181–190 of 405 posts
Not suitable for drinking but maybe it could be reclaimed to water crops.
Alternately it would be nice if there was a leap in desalination technology where it would take a tenth of the power.
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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?
tl;dr - NO. It would not make a difference.
Google your question. The answer is below for you.
Source: KCET article. February 10, 2014.
California's water budget is skewed heavily toward agriculture. The conventional estimate is that 80 percent of the water used in California flows into the state's multi-billion-dollar agricultural sector.
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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?
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. (…
Golf courses account for probably not more than 0.5% of all human water usage in California annually. Human water usage in CA is about 80% agricultural, 20% "urban". "Urban" covers all residential, (non-agricultural) commericial, landscaping, etc. Of the "Urban" usage, about 60% is residential, with indoor usage as the majority. Residential landscaping (lawns, pools, etc) uses at least 3 times as much as all commerci…
Great! That's half percent point gain of a life-constraining resource at the cost of a little non-essential entertainment for a small minority of people.
It's the same when you are trying to make a tight budget. First you cut off all the stupid impulse purchases. Then you figure out how much of each useful expense you are able to sacrifice. And only then you decide if you can or cannot afford one single hedonic purchase per month to keep up the morale.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that California is so ideal for agriculture because of its climate (with the water scarcity being the big liability, the can we've been kicking down the road for decades). Other states, either individually or collectively, do not have the year-round, Mediterranean, relatively predictable climate to take on the load that California would drop. This includes not only total square acreage of arable,…
There are other places in the world where these crops can be grown. People in those countries will be more than happy to trade us almonds, rice, bananas and the like in exchange for things we are great at producing like software and music. It's a win-win.
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other, more water rich parts of the country My main question is: What are these other water rich part of the country that aren't already fully exploited for agriculture? Are there maps published somewhere that tell people where they can move to to establish farms elsewhere?
The US has lots of young forests that grew after people abandoned the area that used to be farmed. If you ever go for a walk in the woods and wonder why the trees are all so (relatively) small, that's why. There is plenty of room for more farmland. You will have to cut some trees, but that's always been the case.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/where-we-...
> The drought has changed all that. Now, management plans are being looked at with care as California nears a 2020 deadline to cut the state's overall water use by 20 percent. [which would move us close to sustainability]
> About 14 percent is poured into bathtubs, toilets, and washing machines or sprayed over residential lawns.
We'd need a residential population of -30% of California's current population.
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Desalination is expensive and not great for the environment, but its starting to happen. http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/533446/desalin...
Don't forget solar desal. For example, http://waterfx.co . That would eliminate any pollution.