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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

#171

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

downut wrote: post #138
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My garden has drip irrigation and looks like a burned mess unfortunately. I think it is just the effect of the hot dry air on the leaves.

My wife is a master gardener at 5500' elevation in AZ. If the monsoon happens (50% chance) then there are two difficult months, May and June. June is the real bitch. Highs in the high 90s, hot winds out of the southwest everyday, and no clouds. If the monsoon fails (again 50% chance) then every month is difficult. She grows many varieties of tomatoes, okra, blackberries, three kinds of eggplant, basil, cilantro, and…

Thank you so much I will try some of these!

I have been reluctant to do shade cloth but I think I have to go there.

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

#172

Post by danans »

barsonme wrote: post #119
danans wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the things that has puzzled me for a long time is how little thought we have applied over time towards designing and building better homes. We have thought a lot, but the reality is that the market, which we rely on to drive how things like houses are built, has shown that regardless of what they say, people ultimately value a 5th bathroom more than they value energy or water efficiency. The only way to ensu…

Jeez, where do you live that people have five bathrooms?

The "high end" production built suburbs of most American cities built in the last few decades. The country has moved far from little Craftsman or Sears homes.

I don't live in such a place but have spent plenty of time visiting them.

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

#173

Post by avianlyric »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #166
Supermancho wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

As the author of the original comment, let me clear this up.

> 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.

This part of my comment was about wildfire and climate change only. I didn’t intend, nor do I think I did, suggest any link between droughts and climate change.

> With regards to water reservoirs, that does not seem to be a uniquely Californian thing. As an outside observer it seems the entire US is dependent on ageing infrastructure built after WWII, which has seen nothing but neglect since.

This is a second, separate part of my comment. Hence the new paragraph. Here I was commenting on the state of US infrastructure and how it relates to California’s water reservoirs. Again I didn’t intend to link water shortages to climate change.

So, in summary, my comment has distinct parts. In neither part do I bring up any link between water and climate change. I do, however, quite explicitly link climate change to wildfires. I’m quite happy for people to assert that such a link doesn’t exist, or isn’t substantial.

In short my comment was about wildfires and US infrastructure, that doesn’t to droughts at all. You’ll notice that my original comment doesn’t contain the word “drought”.

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

#174

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ip26 wrote: post #163
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The state will simply invest more to bore water down from Northern California. But that won't be enough to satisfy agricultural needs, and farmers will have no access to the water that is brought down. Heck, for urban users, even desalinization is economical, but not for agricultural users.

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

#175

Post by epistasis »

matmatmatmat wrote: post #167
epistasis wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Though electrical consumption is far lower in California than Texas (and bills are typically lower deposits higher $/kWh), the electrical change isn't the biggest factor.

The grid can always be greened fairly quickly. That's an easy change to make, and happening quickly in places like Texas where legacy expensive fossil fuel generators aren't protected by utilities. Now that renewables and storage are cheap, any new natural gas plant will soon be a stranded asset, and generators on ERCOT are quickly realizing that.

A much harder change is transportation. We can't build enough electric cars fast enough for the transition, and land use patterns in Texas typically require cars even more intensively than California. In contrast, biking to work in the Bay Area is pleasant newer year round, and there's not much mass transit but at least a little.

The Texas lifestyle requires a car, and people that are forced out of California typically leave in the blue low-carbon areas on this Tablueau map, but will likely move to the red high-carbon areas.

https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps

At least, that's the anecdata I have from people I know, but it's not proper data.

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

#176

Post by robomartin »

ip26 wrote: post #82
robomartin wrote: post #66

One of the things that has puzzled me for a long time is how little thought we have applied over time towards designing and building better homes. Energy and water usage are two elements of this. Regarding water. Every time I wash my hands I wish that water went into a gray water tank instead of being wasted. This water, perhaps with some filtration (or maybe not [0]) could then be used for irrigation. The same is th…

Storm drains do need some flow to keep them clear. Grey water systems seem most viable at the water district level, e.g. water treatment plant recycles clean water from drains back into the fresh supply. This is what some cities in Nevada are doing. A grey water system in your house would be a duplicate set of plumbing, and you’d have a hard time keeping it clean & unclogged in the long run. The scale is small so the…

I don't think what I am proposing would prevent water from hitting the storm drains. For example, my neighbors, the ones blasting water onto their laws, they would use recycled water instead of clean drinking water.

This problem is complicated because homes are not designed with extra space for what in commercial buildings is called "mechanicals". A room or more where building systems are housed and maintained.

If I were to ever build my own home I would likely design a room, about the size of a two car garage, to house such systems. Anything from water recycling to batteries, heating, cooling, network, etc. I would probably make it an extension of the traditional two car garage just so that it is conveniently located with access to both tools and easy entry/exit of large items when you have to repair or replace something. Pretty much every home in my neighborhood could easily have this. They simply were not thinking this way.

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

#177

Post by smegger001 »

johnchristopher wrote: post #92
scrumbledober wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not just pistachios and almonds, it's a full 1/3 of the country's vegetables and 2/3 of the country's fruits and nuts. California's water problems are everyone's water problems.

In the most extreme scenario, can the US create new agricultural fields in other states, cutting down forests if needed ? The weather will change but surely the US will still have arable land enough to feed its citizens (even if they have to forget some kind of crops (pistachio, etc.) aside) ?

If things get that bad, building a nuclear power plant and devoting its power to desalination would probably be more economical and environmentally friendly than cutting down forest for feilds.

Hell if it gets that bad building a pipeline to pump water south from the mouth of the Columbia river would be on the table.

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

#178

Post by lovich »

NonContro wrote: post #128
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…

California's population would be shrinking (due to inter-state emigration), if not for international immigration: https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/californias-stalled-... Securing the southern border and deporting all irregular migrants should also be a priority from an environmental standpoint.

How is bringing up immigration policy in a conversation about climate change(which does not respect national borders) anything but a non sequitur?

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

#179

Post by heavyset_go »

johnchristopher wrote: post #92
scrumbledober wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not just pistachios and almonds, it's a full 1/3 of the country's vegetables and 2/3 of the country's fruits and nuts. California's water problems are everyone's water problems.

In the most extreme scenario, can the US create new agricultural fields in other states, cutting down forests if needed ? The weather will change but surely the US will still have arable land enough to feed its citizens (even if they have to forget some kind of crops (pistachio, etc.) aside) ?

It would require forethought because it takes time to grow food. It could get bad in the meantime.

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

#180

Post by heavyset_go »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #3

I don’t live in California but my state is experiencing the same. I love to garden, but summer has just become the dry season here, so it is pointless. You can irrigate, but the vapor-pressure deficit (VPD) when it is 100 degrees and 20% humidity makes plant growth almost impossible for anything but cacti. I think I’ll just have to move. https://www.dimluxlighting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Le...

Would you mind sharing the state?
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