What is preventing is from building canals from the Northeast to California? They are having devastating snowstorm s and we having draught. It make sense.
The Mississippi River system and the Rocky Mountains?
California has about one year of water left
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Re: California has about one year of water left
#372What is preventing is from building canals from the Northeast to California? They are having devastating snowstorm s and we having draught. It make sense.
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Re: California has about one year of water left
#373Earlier 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,…
We can still grow crops in California without water subsidies. In places where water is more expensive, like Israel, farmers invest more in water-saving technology in their farms. And probably grow less water-intensive crops like rice.
With the fun side effect of taking away Palestinian land and water. Everyone wins.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#374So it looks like there is suddenly water everywhere in the solar system...except for California.
In the absence of fresh water, it becomes a matter of the energy required to clean / desalinate / or distill contaminated water. Abundant clean renewable energy would solve "rare" water issues.
So would magic.
We need to rid ourselves of the mythical notion of "abundant", meaning arbitrarily cheap, energy. There are only a few more doublings of global energy usage left before we heat the atmosphere significantly, not due to greenhouse gases, but by raising the equilibrium temperature of Earth as a radiating blackbody in space.
TANSTAAFL. Every resource is ultimately finite. Let's live within our limits rather than justifying our actions with unrealistic fantasizing about future technology.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
The droughts in Austin, and Texas, are far longer running than 1.5 years. Welcome to Austin, water shouldn't be a reason you think it is a mistake to live here. There is a City of Austin Drought Contingency Plan: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Water/C... Not Austin, but you can read an article on central Texas rainfall patterns done in Mason county on a ranch from 1950-2012 http://doublehelixran…
A couple of other things that concern me here: It appears that the authorities are sacrificing Lake Travis in order to keep the city lake full and beautiful. IMHO, it would be better to let the level fall there as well, to keep people thinking about the need to conserve. I live just a few minutes from Jacob's Well [1]. Having heard stories of how this spring used to sometimes shoot 20 feet into the air, but in some r…
I would love for the city to reflect our water problems in town lake, lake travis is being sacrificed. They won't go for that though, not with all the downtown development.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#37680 percent of the developed water supply in California is used by agriculture. About 6 percent is industrial and commercial. That leaves 7 percent residential landscaping, and 7 percent residential non-landscaping (showers, washing machines, etc.). Source: http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/where-we-... Even if residential landscaping or non-landscaping water usage dropped by a quarter immediately, wh…
Related to this: California is one of the largest producers of rice (one of the most water-intensive crops in the world) in the United States. Rice (and other water intensive crops) shouldn't be grown in places that have water issues.
Texas is also recovering from a 10 year drought and was growing rice up until last year. It's just crazy.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
Loosing control over rare earth metals played out very well. For China. Not being able to produce enough wood tanked Soviet Union.
I'm not familiar with the wood theory of the downfall of the Soviet Union. Link? I figured it was their centrally planned economy. Yeah, so China has most rare earth metals. Are you advocating imperialism and occupation? Do we have evidence that they are managing their resource in an abusive way? (After a bit of reading, it appears that China does have large export restrictions. That market inefficiency is being solv…
The problem here is that you expect history to indicate future performance. You expect each country to act morally instead of what's in their best (monetary) interest. How are wars fought these days? Sanctions, it has happened in recent history. Now what is a nation to do when a sanction against them on food imports? One thing is for sure, it'll help solve a population problem.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#37880 percent of the developed water supply in California is used by agriculture. About 6 percent is industrial and commercial. That leaves 7 percent residential landscaping, and 7 percent residential non-landscaping (showers, washing machines, etc.). Source: http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/where-we-... Even if residential landscaping or non-landscaping water usage dropped by a quarter immediately, wh…
Everyone keeps blaming nuts, and they do use a lot of water, but Alfalfa is the biggest agricultural user of water in the state.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/meat-makes-the-pla...
Re: California has about one year of water left
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a biased vegan but... 802.7 gallons of water for one pound of beef 187.969 gallons of water for one pound of vegetables Agriculture consumes 2/3rds of California's water, most of which goes to growing and feeding farmed animals. Source: http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/WaterFootprintCalcul... (Used United States for country)
Not sure I believe the animals are getting most of it in California but either way that's something that can be easily moved out of state. Almonds can't.
Correct. There are only a few areas in the world almonds can be commercially grown. California is one.
Cattle can be grown lots of places.
Re: California has about one year of water left
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Midwest would make a good alternative place to grow. It won't be as prone to droughts and will have a longer growing season due to climate change. Either that or giving farmers a subsidy for growing crops that require less water. Our huge Almond industry is a giant water-guzzler.
Almond Trees at maturity seem to be small enough to be movable to new locations (12-33 ft high, 12 in trunk)
You can't move almond trees to other areas. They wouldn't thrive there. You might as well suggest moving a Banana plantation from Honduras to Montana to save on shipping costs.