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Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

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Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#71

Post by danans »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #15
sen wrote: post #5

It’s been intense here (SE Australia). It’s just been raining for weeks now without stopping. I think we’ve had 2 sunny days in the last 4 weeks? Crops are dying, lettuce costs $10 each (if you can find them), internet keeps dropping out cos of shittily buried lines, drains overflow and flood the streets constantly, and the kids are going up the walls. I know it’s normal for lots of areas of the world (and I’ve lived…

Anecdotally, including us, anyone you talk to here is dealing with mold issues, and it is often a very expensive problem to fix. Having no let up period from I think Dec -> May where the property can dry out, in addition to rain bombs causing roof leaks. Many roofers have automated messages saying "we're too busy, no point". There is backlog in getting mold tested. Also affects general trades who don't give dates, th…

> Anecdotally, including us, anyone you talk to here is dealing with mold issues,

Is the mold a recent thing related to el Niño or has it been a problem for a while?

In the US at least, many houses built in the 90s-2000s have mold issues because they were built without proper water vapor permeability and also with materials that are also not moisture resilient.

This is even an issue in dry areas like California.

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#72

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #68
UkrainianJew wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather cause and effect. We need efficient mitigations to problems occurring right now, not gestures that would have an effect 50 years from now, if only the rest of the world followed suit.

The mitigations are to stop development and water intensive agriculture, and anyone who runs on that platform won’t be elected. The problem will, painfully, solve itself when water supplies are exhausted.

Agriculture typically uses 75-80% of the water in southwestern states.

Residential is around 7% (similar to losses from evaporation).

Residential per-capita use has been declining for decades. Agricultural use per acre or flat or rising.

Stopping development has little to do with the water issues in the SW (it might still be a good idea, but this is not the main reason why)

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#73

Post by paranoidrobot »

rootw0rm wrote: post #60
Andaith wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wild to me is that apparently there's only one place on this continent that grows lettuce. It seems like a bit of an all-your-eggs-in-one-basket thing to have one valley in QLD(I think) that does lettuce for the nation, and they have some bad weather and suddenly we're all sans-lettuce.

Get some spinach, arugula, cabbage, or any other leafy green?

> cabbage

There was big social media/news thing when KFC announced they were replacing lettuce with cabbage on their burgers.

A lot of unhappy campers there - tbh I think if they went further and made it a nice slaw with a sharp/tangy dressing then it'd be a massive improvement to their usual soggy, greasy chicken, and undercooked/limp chips (fries)

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#74

Post by tru3_power »

narrator wrote: post #57
pram wrote: post #50

The situation in Lake Mead is horrific. I’ve been watching a YouTuber that has been filming various locations around the basin for the past couple months. It’s one thing to hear “the lake is doomed” and another to see it disappearing as the days go by: https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s

Oddly, California officials are trying to decide right now whether to save Lake Mead or the Salton Sea. One is a stinky polluted accidental lake and the other is the primary water source for Las Vegas. What the heck? "He said the district will again seek binding guarantees from the federal and state government to help with the fast-drying Salton Sea before agreeing to reductions to preserve Lake Mead." https://www.ya…

Isn’t the concern that if the salton sea dries up all the toxic waste will start blowing around everywhere?

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#75

Post by selimthegrim »

narrator wrote: post #57
pram wrote: post #50

The situation in Lake Mead is horrific. I’ve been watching a YouTuber that has been filming various locations around the basin for the past couple months. It’s one thing to hear “the lake is doomed” and another to see it disappearing as the days go by: https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s

Oddly, California officials are trying to decide right now whether to save Lake Mead or the Salton Sea. One is a stinky polluted accidental lake and the other is the primary water source for Las Vegas. What the heck? "He said the district will again seek binding guarantees from the federal and state government to help with the fast-drying Salton Sea before agreeing to reductions to preserve Lake Mead." https://www.ya…

I don’t think anyone wants Biblical dust storms.

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#77

Post by oasisbob »

jiggyjace wrote: post #65
ianai wrote: post #3

Really starting to feel dangerous to live anywhere in the US southwest. Lake Meade approaching deadpool and massive wildfire nearing my house this summer. Plus the government is led by people who refer to much of the southwest as “fly over country” doesn’t help.

I don't know what news you're plugged in to but I'm not worried at all living in the SW US. Phoenix and Tucson had by far their wettest rainy season in decades last year and are projected to have another wet season this year. And the state of AZ uses less water for 10x the population than it did in the 1950s.

It doesn't matter if historical per-capita water usage is down if the lower basin states are continuing to overdraw their water allocations from the Colorado river system.

If and when the Colorado River Compact implodes, it's going to be immensely painful to all the states -- but especially Arizona, which doesn't have the same senior rights as other states under prior appropriation.

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#78

Post by lovich »

narrator wrote: post #57
pram wrote: post #50

The situation in Lake Mead is horrific. I’ve been watching a YouTuber that has been filming various locations around the basin for the past couple months. It’s one thing to hear “the lake is doomed” and another to see it disappearing as the days go by: https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s

Oddly, California officials are trying to decide right now whether to save Lake Mead or the Salton Sea. One is a stinky polluted accidental lake and the other is the primary water source for Las Vegas. What the heck? "He said the district will again seek binding guarantees from the federal and state government to help with the fast-drying Salton Sea before agreeing to reductions to preserve Lake Mead." https://www.ya…

I think the government views the stinky polluted lake as more of a shield over the pollution that is keeping it from being flung everywhere in the next dust bowl.

We learned as a result of the dust bowl that many aspects of the environment that we thought were useless were actually providing a stabilizing affect on the local environment. This is how we got infrastructure projects like the great shelterbelt[1].

Given this historical context the situation looks like the inverse to me. Like how the hell can the government prioritize keeping an artificial oasis supplied with enough water for a city in the middle of the desert vs prioritizing keeping a man made disaster caused by our ancestors from affecting large swathes of the country?

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains_Shelterbelt

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#79

Post by danans »

narrator wrote: post #57
pram wrote: post #50

The situation in Lake Mead is horrific. I’ve been watching a YouTuber that has been filming various locations around the basin for the past couple months. It’s one thing to hear “the lake is doomed” and another to see it disappearing as the days go by: https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s

Oddly, California officials are trying to decide right now whether to save Lake Mead or the Salton Sea. One is a stinky polluted accidental lake and the other is the primary water source for Las Vegas. What the heck? "He said the district will again seek binding guarantees from the federal and state government to help with the fast-drying Salton Sea before agreeing to reductions to preserve Lake Mead." https://www.ya…

> Oddly, California officials are trying to decide right now whether to save Lake Mead or the Salton Sea.

Not California officials.

It's the Imperial Irrigation District, which is the water utility for largely agricultural Imperial County, which is inland from San Diego. They grow a huge amount of produce there, so the water rights are primarily for farming, not for restoring the lake, which is fed by farming runoff.

So a better comparison is farming in the Imperial Valley vs Las Vegas.

Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely

#80

Post by toomuchtodo »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #72
toomuchtodo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mitigations are to stop development and water intensive agriculture, and anyone who runs on that platform won’t be elected. The problem will, painfully, solve itself when water supplies are exhausted.

Agriculture typically uses 75-80% of the water in southwestern states. Residential is around 7% (similar to losses from evaporation). Residential per-capita use has been declining for decades. Agricultural use per acre or flat or rising. Stopping development has little to do with the water issues in the SW (it might still be a good idea, but this is not the main reason why)

I agree with you regarding the ratios you mention. Importantly, the Colorado River Compact was established during an atypically wet cycle, and even with ag reductions, I’d argue no additional pressure should be placed on the watershed due to long duration droughts becoming more frequent. We might yet have to bring water from elsewhere, no further pressure should be incurred.
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