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Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

latimes.com

11–20 of 195 posts

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#11
Putting aside the fact the state has infrastructure designed for 20 million people (current population double that) water management was designed to have a five year buffer for cyclical drought years which has recently has been catastrophically mismanaged.

I wish the LA Times would focus on that and the reality that if the state continues to grow, water pipelines from the northern states and Canada will need to be constructed.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#12

entire regions being deserted is not a new thing (see mayan civilization). it's possible we'll see the cities of southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles) as remnants of an ancient culture in a few hundred years, left intact by the scorching heat and desert.

Climate doomerism is some seriously fascinating stuff. Both of those places are far more temperate than hundreds of cities around the world.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#13

California is next to the ocean, so if we really wanted to secure the water supply we have technological answers available. Nuclear desalination has been used at scale across the globe for decades, and it's not hard to imagine a less centralized solution powered by solar or wind. https://www.iaea.org/topics/non-electric-applications/nuclea...

The state needs to start overruling the local NIMBYs and build the desal plants the rest of the state needs.

And the regulators need to chill out: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-regulator-reject...

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#14
I have a friend who grew up and has lived in socal for most of their life. When I mentioned the reporting on extreme drought for this year, they just responded “oh they say that every year”. So I wonder how reflective that is of the mentality of area residents, even if superficially it could appear otherwise.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#15

entire regions being deserted is not a new thing (see mayan civilization). it's possible we'll see the cities of southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles) as remnants of an ancient culture in a few hundred years, left intact by the scorching heat and desert.

Climate doomerism is some seriously fascinating stuff. Both of those places are far more temperate than hundreds of cities around the world.

The commenter said "A few hundred years". Doesn't seem like an extraordinary hypothesis.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#16

entire regions being deserted is not a new thing (see mayan civilization). it's possible we'll see the cities of southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles) as remnants of an ancient culture in a few hundred years, left intact by the scorching heat and desert.

And what about places like phoenix and Vegas?

Can't speak to Pheonix, but Las Vegas and the surrounding counties have a history of being very good about stewardship of their water supplies. There's a ton of documentaries on the topic if you go digging around the search engines or YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3z_z0Wsk-I

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#17

entire regions being deserted is not a new thing (see mayan civilization). it's possible we'll see the cities of southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles) as remnants of an ancient culture in a few hundred years, left intact by the scorching heat and desert.

No post body was provided.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#19
This is partially why I think the risk of homeownership is largely being understated.

You may have entire communities that become uninsurable even long before an actual natural disaster occurs, and it becomes very difficult to cash out refinance or sell.

Re: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric

#20

California is next to the ocean, so if we really wanted to secure the water supply we have technological answers available. Nuclear desalination has been used at scale across the globe for decades, and it's not hard to imagine a less centralized solution powered by solar or wind. https://www.iaea.org/topics/non-electric-applications/nuclea...

Oh the typical techie solution to environmental problems. We can solve this with tech!

Wait until the aquifers under North America run dry. That's where most irrigation pump up their ground water from. A few dry rivers and smaller lakes are nothing compared to what's going to happen. Forget your desalination plants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aquifers_in_the_United...

And it's entirely predictable. In fact, for decades already. But (almost) nobody is doing anything. Cause freedom, I guess. What's a golf course here and there in the desert, for the better off, right? Or what about an artificial lagoon? Freedom!

Edit: Oh, there is a recent John Oliver episode about this one too. Maybe finally somebody will notice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtxew5XUVbQ

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