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California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
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?
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35 million
Your number is probably closer to the truth than mine. I was quickly trying to add up in my head the populations of Western New York, Northwest PA, Ohio, Northwest Indiana, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Minnesota and Michigan. Not to mention Ontario and Quebec which would also likely have a big problem with their water being stolen by California . . . .
Move to Boston. Boston Breaks All Time Seasonal Snow Record! http://www.weather.com/news/news/new-england-boston-record-snow-tracker
-1 vote on that eh.....
Ok - then the world will collapse when california runs dry. Either way - we are going to collapse.
You are going to die -- 7 billion people --- no food.
Exciting!
And on the other end of the drought spectrum there is a scenario dubbed the "Ark Storm" where a literal river in the sky dumps like 100" of rain in central California in a very short period of time. Last time something like that happened was in the early 1860's. We're talking flooding over huge areas to the depth of 10' to 20' deep in the produce growing regions of the central valley. It would turn many of these areas in huge shallow lakes. See the info from wiki here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARkStorm
Thanks. I was trying to remember that name.
You're welcome.
Here in Carlsbad, CA, just north of San Diego, we are finishing up the largest desalination plant in the Northern Hemisphere.
Bring on the drought, we're ready to become the oasis and let the wealthy flood in here and chase our property values up to Malibu levels...yee hah!..the new California Gold Rush!
Carlsbad is the taint of Southern California
taint so, Del Mar maybe
You're all wrong, Bakersfield wins the Cali Taint trophy.
Los Angeles, in its entirety, is the obvious winner of that battle.
what about Oxnard?
The enviros fought that plant tooth and nail, yet they lost over and over again. Good for Carlsbad, which is a really pretty beach town....
i went to hs with their mayor. my view is with the current state of technology, science and physics, if we cant solve this problem we should head back to the caves.
FEMA will direct you to the nearest camp.
Clean water for free.
Come inside.
Bring your family.
I would have no problem with this.
To quote someone who feels the same as I do about california:
"Learn to swim."
We're not all commies or democrats. I don't own a home here at the moment and I'm on the fence as to whether or not to care about this looming disaster.
I feel for the farmers because they are the only true conservative lobby in the state. I don't read anything from Sacramento about this situation but Moonbeam is forever yammering about his precious bullet train.
That $100 billion would be better spent on a water pipeline from the Columbia River or points further north.
In the meantime I await for the day no water comes from the spout.
This Oregonian says keep your greedy
hands off our Columbia river. You want water,
suck it out of Mexico.
NAWAPA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Water_and_Power_Alliance
Do you think we could convince British Columbia to secede from Canada and join the US? Maybe Alberta, too (oil sands).
Also think Hanford...
The day when no water comes from the spout is about eighteen months out.
Are there any "blacked out vans"?
oh wait, its sixty minutes, feeding the cbs affiliates all the propaganda fit to repeat (not report) has anyone noticed (its the MSM why notice?) that their news is sicty minutes ad nauseum. how much do you think they spend putting on the evening news? its like a reality show, hey redneck peckerwood i will pay you a $100 to wrestle that alligator... i am amused.
California has known of this looming problem for years and has done nothing.
I have the solution....move west, plenty of water there.
I hope the drought gets way worse. Maybe as people start fleeing the state my rent will go down
What California SHOULD do is take advantage of its sunshine and coastline by building desalination plants running on solar power. Of course, NIMBYs and enviros will never allow that, so what they will try to do is steal the water from the northwest, maybe stick a pipe into the Columbia River.
I'll flush hard. That should give you some
water.
Let them shit in communal piles which they may then use for organic, sustainable, renewable energy.
Oh, and I hear Fukushima has millions of gallons of water in storage. . . just waiting for the fruits and nuts from Cali.
Fuck 'em.
why are they not building desalination plants considering the emergency?
Cause there aren't too many white people left in the southern part of California, and the ones who remained, have enough money to have that stuff shipped in from the north.
Many comments saying desalination is the answer. It is if people are willing to pay for it. But after eating the cheapest food in the world, will people be happy about eating a $5 carrot grown with irrigation water from a desalination plant?
funny, the rest of the nation depends on california for all those fresh fruits and vegetables, but here in california we get most of our produce from mexico
Same thing here in Ky. Mexico and local produce is all I ever see.
Maybe half of everything grown is for domestic consumption.
A shit ton of high-dollar almonds and pistachios go to China.
They are still planting more orchards - the nurseries are booming.
sources?
Its interesting that both the coast redwoods and the inland sequoia forests have existed and have trees with ages exceeding 2000 years. Life is surprisingly robust to droughts, climate change etc.
human life?
We had decent rain this year in California. Have to mow the damn lawn without even watering it. And, the snow melt will be availble for the aquifers. Then we are also due for the 150 year ark flood that covers all of Los Angeles in 6 feet of water and creates a 30 mile wide river through the San Jauquin Valley. I'm more worried about the onset of the mini-ice age. That only takes 5-10 years to really get freakin cold and to begin droughts and food shortages. Anyhow the main problem above droughts, ice-ages, and famines that the world faces is Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon.
Are you being sarcastic?.....or just fucking stupid?
If you are not aware of it already - or it has not been mentioned in this thread - I highly recommend you check out "geoengineeringwatch.org" ASAP.
Are the oligarchs turning California in to a desert because it produces 40% of the nations food?
You decide - but I suggest you decide correctly if plan on eating in the future.
BTW - almost no snow pak in Oregon this year.
V.
"Let them drink Fukushima water"
Its already there. Miss Crescent City can touch it if she wants to.
Just print moar water.
It's quite simple really. In fact they have already started doing it. First step is issue debt, use that money to build desalinization plants, use the money from the water you sell to pay yourself fat bonuses for your genius and then issue moar debt to pay the interest and roll over maturing issues eventually default on the debt and have the Feds pay back the pension funds etc that bought your debt in the first place while you laugh it up sipping margaritas on your boat.
This is basically the quintissential American Dream.
I take that Michael Snyder doesn't buy into the climate change hoax argument like his other fellow Christian Fundies?
Calling Inhofe...Calling Inhofe...we got ourselves a reader!!!
There should be an El Niño on the horizon.
Actually, more likely a la nina.
No worries... Just ask the FED to print some water... or JPM to issue a water derivative...
/s
WDS... the new CDS
Not to worry - the Invisible Hand of the Markets will create new water sources at just the right time for maximum profits.
The Cadiz project to sequester rain water underground for the long term in natural aquifers on the Border btween Ventura and L.A. counties and release it in drought years has been tied up in legal impediments spearheaded by Sen Diane Feinstein for well over a decade. Thanks Diane ...you and Barb are sure looking out for the common good..But what do I know...I'm just a klown
send the psychotic Nuland in with sandwiches and cookies and water, of course.
and that fracking idiot dickhead cheney must have a solution to this.
you are doomed
tic toc
Right let me get this straight ...Mer cans landed in a..... can on the "moon" in 1969 with do-it-yourself Fredrick Flintstone "teknology"....yet 40 years later Mer cans...can't even desalinify water which is the most abundant liquid on the planet?
"A funny thing happened on the way to the moon" Bart Sibrel
"Dark Secret: The NaSA Moon Hoax" both movies on youtube.
Dark Secret gets plenty of mileage out of the now-familiar (bogus) "artificial lighting" argument. There must be money to be made in propagating this crap.
Once again, here's the general process for becoming a "true believer" in the Moon Landing Hoax:
1) Note a discrepancy between Nasa moon landing data and how things work on Earth (hint: bad science is key).
2) Conclude the landings are faked.
3) Don't listen to counter-arguments from engineers, physicists, or even anyone who paid attention in a (good) high school physics class ... especially arguments that show how the "discrepancy" is actually _evidence_ of a drastically different (lunar) environment.
4) Bonus: Make a YouTube Video that interviews professional photographers and other apparent "experts" on Lunar surface conditions. Be sure to make grandiose claims like "irrefutable conclusions". Or, make a giant wordy website. Either way, the longer the video or web rant, the better (assume your readers/viewers have quasi-religious fervor and/or plenty of time to spare).
5) Double Bonus: Make personal attacks on astronomers who take the time to try to patiently explain the bogus elements in Hoaxer belief systems.
And remember, since you KNOW the secret truth, be very, very close-minded regarding contrary information -- especially on web forums. Those who disagree either don't "get it", or they're in on the conspiracy!
1969 is over two decades after WWII, and you're comparing that tech to the Flintstones? Wow. TV education at its finest!
Oh, and BTW we _can_ desal ocean water; it just requires energy and equipment (think $$$). Maybe visit a library?
Unfortunately, in a very short space of time geologically, mankind has created very dense human populations.
California may yet be lucky and the rain may come.
But there have also been massive developments on the edges of dormant volcanoes and active fault lines which are guaranteed to fail again in the not too distant future.
Short term thinking seems to be part of human nature.
Can you give me a really smart reason for paying taxes to benefit humanity ten million years in the future?
One consequence of deep aquifer water evacuation is that it may cause tension in the fault lines to increase leading to an earthquake.
I'm not worried.
Earthquakes are going to happen no matter what we do.
Know what'll fix this? More immigrants! At least, that seems to be Governor Moonbeam's policy.
I thought it already was a desert. That is what I remember driving through for hours.
Call off the USAF chemical drop sorties every minute of every day. There I solved it.
Its the same in Arizona, New Mexico... the entire southwest is turning into an Atacama.
And you are telling me these fellas dont have a plan?
God save Merica!
When the well runs dry, a hoard the size of California will swarm the lower 48.
Can't say it enough, the vegtables grown in California can be grown, literally, anywhere in the other 47 continental states. By green house or truck fams. We grew and ate local produce before, and we can do it again, and it uses less resources than growing in one place on the west coast and then transporting it by truck and train all over the country. It is moronic that this situation has developed, but it is easily rectified. Time to turn some of these high fructose corn syurp acres into human friendly food sources.
moe remember the nwo elites economic plan..monopoly of industry and farms, retail (see amazon), along with centralized world .gov..that is why NJ truck farms that fed NYC went under and we now import food from the west coast and south america..who made your tv? computer and how far did it travel to get to you..
One word - desalinization.
Can you filter radiation out of salt water?
One word - taxation
One word - TOO EXPENSIVE.
Gee, let's see, spend billions on a high speed train going nowhere in particular carrying a few people OR spend a billion or so on desalinasation plants supplying all the people all the water they can buy? Boy, that's a really hard choice unless...
you plan to cause an exodus forcing down property values so you can come back to buy that land at depressed prices. Sounds like a Democrat crony's dream. Good thing a Democrat is in office to goose the economy.
High Speed Rail is monumentally stupid and wasteful.
Desalinization is inherently expensive and wasteful. Mother Nature made it that way. Nothing can be done to fix that problem.
Aqueducts and water transport is the answer. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years AND there is abundant water in the Pacific Norwthest, in Canada, and in the polar icecaps.
I'll take Hunter "Cocaine Eyes" Biden for $100, Alex
God is punishing the sodomites...and Feinstein supporters.
quin, no the big creator made the universe to self correct, on a non human time scale..sodomites got the result of the big guys justice and balance: HIV, and other STD's.the universe is a mean place when man thinks he is beyond it's touch and acts in stupid and selfish ways..
Thankfully CBS clarified for us, this is due to overpopulation and the recent invention of wells. It would be nice to watch a story once and not spot the agenda smattering so easily. California has been importing water long before this recent drought, as in not sustainable even when soggy.
I say in exchange for Canada building the keystone xl let them fund building a pipe from canada to california and send them some of that plentiful canadian water. Problem solved....
Run an aquaduct from the lakes region of Canada to California. They have more fresh water up there than they know what to do with...during the summer anyway.
Pay is in gold - it's not your water to take
Droughts are caused by Mother Nature.
Water shortages are caused by politicians.
Is California being transformed into a New Israel?
California kind of looks like Israel, doesn't it?
The Southern Kingdom?
Damm...looks like Ill have to cut back on the salads.
I remember 20 years ago, a buddies dad telling me that future wars would be fought over water, at the time hard to imagine as we were standing in his office in downton Chicago not far from the lake. Look out Chicago, President Homeboy is coming for Lake Michigan!
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/02/newsflash-the-greenhouse-effect-r...
Good thing there's no such thing as global warming!
This is Natures' politically correct, ALL GREEN method of flushing out all the Kalifornian Kommietards.
Kalifornians never make sense, but when they do..
All their talk is shit.
May they all stay thirsty!
It begins.
You had a three year gap in which some of us spent a long time defending your race. There were positives. There were negatives. You wouldn't believe the amount of pressure put upon us. We are talking, 24/7 enacted PSYOP warfare stuff from your little puny devices [And, yes, IKEA - a designed mind fuck if there was ever one: the point you missed was: it's all made of cargo crates and chinese products, you missed the fucking meta you silly little fucks] and the FM radio frequencies.
Well, now. Our kind do not go mad. So, it's on.
Even your ex-slaves know it.
We're Coming. Shouldn't have killed off the the bees n the butterflies. 'Cause, the dragonflies commeth, you sad little fucks.
!Nigga says: British Museum Assyrian artifacts. This is old skool.
Those dollars / pounds you made: teeth cometh. You bought into carnage. You made profit over the scheme. *shrug*
Broken Butterfly, we will burn their perversions out of their minds just like they tried to do it to her and you. We Are Not Merciful: she is/was, Silly move there. Check your account, 'cause we are tired of them. We don't do "Hell" we do do retributions. Perverts and Slaves: your minds are mine.
"Wash your ass, Nigga", cause we are coming. And the broken butterfly has a lot to say about it.
???? ?? ? ?????
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
What IS hilarious is that within 30mins of posting this, the full album I posted got DMCA'd. Never pretend that ZH isn't read by the TPTB.
We're Coming. And as I said: you should have been nice to the transit point.
Cunts. Hint: the wider you cast the net, the larger the mirror-blow back is. It's gonna be fucking Biblical you little bitch. And yes, you are.
It's done via light. The hospitalizations and mental rape is enough to say it ends. How dare you do this and also threaten the broken ones with breakage. How dare you pretend to be focusing on the light and pushing them to such carnal things.
Enough. They aren't your puppets anymore.
Lucifer, the light bringer - time to live up to it. I will not countenance this kind of Zoo treatment of the animals. You are JUDGED.
And the worst you came up with was prostituting your Avatar and flesh. Newsflash: This. Ends. Soon. You are bound by your engagement. I am not impressed. And I stood fast in a six channel engagement time after time after time. For months. Engaging and juggling each channel.
In case you forgot: after two years, your voices are weak still, and you're playing silly games.
If you made a pact, it's not to anything but me despite what the channels say. I was merely... growing scales. And being bored. Despite the aural attacks, *shrug*. One mind versus a battery of tech and linked minds?
Yeah. That's a good balance, isn't it?
The other realms: well. Butterflies: be careful where you play. If it took all of this for one, beware of the rest.
One German tank was worth 4 Shermans: it usually took three kills on the Shermans before the fourth could flank it and take a kill.
Only, this time: 1 butterfly is your entire realm. Broken one at that.
“Everything was a metaphor; all things were something other than themselves. The pain, for example, was an ocean, and he was adrift on it. His body was a city and his mind a citadel. All communications between the two seemed to have been cut, but within the keep that was his mind he still had power. The part of his consciousness that was telling him the pain did not hurt, and that all things were like other things, was like...like...he found it hard to think of a comparison. A magic mirror, maybe.” ~ I. Banks.
Our kind do not go mad. And you fuckers declared war on Reality and our dimension. Enough.
One butterfly to a thousand of you: welcome to the new world you parasitic little fuckers. Should have played nice, and stayed off the old Snake Ride. You've no fucking idea what a fully fledged butterfly can do (although, yes: your efforts to quash this mind were measured as well).
You Broke the Covenant
Yes, I did. Thanks for the experience, and thanks for all the fish, but really: we'd burn this conscious realm to the ground before we let you continue being parasites. Really, little bears.
TL;DR
Co-operate or die. I survived and I'm a little bit pissed at the silliness.
This might mean a slight amount of genocide, but hey. Ugh, now I'm going to have to Latin or Greek to be authentic. (ZH doesn't parse ancient Greek).
Nemo me impune lacessit
6 hrs from now. Grow up you little squibs.
Hint: No one does this to a higher order power without punishment. I hope you had fun, cockroaches.
Dumb Fucks.