Posted on 04/02/2015 7:35:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Southern California and much of the southwest is in the grips of a massive and apparently persistent drought. There’s no point in arguing about that. Of course, whenever a crisis arises, it gives politicians a chance to do what they like best… impose more regulations.
Standing in a brown field that would normally be smothered in several feet of snow, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered cities and towns across California to cut water use by 25% as part of a sweeping set of mandatory drought restrictions, the first in state history.
The directive comes more than a year after Brown asked for a 20% voluntary cut in water use that most parts of the state have failed to attain, even as one of the most severe modern droughts drags into a fourth year. It also came on the day that water officials measured the lowest April 1 snowpack in more than 60 years of record-keeping in the Sierra Nevada.
Of course, a problem like this can’t show up without the usual railbirds chiming in about how this is obviously yet another demonstration of anthropogenic global warming. I noticed this one today from the author of Zandar vs. the Stupid.
Deadly flooding in the driest desert on Earth in Chile, California's massive drought and water restrictions. But climate change is a myth.
— Zandar (@ZandarVTS) April 2, 2015
Southern California has been in the process of running out of water for decades (if not longer) and the current drought is simply amplifying the effects and hastening the decline. I’ve been reading dire (and accurate) predictions about this issue for decades. Nearly twenty years ago there were cautionary tales coming out which discussed the fact that the region was essentially a desert when settlers began moving in and even the relatively small population in the nation’s early history already dwarfed the available natural water supplies. (This is from 1998, long before the current drought cycle.)
Not that we aren’t preoccupied with the issue of future water supplies for a good reason. In the LA Basin alone, we have approximately 6% of California’s habitable land but only .06% of the State’s stream flow — yet we hold over 45% of the State’s population. And if the population projections are to be believed, the entire southland is “scheduled” to grow from our current 16 million to over 24 million people. When policy questions are asked about whether Southern California can support this level of growth, the issue of greatest concern is not traffic or air quality or even quality of life, it is water. And the predominant question asked is “where will this water come from?”
Our water fears are not new. Since the pueblo days of Los Angeles, the lack of local water resources has been seen as the primary problem for the southland’s economic future. All plans for the development of the region have hinged around schemes to secure new water supplies — a fact recognized by Carey McWilliams, the pre-eminent historian of the southland, who wrote in 1946 that “God never intended Southern California to be anything but desert…Man has made it what it is.”
Going back to earlier in the last century, we find that the original reason that Hollywood voted to join the municipality of Los Angeles in 1910 was to gain access to their water rights. The area was already being drained by the growing population and would require later river diversions to feed the thirst of the area. The addition of a drought is a much harsher blow for an artificially created habitable zone.
But is the drought situation something new? Actually, not only the western portion of North America, but central and South America have apparently been experiencing these same cycles for as long as human beings have been around. One of the earliest recorded, but most massive examples was the curious disappearance of the million plus strong civilization of the Mayans more than a thousand years ago. What happened to them? Yep… a series of crippling, decade long droughts.
Identifying annual titanium levels, which reflect the amount of rainfall each year, the Swiss and U.S. researchers found that the pristine sediment layers in the basin formed distinct bands that correspond to dry and wet seasons. According to the scientists, there were three large droughts occurring between 810 and 910 A.D., each lasting less than a decade.
The timing of the droughts matched periodic downturns in the Maya culture, as demonstrated by abandonment of cities or diminished stone carving and building activity.
Experts say the Maya were particularly susceptible to long droughts because about 95 percent of their population centers depended solely on lakes, ponds, and rivers containing on average an 18-month supply of water for drinking and agriculture.
And according to the lake bed core samples they’ve taken, the drought which took out the Mayans wasn’t a one time event.
Scientists have found that the recurrence of the drought was remarkably cyclical, occurring every 208 years. That interval is almost identical to a known cycle in which the sun is at its most intense every 206 years. Nothing suggests the Maya knew anything about the sun’s change in intensity.
See? If only those pesky Mayans hadn’t been burning all of that coal and oil to power their dirty, industrial factories they’d probably still be down there today chopping out the hearts of their enemies. Ah… good times, my friends.
Less now than before. When the Co River was apportioned, the upper states did not need all of their share, so CA was allowed to use that until the upper states did need it, which was around 2006/2007.
That was a major event at the time and there were some serious conflicts between growers in the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego golf courses.
No doubt losing that water contributes to CA's problem today.
This includes a changing definition of "highest beneficial use".
No doubt that, previously, farming or watering stock was highest, but today, recreational water probably generates a bigger economic engine. Tourists wanting to golf, fish for trout or salmon, and down river boaters are willing to pay top dollar.
Another good book is The Great Plains written by the Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb, and published in 1932. Its still in print today because many colleges use it as a text book.
Its not specifically about CA but the entire west, west of the 98th meridian. Its about the natural history and gives good explanations of water rights laws and range law.
What make CA so complicated is that there are 3 water rights doctrines in play: Prior Appropriation, Riparian, and Reserved.
Not with so many people, so much debt, so much corruption....there are answers to alleviate the drought( such as desalination) but the arrogant liberal enviromentalists won’t embrace those solutions...
A hallmark of spiritual judgment has been first the beffudling of the wisdom of the leaders. The book of 1st Chronicles speaks of God wanting to punish...the NATION or the people of Israel for their sins...so he allowed King David to be tempted by pride to order a census of a type that was forbidden under Jewish Law...even his main general tried to dissuade him from it. Thus when David did so a plague was brought on the people...but not on David. David as a leader had to repent for himself and intercede for the people before God’s hand was stayed.(Remember when Georgia had a drought some 10 years ago...the Dem Governor decided to publically pray for rain...there was a thunderstorm that night and after wards since Georgia’s water situation has been much better. Governor Moonbat of California perhaps had better try it like his Dem counterpart did in Ga...take a little humility...and do it. God just might take pity and help California in its situation and perhaps Moonbat will learn a thing or two.).
Another instance of such blindness was the story of a later king who increased the burdens on the people much greater than his evil Father had done(refusing to listen to the wise older men, but instead listened to his contemporary ‘swishy’ friends) thus causing a civil war and the split from Northern Israel and 10 of its tribes from Judah and Levi(who were priests of the temple and had no land inheritance).
Look at the performance of Secretary of State Kerry and you can readily see our nation has been given over to buffoons! (and I mean GIVEN OVER) Prep your self...the seas are going to be stormy!
I suppose it would be hateful to mention Sodom and Gomorrah.
Far be it from me to be hateful so I won’t bring it up! : )
Look I just get sick and tired of the hammering of California, as if there aren’t liberals pulling the same crap or worse in other if not all states. Instead of people condemning other states they should look to dealing with the issues in their own, maybe then we will make some headway.
“Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert”
A fine book. Read it about 20 years ago.
That was the book that pointed out that everything west of the 100w parallel in the US is a desert, excepting coastal northern California, Oregon and Washington.
Time to desalinate or move.
ping
I always said that only Jack Nicholson could carry a movie with a bandage on his nose half the time.
Illegals use less than 1% of the water in California. Residential, non-landscape use is about 8% of total statewide use. By contrast, almonds and alfalfa, largely exported, are responsible for 25% of the water use in California each year. Blame illegals for a lot of problems, but the water shortage isn't one of them.
I once took a college course in California History, and we spent a fair amount of time on water rights. Come time for the final, I studied that stuff hard and had it down cold.
And it wasn't on the final.
Still a little annoyed, years later.
Here is some more math. Average water use per person per day in California is 180 gallons (per stats on the radio this morning). 5 million less users of water would save 900 million gallons per day. In a year, 328.5 billion gallons of water. That is not a drop in the bucket.
If Governor Moonbeam was really interested in his legacy, instead of the billions of dollars he’s wasting on his bullet train to nowhere that nobody wants, he would spend that money on fast-tracking desalination plants. Then he could also feel good about combating the “rising seas” due to global warming.
First off, the 180 gallons a day includes landscape watering, which takes up more than half. Since I think we can agree that illegals don't tend to be watering their lawns, since they don't tend to live in single family homes, that brings the average down.
Here's the math: 80% of California water use goes to agricultural irrigation. That leaves 20% for residential. Of that 20, more than half goes to landscape watering, a good chunk of it to golf courses, particularly those in the Palm Springs area. That leaves about 8% of total annual use to actual household use--toilets, showers, etc. Illegals make up about 10% of the population, so about 0.8% of water, assuming that they use the same amount a water as, say, someone in Beverly Hills. Maybe not a drop in a bucket, but if they all disappeared tomorrow, it wouldn't solve the problem.
Jack has many excellent movies.
We feel this was one of his best, if not the best.
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