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.
Maybe the Southwest should elect representatives that believe in climate change.
Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
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Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#82Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#83Earlier 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)
Why should the rest of the country subsidize these people lifestyle choices to live in an inhospitable area?
I’d be willing to support subsidizing moving them to a new location that’s better suited to living in, but I have no interest in helping pay for people to spit in reality’s eye so they can live in a place they have emotional/cultural ties to
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Water markets are broken primarily because of water rights, some of which were allocated centuries ago via local and regional contracts. They are nearly impossible to untangle, and state governments are required by law to honor them.
Water rights were not allocated centuries ago. All water managements systems (more or less) in place when the US took control of the southwest were overridden and replaced by US-style private property rights, a totally different system than exists east of the 100th parallel/the Mississippi. Consequently, they date back at most 1.5 centuries, and in general, less than that.
Small point, but longitudinal lines aren't typically called parallels because they're not parallel to each other.
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#85It’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…
I got flooded out of my house and took 3 months to find a new rental.
I watched as the fungus invaded my house and started to eat everything. Mould on the walls, fabrics, paper, rubber, leather. Anything that had any sort of digestible organic matter on it went mouldy. Glass had a think layer of spores. Black loud coming down from the ceiling (this is a very bad sign, your property is seriously sick if you have black mould on your ceiling).
This whole area has been dealing with this stuff since they started building here, every house is affected. These wet periods just highlight the danger. Our country doesn’t have the resources to clean this issue up. That means millions of people are inhaling spores all day every day.
Spores won’t kill you, but they will ruin your life. They get into your lungs and cause health issues. I was sceptical about it until I moved to a dry area. My health shot way back up!
Good luck getting any tradies let alone building supplies.
I can get my lettuce local though for $3 a bunch from the farmers market! So there’s that :)
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the Southwest should elect representatives that believe in climate change.
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.
You need both, as it's only going to get worse, and we can do something about how quickly.
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#87The 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…
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#88Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congress can use eminent domain to untangle them.
Can you walk me through how the Federal Government could use eminent domain to untangle the water rights? What exactly is the Government going to expropriate as part of eminent domain? There are seven states that depend on the water from the Colorado River.
Eminent domaining the water?
The federal government at the highest level(SCOTUS) have no problem using eminent domain for things as frivolous as an unfinanced mall with no strings attached for the _private_ developer. They certainly wouldn't pause to eminent domain this if they cared.
Unfortunately these are regions of the country that are populated by large groups of people who continually elect local politicians who will blame any convenient boogeyman on their problems. Look at this in 2021 their AG sued the Biden government over not doing enough to stop pollution causing climate change because his administration didn’t crack down on _immigrants_[1].
What exactly is political leadership supposed to do here? Kowtow to the demands that will cost money and absolutely not solve the problem? Or ignore it until the people living with the issue decide to accept that it’s real rather than blaming whatever let’s them continue their lifestyle without any change?
[1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-...
Re: Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely
#90how many states are going to implode, apart from SriLanka? Any guesses?