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Related: About this forumBeyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/beyond_the_perfect_drought_californias_real_water_crisis/2885/[font face=Serif]15 Jun 2015: Opinion
[font size=5]Beyond the Perfect Drought: Californias Real Water Crisis[/font]
[font size=4]The record-breaking drought in California is not chiefly the result of low precipitation. Three factors rising temperatures, groundwater depletion, and a shrinking Colorado River mean the most populous U.S. state will face decades of water shortages and must adapt. [/font]
[font size=3]The current drought afflicting California is indeed historic, but not because of the low precipitation totals. In fact, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers, according to weather data for the past century. Similarly, paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. Nor can it be confidently said that the current drought bears the unequivocal imprint of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gases, since the low precipitation is well within the bounds of natural variability.
All this being said, it is also clear that this drought is exceptional and should be seen as an historical turning point. Indeed, California is moving into new and worrisome territory for three reasons: rising heat, which causes increased evaporation; the continuing depletion of groundwater supplies; and growing water shortages on the Colorado River, the main external source of water for Southern California.
Ten years ago, my colleagues and I framed this situation as a perfect drought that affects local Southern California precipitation, extra-regional supplies from Northern California, and the external supplies from the Colorado River for periods greater than one or two years. What we are experiencing today is indeed a perfect drought, but it is also something beyond that. We looked at Southern Californias perfect droughts as discrete events. Although hydrologically droughts are indeed discrete events, and the current one will come to a close sooner or later, this drought should focus our attention on the fact that things have changed in terms of the context in which these droughts occur. The rising temperatures will year-by-year increase the demands for water, particularly in our agricultural sector, which accounts for about 80 percent of the applied water in the state. Due to the ever-increasing rates of evaporation, each future drought will have a deeper bite than the previous one.
[/font][/font]
[font size=5]Beyond the Perfect Drought: Californias Real Water Crisis[/font]
[font size=4]The record-breaking drought in California is not chiefly the result of low precipitation. Three factors rising temperatures, groundwater depletion, and a shrinking Colorado River mean the most populous U.S. state will face decades of water shortages and must adapt. [/font]
[font size=3]The current drought afflicting California is indeed historic, but not because of the low precipitation totals. In fact, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers, according to weather data for the past century. Similarly, paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. Nor can it be confidently said that the current drought bears the unequivocal imprint of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gases, since the low precipitation is well within the bounds of natural variability.
All this being said, it is also clear that this drought is exceptional and should be seen as an historical turning point. Indeed, California is moving into new and worrisome territory for three reasons: rising heat, which causes increased evaporation; the continuing depletion of groundwater supplies; and growing water shortages on the Colorado River, the main external source of water for Southern California.
Ten years ago, my colleagues and I framed this situation as a perfect drought that affects local Southern California precipitation, extra-regional supplies from Northern California, and the external supplies from the Colorado River for periods greater than one or two years. What we are experiencing today is indeed a perfect drought, but it is also something beyond that. We looked at Southern Californias perfect droughts as discrete events. Although hydrologically droughts are indeed discrete events, and the current one will come to a close sooner or later, this drought should focus our attention on the fact that things have changed in terms of the context in which these droughts occur. The rising temperatures will year-by-year increase the demands for water, particularly in our agricultural sector, which accounts for about 80 percent of the applied water in the state. Due to the ever-increasing rates of evaporation, each future drought will have a deeper bite than the previous one.
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Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
Jun 2015
OP
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)1. I bought a brand new house in CA
It has a tankless water heater. Everything is low flow. I have a tiny patch of lawn that I may replace with artificial turf. I have a rain gage that shuts of sprinklers if it rains
all drought tolerant plants with drip irrigation that runs for a few minutes twice a week. This was all done by the builder.
pscot
(21,024 posts)2. Too many humans
But we can't even talk about that...
OKIsItJustMe
(19,940 posts)3. Who’s stopping you?
No, seriously Why do you feel, we can't even talk about that...
pscot
(21,024 posts)4. You and I may speak of it
But no politician can. Two hundred years on, people are still mad at Thomas Malthus.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,940 posts)5. George H. W. Bush…
was once nicknamed Rubbers.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=george+bush+rubbers
pscot
(21,024 posts)6. He was billed as a population control ghoul?
No wonder he gave it up.