Posted on 03/16/2015 5:01:21 AM PDT by HomerBohn
Once upon a time, much of the state of California was a barren desert. And now, thanks to the worst drought in modern American history, much of the state is turning back into one. Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century that the state of California had seen in 1000 years. But now weather patterns are reverting back to historical norms, and California is rapidly running out of water. It is being reported that the state only has approximately a one year supply of water left in the reservoirs, and when the water is all gone there are no contingency plans. Back in early 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state, but since that time water usage has only dropped by 9 percent. That is not nearly enough. The state of California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of total water a year since 2011, and we are quickly heading toward an extremely painful water crisis unlike anything that any of us have ever seen before.
But don’t take my word for it. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jay Famiglietti “is the senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine”. What he has to say about the horrific drought in California is extremely sobering…
As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.
Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir.
Statewide, we’ve been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley. Farmers have little choice but to pump more groundwater during droughts, especially when their surface water allocations have been slashed 80% to 100%. But these pumping rates are excessive and unsustainable. Wells are running dry. In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.
Are you starting to understand why so many experts are so alarmed?
For much more from Famiglietti, check out this 60 Minutes interview.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, essentially the entire state is suffering drought conditions right now. And as you can see from the map below, most of the state is currently experiencing either the highest or the second-highest classification of drought…
Nearly 40 million people live in the state of California at the moment.
What are they all going to do when the water is gone?
In some rural areas, reservoirs are already nearly bone dry. And in other areas, the water quality has gone way down. For example, in one Southern California neighborhood black water is now coming out of the taps…
Residents of a Southern California neighborhood are concerned about the fact that the water flowing out of the taps in their homes is the color black. That’s right; the water coming out of their faucets is indeed black — not gray, not cloudy — but black. Inky, opaque black water that the water company says is okay to drink.
Those who live in Gardena, California, are understandably skeptical when asked to consume water that strongly resembles crude oil or something emitted by a squid. The water reportedly also has an “odor of rotten eggs or sewer smell,” according to one resident.
Perhaps you don’t care about what happens to California.
Perhaps you believe that they are just getting what they deserve.
And you might be right about that.
But the truth is that this is a crisis for all of us, because an enormous amount of our fresh produce is grown in the state.
As I discussed in a previous article, the rest of the nation is very heavily dependent on the fruits and vegetables grown in California. The following numbers represent California’s contribution to our overall production…
-99 percent of the artichokes
-44 percent of asparagus
-two-thirds of carrots
-half of bell peppers
-89 percent of cauliflower
-94 percent of broccoli
-95 percent of celery
-90 percent of the leaf lettuce
-83 percent of Romaine lettuce
-83 percent of fresh spinach
-a third of the fresh tomatoes
-86 percent of lemons
-90 percent of avocados
-84 percent of peaches
-88 percent of fresh strawberries
-97 percent of fresh plums
Without the agricultural production of the state of California, we are in a massive amount of trouble.
And of course there are other areas all over the globe that are going through similar things. For instance, taps in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo are running dry as Brazil experiences the worst drought that it has seen in 80 years.
The world simply does not have enough fresh water left at this point, and that is why water is being called “the new oil”. The following comes from CBS News…
It’s been said that the wars of the 21st century may well be fought over water. The Earth’s population has more than doubled over the last 50 years and the demand for fresh water — to drink and to grow food — has surged along with it. But sources of water like rainfall, rivers, streams, reservoirs, certainly haven’t doubled. So where is all that extra water coming from? More and more, it’s being pumped out of the ground.
Water experts say groundwater is like a savings account — something you draw on in times of need. But savings accounts need to be replenished, and there is new evidence that so much water is being taken out, much of the world is in danger of a groundwater overdraft.
And if scientists are right, what we are experiencing right now may just be the very beginning of our problems. In fact, one team of researchers has concluded that the Southwestern United States is headed for a “megadrought” that could last for decades…
Scientists had already found that the Southwestern United States were at great risk of experiencing a significant megadrought (in this case meaning drought conditions that last for over 35 years) before the end of the 21st century. But a new study published in Science Advances added some grim context to those predictions.
Columbia University climate scientists Jason Smerdon and Benjamin Cook, and Cornell University’s Toby Ault were co-authors on the study. They took data from tree rings and other environmental records of climate from the Southwest and compared them to the projections of 17 different climate models that look at precipitation and soil moisture. When they made the comparison between past and future, they found that all the models agreed: the next big megadrought is coming, and it will be way worse than anything we’ve seen in over 1,000 years–including droughts that have been credited with wiping out civilizations.
Needless to say, along with any water crisis comes a food crisis.
Virtually everything that we eat requires a tremendous amount of water to grow. And at this point, the world is already eating more food than it produces most years.
So what is going to happen to us as this water crisis gets even worse?
I guess they are!
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near
You are probably wrong. The desert depends on water that is not there and stuff is drying up
The drought is the back breaking straw.
I was in the big agricultural valley and saw many farms with trees that were all brown adjacent to green crops.The water to sustain the tree crops is missing and all the thousands of trees were allowed to die.
“Desalination would rehydrate the thirsty landscape out there, and provide the folks with all the drinking water they could ever need (wouldn’t it also assuage all those climate nutjobs’ concerns about the “rising ocean,” too?)
And the greening would help sequester CO2.
It’s a win all around. Nope, instead we have to give money to Al Gore and the envirowhackos for a reason that can only be surmised as “It’s seed money for Agenda 21.
And at this point, the world is already eating more food than it produces most years.
Florida had a warm, unusually wet winter...
Sounds like "Peak Oil". Technological innovation and market incentives will solve any problems with fresh water "shortages".
-—BUTTT this cannot b!!!!- the ice caps are melting, the
oceans are rising, shorelines will disappear. The answer is
before us-—desalinization(?)!!! Git r dun!!
“California” is not a desert. California is a huge state that encompass a multitude of different climatic conditions, from Mediterranean to subarctic. Most of the people here live in the southern coastal areas, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. This stretch is no more desert that Italy or Greece is. To the east, the Mojave Desert is obviously as dry as the Sahara but you want to tell me Yosemite is a desert? I don’t think so.
The population was exceeded the area’s ability to sustain the number of people here with the available water found locally, that’s true, but it’s not because the state is a desert.
As of Aug. 14 'last summer'...., 82% of the state was in "extreme" to "exceptional" drought, which are 'the two worst categories' on the U.S. Drought Monitor............ Drought index shows 'combined impact' of warm temps & lack of rain, current CA Drought worst on record.
Look at the 50's drought compared with last years
I’ll say it again. The Govt here in Cali will let me know there really is a water crisis when I hear there’s a moratorium on the thousands of new building permits currently being rubber stamped by every city in the state.
Sounds like we may be on the verge of a solution to mud slides.
A Freeper expert told me I am wrong, but it seems to me if the California gas supply was increased there could be water resulting
They do it in Qatar
No, some people are in a massive amount of trouble. This is fantastic news for the strawberry growers in Florida, and the peach growers in Georgia and South Carolina, among others. For those of us who grow our own produce I doubt 'we' will even notice. There are reasons why you don't put all your eggs in one basket......and this is one of them.
God is not mocked.
There’s no guarantee he’s going to do an earthquake this time. He likes to mix it up.
Frogs? Dated. Locusts? Too many seagulls around.
Drought? Hmm, let’s see. The last generation of the people I gave this land to have killed 50 million babies. You could say California is suffering from a reproductive drought. What if I...
It sounds like a new version of the 1930’s dust-bowl, but in California.
Nailed it!
Article claims the world as a whole is running out of fresh water and consuming more food than produced. Anyone who believes that should immediately commit suicide. They are obviously too stupid to live.
1) Go to the Israelis and politely ask, “Please help us grow more vegetables with less water.”
2) Forget the Delta Smelt. Form a STATE “PPA” - People Protection Agency to override the EPA whenever EPA regulations are detrimental to PEOPLE!
3) Fast track Thorium reactors, first for desalination, then for general power. Many small-medium sized to make project costs reasonable, attract competition in design and business models. Require certification of the design, not every single instance. Nuclear power plants could be build for the cost of one to three Boeing 747s.
4) Buy US Navy nuclear powered ships scheduled for decommissioning. Use these as relocatable power plants. Order additional shipboard reactors from their manufacturers as stopgap desalination power plants.
http://depletedcranium.com/hope-this-works/
“What does it cost to build a nuclear plant?
What could it cost?”
*************************************************************
A typical aircraft carrier in the US military uses nuclear power to desalinate 400,000 US gallons (1,500,000 l; 330,000 imp gal) of water per day.
The single largest desalination project is Ras Al Khair in Saudi Arabia, which produces 1,025,000 cubic meters per day in 2014[4] The largest percent of desalinated water used in any country is in Israel, which produces 40% of its domestic water use from seawater desalination.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination
Finally, start and X-Prize for the team that makes a desalination plant producing X-gallons/day at Y dollars cost. Invite Bill Gates, Apple, Google, Elon Musk, and all the little guys. THe prise if the Big Guys win is a bronze statue on the Capitol lawn in Sacramento. For the little buys, make the prize a ton of money, or royalties for 50 years.
So many vegetables are grown in California, not because it is the most fertile area. They are grown there because of easy access to cheap illegal labor.
Vegetables used to be grown commercially up north, inlcluding Maine, Michigan, etc. Teenagers did the work of harvesting, and the product was canned. And some foods were truly seasonal.
The ground water in the American Southwest was primarily ancient groundwater, left behind when the glaciers melted. Using it has always been a finite proposition.
California WILL NOT continue to be a large agricultural procuder, it can't. So what comes next? There is a lot of productive acreage in the U.S. that can produce vegetables. Florida already produces a lot of vegetables, and although irrigation is used, average rainfall is quite high:
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