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California has about one year of water left

latimes.com

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Re: California has about one year of water left

#151

Post by ars »

api wrote: post #81
victoro wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you should crack open that Econ 101 textbook first, because that same Econ 101 textbook would likely have water as the canonical example used to explain elasticity of demand. Demand for water is inelastic, both for agriculture and home use, so letting the "supply and demand curve" take care of it would likely cause a sharp increase in price in a very short period of time, which, from a policy perspective, see…

Agricultural and home use are inelastic, but irrigation of suburbs and similar luxury uses are not.

Irrigation of lawns is a tiny percentage. Agriculture is definitely elastic! If water prices go up, they just plant less.

Then people in other places grow food instead. It's a slow change, but it's certainly elastic.

Re: California has about one year of water left

#152

Post by protomyth »

wnissen wrote: post #140
protomyth wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the rest of the country could grow the same crops as "America's Salad Bowl" we would. California is ideal for those crops and without the large population would be fine. It is probably past time to actually push desalination plants or convince a lot of people to move somewhere else.

The people consume only a fraction of the water and it's dishonest in the extreme to say that things would be "fine" without them. Each ton of alfalfa in California consumes more water than a family uses in a year and yet sells for $200. There were 13 million tons sold last year. If we got rid of the low-value forage crops, the people (who would pay a hell of a lot more than $200 a year) would have more than enough w…

So, as an intellectual exercise, if the Los Angeles and San Francisco metroplexes simply vanished, would there be enough water?

Re: California has about one year of water left

#153

Post by andlarry »

Most of the water is used by agriculture. You can take all the 2 minute showers you want, changing how the megafarms use all that water would have the most impact.

Of course, there's this idea that the farms are the historical yeoman-type, so it's rare to see solutions involving agriculture dicussed.

http://californiawaterblog.com/2011/05/05/water%E2%80%94who-...

> When you examine water use within the interconnected network of California that feeds farms and cities, use is roughly 52 percent agricultural, 14 percent urban and 33 percent environmental.

Re: California has about one year of water left

#156

Post by lotsofmangos »

nfriedly wrote: post #45

How feasible is desalination? If they can make that work on a large scale, then there's quite literally an ocean of water available to California.

Depends on the process. Is usually extremely energy intensive, but there are some interesting developments happening.

Direct contact membrane distillation - http://www.usbr.gov/research/AWT/reportpdfs/report134.pdf

Seawater greenhouse - http://www.seawatergreenhouse.com/process.html

Re: California has about one year of water left

#157

Post by JimboOmega »

Flip-per wrote: post #120

Warning: strong language and opinion I'm glad each time climate change consequences hit the US instead of other countries that contributed way less, like Tuvalu. You consider this rude? Fair enough, I consider it rude to destroy the planet we are living on, at least in a way that makes it habitable for humans. Of course other countries are not innocent either, but the (institutions of the) US stand out in many ways.…

The sad truth is that the net outcome of this drought will probably hurt those in less developed countries more than Americans.

Californians will not go thirsty or not be able to take showers; there's enough water for municipal supplies.

Agriculture will, however, take a hit. While the valley produces a huge amount of produce, it is still a small part of the overall California economy.

Prices will go up for vegetables which will need to be produced elsewhere. Americans won't really notice. SV will keep on humming. But in other places the prices for food will go up.

Remember the 2007-8 food price crisis? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_world_food_pric...

Most Americans don't.

Re: California has about one year of water left

#158

Post by bearclough »

Does anyone have any good intel on nuclear powered desalination plants. I know desalinated water is about the most expensive around but for keeping the population with enough drinking and washing water.

The agricultural impact is huge and requires more water than the people do. But, I wonder if desalination would help supply water to the populous.

Re: California has about one year of water left

#159

Post by bearclough »

Does anyone have any good intel on nuclear powered desalination plants. I know desalinated water is about the most expensive around but for keeping the population with enough drinking and washing water.

The agricultural impact is huge and requires more water than the people do. But, I wonder if desalination would help supply water to the populous.

Re: California has about one year of water left

#160

Post by munificent »

sandworm wrote: post #114

I blame golf. Really. I learned to play on an OIL course. They mixed oil and sand to create a fairway and we carried around a piece of astroturf to place under the ball (see http://www.panoramio.com/photo/22230833 ). A grass course in a desert (ie most every course in california) is a totally unnecessary waste of water. When they stop spending water on golf, THEN we can talk about rationing water for household use. (…

According to this [1], irrigation—which includes both golf courses and agriculture—accounts for 60.7% of California's water consumption. According this [2], golf courses account for 1%.

It's impossible to make progress without having facts.

[1]: http://ca.water.usgs.gov/water_use/ [2]: http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/04/california-...

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