 bit, in case you missed it. We knew this would happen. People were told. If you think actions will be taken now, ask yourself what's different from 2008.

1. https://marklynas.org/books/six-degrees-our-future-on-a-hott...

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#163

Post by ip26 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #86
ip26 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agriculture often has the more senior water rights, so I wouldn’t be too sure.

Either way they can’t wring any more water from urban users. Rural users will get hit 90% faster than urban users as water becomes more scarce simply because they consume more now.

No- if water becomes more scarce, those with junior water rights don’t get water. The end. Those with senior rights get just as much as always. So the question is not whether you are ag or rural or muni, it’s how senior are the rights you hold?

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#164

Post by telesilla »

epistasis wrote: post #109
telesilla wrote: post #18

Anyone worrying about what you can regarding climate change, it's nice to stop driving etc but the big issue is fossil fuel consumption. That's in the hands of big money. How that changes is another story but they've been clever to put the blame on domestic, urban consumers when we're a tiny minority of the polluters. Knowing that should help those keen to help out know better where to look. In the meantime, no or li…

> it's nice to stop driving etc but the big issue is fossil fuel consumption. That's in the hands of big money. Driving is the biggest source of fossil fuel consumption. Where are you getting your talking points? Think about the last time you filled up your gas tank. Let's say it's 20 gallons of gas. That's an absolutely massive massive amount of fossil fuel, if you think in terms of 5-gallon buckets. Each gallon of…

>Climate change will not be solved by individual action

Thanks for clarifying - my post was badly written and it was what I meant to convey. Small individual action is really meaningless compared to the massive polluting done by industry - collective global action is the only thing that will change this. On the scale of saying, obtaining voting rights for everyone outside of white men or men who owned property (the norm until the late 1800s).

Also, I'm in an area right now with few cars so I probably just forgot about them.. definitely, don't drive too much either. Or carpool. Trains are better: According to the European Environment Agency, rail travel accounts for 14 grams of CO2 emissions per passenger mile, which is dwarfed by the 285 grams generated by air travel, and the 158 grams per passenger miles from journeys in cars.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#166

Post by throwaway09223 »

Supermancho wrote: post #132
throwaway09223 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm responding to a post and comment about the water shortage which mentions wildfires in passing. You've been here almost as long as I have!

> No, I'm responding to a post and comment about the water shortage which mentions wildfires in passing. Original: > This is a little unreasonable and just smacks of victim blaming. The way you write suggests the California has been deliberately setting their own wildfires, rather than just being a early victim of climate change. > We're not victims - that would imply some outside actor. In reality it's almost entire…

Sorry, I'm not really interested in whatever this is you're doing here. I was in fact responding to the drought bits.

Have a good one.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#167

Post by matmatmatmat »

epistasis wrote: post #49
eplanit wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like there really isn't anything to be concerned about then. "If California stopped growing alfalfa...we could probably house 20-30M more people". I'm very happy to stop growing crops in the desert, and agree there's absurd waste there (just because something can be done does not mean it should be done). But 10s of millions more people...is that really a goal, or even a good thing?

People have to live somewhere, and if they live in California they are going to be living a lower carbon life than if they live in Texas, Boise, Phoenix or Atlanta. Those are the places that California has been exporting anybody who doesn't make lots of money. So yes, as a California resident,, I think 20-30M more in California is a fantastic idea compared to the alternatives.

Just a small point about Texas: Although it still pumps huge amounts of oil and gas, it also has more wind power resources that it could deploy. Texas could have a lower carbon future if it so chose.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#168

Post by matmatmatmat »

jet_32951 wrote: post #116
ericbarrett wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never take any complaint about residential water use in California seriously while there are flooded rice paddies in Sacramento: https://localwiki.org/davis/Rice_Paddies

Yes. Last time I checked, water used for rice growing amounted to 8% of all water use in California, and all household / urban use was also 8%. It is madness to grow rice in a desert, but that is California water "management".

Non-agricultural use makes up about 16%, IIRC, but not sure how "household/urban" use fits in there.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#169

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

tuatoru wrote: post #154
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. Pistachios, cashews, almonds, various nuts also land on the shelves of German Aldi and Lidl in convenient 200g bags.

Back in the 1980s in Europe, almonds and pistachios came from Turkey (and possibly Bulgaria) and cashews from Angola. I don't know if this is still the case.

Some still do, I guess. I just described what I saw on the packaging of Aldi's and Lidl's own brands. I think some of that applies to fruit juices also, but there they only sometimes declare from where the ingredients come.

Re: California's dry season is turning into a permanent state of being

#170

Post by mkskm »

kart23 wrote: post #72
telesilla wrote: post #18

Anyone worrying about what you can regarding climate change, it's nice to stop driving etc but the big issue is fossil fuel consumption. That's in the hands of big money. How that changes is another story but they've been clever to put the blame on domestic, urban consumers when we're a tiny minority of the polluters. Knowing that should help those keen to help out know better where to look. In the meantime, no or li…

Source? At least in the US, cars make up a decent share of our carbon emissions, around 16%. Other greenhouse gases like NOx or Fluorinated gases are mostly produced by industry though. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-...

The top source of greenhouse gas emissions in California is passenger vehicles.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CkDmyLFljut4y3amem_3slBySxw=...

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/22/1617782...

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