California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#61

Post by JKCalhoun » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 12:39 PM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #26

orlp wrote: post #2

"Californians are being asked to reduce their water use by 15 percent over 2020 levels to protect water reserves and help maintain critical flows for fish and wildlife wherever possible." And by that they surely mean agriculture, right? Right? The industry responsible for 80% of the water usage in California? They surely couldn't just be asking urban consumers to reduce? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/2…

This! It's also why I don't like being told to stop eating beef / meat to stop the climate crisis when fracking and other ridiculous practices are still legal. Food and nutrition is important. Disclaimer: I tried being a vegetarian for 2 years, I didn't feel good mentally and physically so I went back to consuming meat. I'll probably try again another time.

Fish perhaps?

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#62

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 12:42 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #37

thisNeeds2BeSad wrote: post #13

The irony being that israel has "solved" water problems in agriculture largely, by reusing waste water and drip irrigation and simply have the users pay for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in... This sounds like a typical US thing. Suffering from a solveable problem, while creating the maximum public drama and having the society incapable of reform as a sort of greek-tragedy-background…

It's an even more typical California thing...

[deleted]

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#63

Post by newsclues » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 12:44 PM UTC

spicyusername wrote: post #45

newsclues wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was a scale instead of policy issue, there would be places in the US with effective policy, but because of scale not everywhere…

There are places in the U.S. with effective policy.

I don’t think scale is preventing the effective policy from being implemented, but the political process that selects the wrong policy.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#64

Post by eixiepia » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 12:51 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #36

bamboozled wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! It's also why I don't like being told to stop eating beef / meat to stop the climate crisis when fracking and other ridiculous practices are still legal. Food and nutrition is important. Disclaimer: I tried being a vegetarian for 2 years, I didn't feel good mentally and physically so I went back to consuming meat. I'll probably try again another time.

This is why we’ll never “stop the climate crisis.” Everybody thinks somebody else is causing the problem and that somebody else needs to change more than they themselves do. The truth is, stopping the climate crisis involves everybody changing how they live in a significant way. Anything short of that and you better hope your great grandkids like eating crickets and forest fires. The sadder truth is that the climate…

No post body was provided.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#65

Post by hotpotamus » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #47

thisNeeds2BeSad wrote: post #13

The irony being that israel has "solved" water problems in agriculture largely, by reusing waste water and drip irrigation and simply have the users pay for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in... This sounds like a typical US thing. Suffering from a solveable problem, while creating the maximum public drama and having the society incapable of reform as a sort of greek-tragedy-background…

Hey, as everyone knows here, I’ll be the first one to rag on United States and California, but Israel has 1/4 of the population of California, has pretty much one religion and national unity, and they get 4 billion in aid from the United States at least. So I don’t think Israel is a fair comparison. Plus, California has the mega rich who own a lot of the California coast. Which one of them is going to want a Desal pl…

I see a few responses saying how you can't compare Israel to California because they are smaller, but I would think a larger economy with better economies of scale would be better able to solve problems, not less.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#66

Post by stevenjgarner » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:02 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #50

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, as everyone knows here, I’ll be the first one to rag on United States and California, but Israel has 1/4 of the population of California, has pretty much one religion and national unity, and they get 4 billion in aid from the United States at least. So I don’t think Israel is a fair comparison. Plus, California has the mega rich who own a lot of the California coast. Which one of them is going to want a Desal pl…

Israel is “74.2% Jewish, 17.8% Muslim, 2.0% Christian, and 1.6% Druze. The remaining 4.4% included faiths such as Samaritanism and Baháʼí as well as "religiously unclassified", the category for all who do not belong to one of the recognized communities.” So, it arguably has more religious diversity than the US. The US is largely Christian with no other religion making up more than 2% of the population.

It depends how you view religion. "The Pew Religious Landscape survey reported that as of 2014, 22.8% of the American population is religiously unaffiliated, atheists made up 3.1% and agnostics made up 4% of the US population." [1] Probably the largest unrepresented population in US government, running as an atheist is still considered political suicide.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#67

Post by Barrera » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

> Statewide precipitation for the water year to date is 73 percent of average. Sierra-Cascades snowpack for the water year to date is 10 percent of average, down from 18 percent last week. Statewide reservoir storage is 71 percent of average for this time of year.

And more stats like that. Where are the stats about California's reservoir levels? Isn't that the relevant metric? The state's very existence depends on water being in those reservoirs. Should one or more of them actually run dry, I don't think there is even a plan for what happens next.

Along those lines, where are the mandatory cutbacks in water distribution to conserve what's left?

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#68

Post by AYBABTME » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

eixiepia wrote: post #64

paulcole wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we’ll never “stop the climate crisis.” Everybody thinks somebody else is causing the problem and that somebody else needs to change more than they themselves do. The truth is, stopping the climate crisis involves everybody changing how they live in a significant way. Anything short of that and you better hope your great grandkids like eating crickets and forest fires. The sadder truth is that the climate…

Quoted post unavailable.

Not having kid is a pretty non starter idea. It's akind to asking a species "why don't you just commit suicide"?

So called entitlement to breed is how life started in the first place.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#69

Post by jeffbee » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

orlp wrote: post #2

"Californians are being asked to reduce their water use by 15 percent over 2020 levels to protect water reserves and help maintain critical flows for fish and wildlife wherever possible." And by that they surely mean agriculture, right? Right? The industry responsible for 80% of the water usage in California? They surely couldn't just be asking urban consumers to reduce? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/2…

Dead wrong. The state water project is not delivering any water to agricultural customers this year. Ag is on a mandatory 100% reduction.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#70

Post by FollowingTheDao » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 1:13 PM UTC

stevenjgarner wrote: post #66

Retric wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel is “74.2% Jewish, 17.8% Muslim, 2.0% Christian, and 1.6% Druze. The remaining 4.4% included faiths such as Samaritanism and Baháʼí as well as "religiously unclassified", the category for all who do not belong to one of the recognized communities.” So, it arguably has more religious diversity than the US. The US is largely Christian with no other religion making up more than 2% of the population.

It depends how you view religion. "The Pew Religious Landscape survey reported that as of 2014, 22.8% of the American population is religiously unaffiliated, atheists made up 3.1% and agnostics made up 4% of the US population." [1] Probably the largest unrepresented population in US government, running as an atheist is still considered political suicide. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism

And the Protestant and Catholics were at war with each other countless times (For 30 years in one case!) so it's not fair to say they are not one religion.