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Water Wars Crush California Wineries: "Whoever Has The Longest Straw Wins"
Eerily reminiscent of the determinedly evil oil baron from the movie 'There Will Be Blood', Reuters reports the growing tensions amid California's drought-stricken wineries are boiling over: "There is way too much demand. I blame a lot of vineyards like other people do... It's a matter of who has the longest straw at the bottom of the bucket." No one should worry though, because the government is here to help - with a new water management agency...
Between 1990 and 2014, harvested wine grape acreage in the growing region around Paso Robles nearly quintupled to 37,408 acres, as vintners discovered that the area's rolling hills, rocky soil and mild climate were perfect for coaxing rich, sultry flavors from red wine grapes. But, as Reuters reports, in the last few years, California's ongoing drought has hit the region hard, reducing grape yields and depleting the vast aquifer that most of the area’s vineyards and rural residents rely on as their sole source of water other than rain.
Across the region, residential and vineyard wells have gone dry. Those who can afford to – including a number of large wineries and growers – have drilled ever-deeper wells, igniting tensions and leading some to question whether Paso Robles' burgeoning wine industry is sustainable.
"All of our water is being turned purple and shipped out of here in green glass," said Cam Berlogar, who delivers water, cuts custom lumber and sells classic truck parts in the Paso Robles-area community of Creston.
"There are a lot of farmers who are going to have to farm with a hell of a lot less water."
But, spurred by the drought, California Governor Jerry Brown last year signed a package of bills requiring groundwater-dependent areas to establish local water sustainability agencies by 2017. The agencies will then have between three and five years to adopt water management plans, and then another two decades to implement those plans.
Some residents worry that Paso Robles can't wait that long.
Aquifer depletion is difficult to model, but one report for the county of San Luis Obispo projected that, even with no additional growth, the water drawn from the basin would exceed that going in by 1.8 billion gallons annually between 2012 and 2040.
"If it goes on unmanaged for another 10 years, it could reach a point where we couldn't correct it," said Hilary Graves, who makes wine under the Mighty Nimble brand.
Graves is a fourth-generation farmer whose ancestors came to California as migrant workers after losing everything during the Dust Bowl.
"I would like to not have to retrace my family's footsteps back to Oklahoma and Arkansas," said Graves.
In a divisive 3-to-2 vote, county supervisors recently decided to move forward on creating a new water district that will be governed by an elected nine-member board.
But many long-time residents and some of the region’s winemakers worry that large, well-funded newcomers will spend freely to get sympathetic board members elected and then stick local landowners with huge bills for infrastructure projects that disproportionately benefit the larger players.
Fifth-generation farmer Cindy Steinbeck, of Steinbeck Vineyards & Winery, helped found Protect Our Water Rights (POWR), one of several groups that have sprung up around the region’s water issues, and, as Reuters reports, is deeply skeptical about a new water agency. Her group is urging land-owners to join a quiet title action to protect their water rights, and would rather see the courts oversee any plan to manage the basin’s water.
"We are fighting the big boys," said Steinbeck, who says her goal is to prevent family farmers from being pushed out of Paso Robles.
The region will be "an important test case for how other highly-stressed groundwater basins might introduce new regional oversight," said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Paso Robles Agricultural Alliance for Groundwater Solutions (PRAAGS) has been the driving force behind the district. Its board includes a representative from J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, and at least one director affiliated with Harvard's property interests in the area.
Other district supporters include Justin Vineyards and County Supervisor Frank Mecham, who voted to establish the new agency.
Mecham says he understands residents’ concerns about it, but he also understands the need for water management. Mecham’s great, great grandfather lost his cattle ranch in the area to a drought.
"This is the cold, hard reality: You will be managed one way or another. You’ve got to pick your poison," he said.
* * *
As we previously noted, this is only the beginning of the water wars.
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Those poor wine drinkers...I care so much more about them than the poor people facing water shortages.
Radioactive wine...yummm...Fukushima Gojira!
Only GOD can turn water to wine.
but you are a poser .
lol. In San Jose there are now billboards from Santa Clara County water district - a picture of a lawn being watered, and the text: "H2Only twice a week."
That got me thinking... "people are still watering their lawn every day? Holy shit!"
p.s. we're not giving up growing almonds. Over our thirsty, dried-up bodies!
I only have 3150 cubic metres of water flowing past my place per SECOND right now.
I'm thinking of bottling a wine brand in Southern California called PISS.
It''ll be hand crafted with vintner-select toilet-to-tap urine and Thompson Seedless green table grapes. I think it'll compete handsomely with the over-priced Shart-o-nnays around here.
Going green, baby, going green. Ok, maybe going mellow yellow if we let it age a week in oak casks.
I have a project going to deploy 10,000 of these sensors in the Napa Valley:
http://ecosensorlab.com/
Liten up folks, there is a war on water & food going on, you had best stock the hell up and fast....
Expect GOUGING Food & Water prices in the future, you have been warned!!!
That is all...
Boris is not geologist expert, but must ask, if water underground in aquifer is deplete and all brought to surface,... what is replace volume? Is become vacuum? Is fill with air? Maybe someday all of ground in California is just collapse because is empty space below?
The ground is starting to sink. Supposedly freeways are having some issues across the state. How much water will it take to rebuild the freeways? Dust control is a huge environmental issue for construction in this retarded state.
Great idea. I suggest consulting with makers of the venerable "Two Buck Chuck" to find ways to enhance and emphasize the delicate flavor of your vintage.
I'm looking at 4 quadrillion gallons of fresh water out my window right noe (Lake Michigan)
I'm looking at green lawns everywhere. Alert me when all the lawns are brown and the golfers are rioting.
I am Chumbawamba.
You are going to need binos to see it after they start piping it to Califas.
Fresh water? In Lake Michigan?
Is that a river?
duplicate
One would think that Elon Musk, with his penchant for ambitious projects and talent for working the public purse, would be building massive desal plants in CA.
Unless he can buy the desal patents and then claim to have invented it himself, he is not interested.
i doubt he really cares about that. Just think of it, the next big 'green energy' crony capitalist boondoggle....
A solar power desalination plant... Obviously some well connected venture capitalists will throw in the initial funds, really just drawing up the plans, then get the taxpayers to fund it, at gun point of course, then cash out.
The best part is, It doesnt even have to work, and it can pollute the ocean even worse with its discharge, and it won't matter, theyll walk off with a few hundred million in taxpayer loot, and have dumbshit liberals licking their boots because it was solar powered. Winning... you think elon musk wouldn't put his name on that?
Waterfx.co
I invested in a startup exploring the feasibility of creating water via extreme pressure by pumping hydrogen and oxygen between Kim Kartrashian's asscheeks.
/feelin' lucky
Is that with or without Kanye's junk in the way?
Once Obama uses his pen and his phone to create some tax subsidies for DeSal plants, Elon will step up and do his patriotic duty for 'Merica!
Ironically, California's biggest export is Water.
In the form of wine, fruits, veggies, cattle, etc., etc., etc.
No water, no exports No exports, the largest supplier of those products ceases to exist. Meaning no supply of said products.
Before it gets really bad (and probably about 1 day before the mythical Biblical rains) the Feds will step in and take over the whole CA ag sector via water management at the Federal level.
Y'all wonder why the EPA has mandated itself the ability to control your driveway puddles?
Ah, says you to yourself. It comes together
And not in a Good Way.
Fuck the government.
GOD says: the government has fucked themselves.
All caps? GOD is a corporation... it all makes sense now, the evil done in the name of.
DO NOT PLAY 'SPELL NAZI' WITH GOD!
EMBRACE THE HATE!
It's time for us to kick ass and drink the Grapes of Wrath, baby!
And we're all outta grapes...
They'll probably declare it all wetlands :-)
Or wetbacks.
Please tell Gojira to come out my way. This morning, I discovered a very large terd on the hood of my car...and only one creature could do such, MOTHRA!
My hope is Pelosi's vineyards in St. Helena have their grapes gently kissed each morning with Fuki mist of MOX and Cesium 137.
I also hope the soil growing her grapes has feces of sick illegal aliens shitting all over her land and who can hopefully pass on all sorts of vile diseases to her land. Hepititas, HIV, cholera, shingles, parvo, ebola and more.
http://nuclear-news.net/2013/11/26/mox-nuclear-fuel-the-secret-and-so-da...
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/pelosi-family-wins-delay-of-win...
Because growing things people actually need is so much less noble than using the shitter indiscriminately.
They don't get it, do they? Pacific Decadal Oscillation is about more than one decade.
...But, people need the Delta Smelt to survive, otherwise it would be really bad and stuff!
Only matters if you actually like eating other fish.
They don't think that far ahead.
^ That.
"There Will Be Merlot"
Or.....not. Egads!
No more weekends in Napa?
*sniff*
Paso Robles is in the lower central valley and they cater more to the bulk market.
LOL, they do not. That would be Modesto. Incredible wines come from the Paso area.
It's South of King City! Paso Robles is a f'n shithole. And nothing they produce there is comperable to Napa grapes.
I've had great Paso Robles wines, and I have had poor (as in pour-off bad) Napa wines.
What in the scope of your expressed conceit explains that?
And I will concur that PR is definitely craft market, and not mass market, oriented.
Not anymore obviously. California is going dry in more than one way.
"Bulk market" is a nice way of describing the Ernest & Julio crowd, as opposed to the brie-and-chablis crowd in Napa & Sonoma.
Correct you are. I've never met a non-college-student who drank Carlo Rossi (whose jug is known as "the infant" in some circles) for the skate of enjoyment.
E & J Gallo also serves the "Bum Wine" aka Fortified Wine market, with such illustrious brands as Thunderbird and Night Train Express.
"What's the word? / Thunderbird / How's it sold? / Good and cold / What's the jive? / Bird's alive / What's the price? / Thirty twice."
Fun reads:
http://www.bumwine.com/nighttrain.html
http://www.bumwine.com/tbird.html
Ride the Train.
"Gimmie a ticket [to the Night Train]" we used to say to the liquor store man in college.
The finest hobo vintages cut with antifreeze to enhance the aftertaste of cat food.
What is a libertarian solution?
Do nothing and blame the lack of food and wine on communist day laborers.
Tiered pricing on water, structured such that water used at household quanties is almost free, and rises from there as consumption does. With proper pricing for water, cali would be forced to adopt sensible agriculutral practices, because no one could afford to waste it.
You could make water used for emergency purposes free, like fighting fires.
You'd solve two problems pretty quickly as people left California in droves due to the lack of food.
They can use all the non-potable water they want to put out fires.
Most food, on a calorie basis, is grown in the midwest. Corn, grains, and that sort of thing. You knew that of course.
Most corn, grains, and beef grown in the midwest are consumed in the midwest, but you knew that of course.
Nice attempt to count high-calorie items like beef as more important than the rest of your diet (wouldn't want to be your colon) and enjoy your world where corn is the only vegetable available, nuts are unheard of, and the only alcohol to drink is shitty pisswater from Colorado.
Here's the list of items for which California is #1 and has been for decades:
Almonds
Escarole/Endive
Mandarins
Plums
Apricots
Figs
Melons
Cantaloupe
Dried Artichokes
Honeydew
Pluots
Asparagus
Pomegranates
Avocados
Potted Plants
Milk
Goats
Raspberries
Lima Beans
Garlic
Nectarines
Rice
Sweet Beans
Grapes
Raisins
Safflower
Alfalfa
Broccoli
Wine
Olives
Bermuda Grass Seed
Brussels Sprouts
Mustard Greesn
Onions
Cabbage
Hay
Onions
Parsley
Spinach
Carrots
Kale
Peaches
Strawberries
Cauliflower
Kiwifruit
Peaches
Tomatoes
Celery
Kumquats
Bartlett Pears
Chicory
Peppers
Chile Vegetables
Lettuce
Daikon
Persimmons
Walnuts
Dates
Romaine Lettuce
Pigeons and Squabs
Wild Rice
Eggplant
Limes
Pistachios
I'll just bet that took a lot of water to produce.
You mentioned "onions " twice Gmad
Pearl and Yellow, yes.
"enjoy your world where corn is the only vegetable available, nuts are unheard of, and the only alcohol to drink is shitty pisswater from Colorado"
Huh???? When I was growing up in rural New England in the 70s, because of price inflation lot of people had gardens. We had a big one. You can grow almost all of the items on your list in New England - our peach tree did very well; our walnut tree did very well (and you can gather wild hickory nuts easily), we grew loads of eggplants, melons, peppers, strawberries, and there is now a respectable vinyard in my hometown and wild concord grapes are fabulous. Asparagus grows wild - no need for irrigation; it's right there by the side of the road; it's easy to plant a trench. Yes, imported kiwis were an occasional treat; so what. BTW we lived in a rural suburb on a half acre lot; I did not grow up on a farm!!!
People where I grew up don't have food gardens now for the most part because it apparently isn't worth the effort for them; also they can buy at a good price from a produce stand (and in my home town the produce stand sells stuff that is grown directly next to it). Every backyard could produce enough vegetables and fruit for the family that lives there, and then some (see "Square Foot Gardening' by Mel Bartholemew).
Here in Silicon Valley, a huge percentage of the produce that I see for sale is grown in Mexico.
Maybe if we imported our dates and nuts from the Middle East, they would have better economies and wouldn't be such a mess; their climate is just right for growing those things and it is part of their heritage.
Californian produce is not a necessity, and if there were none we would not all be reduced to eating corn, potatoes and cabbage. You need to get out more, and see the agricultural capacities of the rest of the country.
Capacity doesn't mean much if the midwest only focuses on the two exports that they can sell worldwide and there's a world of difference between your backyard melon crop and exporting food at industrial scales.
It's a great opportunity for the midwest, if they have the knowledge to do it, but I wouldn't bet on them with your money.
Enjoy your ditch asparagus and scavenging for hickory nuts (even wendigo's plan was better than that).
"Enjoy your ditch asparagus and scavenging for hickory nuts (even wendigo's plan was better than that)."
Actually wild asparagus and wild hickory nuts are delicious; much tastier than the bloated stuff from California. So is a strawberry-rhubarb pie made from locally grown New England strawberries and rhubarb - the strawberries that you can buy in CA (grown in CA) are gross; like flavorless little rocks. Although I'm sure there are exceptions if you pay $10/lb. at some trendy farmers market - but in that case where is the California advantage?
Again, you need to get out more, if you think CA produce is so fabulous; it's not, and the rest of the country grows wonderful produce and fruits and meat animals. Michigan used to be the major cherry-growing state; plenty for export if export is your measure of these things. Most of our fruit trees are from the steppes of Central Asia and require cold, not heat, per the Robert Frost poem:
"No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.
"How often already you've had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below."
http://www.frostfriends.org/apples.html
I'm guessing you haven't done a lot of gardening, and haven't been out of California very much.
We get some strawberries in the backyard - just a few, but are they good! Sweet little things, very satisfying. Strawberries are supposed to be little, y'know, sized like a berry. The gargantuan reddy-pinky-looking rocks, as you correctly describe them, are devoid of any resemblance in taste compared to the real thing.
I've done plenty of gardening in my time, some of it was even legal, but don't need to do very much now; there are farms of several varieties within a stone's throw of where I live. You're missing the point entirely though...you can't feed 36M people with your home garden's rhubard pie and if everyone tried the water situation would be worse, not better.
If it's so awful, and New England is so incredibly awesome (once you get past the people who live there, presumably), then why are you "in CA"?
I'm here because of my husband's job. There are only a few places where he can use his exceedingly specialized and extensive training to do what he loves doing (and it has nothing to do with tech), and by some truly bizarre chance Silicon Valley is one of them. I would much prefer to live in a rural area (New England would be great), but my husband's job is one of the least portable jobs there is, and I want him to be happy. Also our dog has specialized veterinary needs that are hard to get treated elsewhere (UC Davis has the best vet hospital in the country). Population density has advantages for some things.
Every state in the country (except maybe Alaska and Hawaii) could grow their own produce and fruit, and would be the better for it; there is no shortage of water in New England or the Midwest; how on earth could it make the water situation worse not better for other regions to grow food????
The 36M people are in CA. The food grown in gardens in Maine will not help them one iota; again, you've missed the point entirely.
If CA agriculture goes away, so will most Californians.
There's been profit to be had by growing that produce forever, why haven't any of these states taken advantage of such an obvious opportunity before now?
Hint: your assumption that other states can grow and export as well as CA is just plain wrong. There's more to farming than the water.
You don't get it.
The East, and the Midwest, individually can outproduce the State of California any day.
Yeah, we won't have as many almonds, avocados and pomegranates.
We can live with that.
PS- We have migrant farm workers here too. And those in CA would migrate here in a heartbeat, and will- when there isn't any work in CA.
PPS- kareninca is spot on.
When I go to the local Trader Joe's in Palo Alto, most of the produce is from Mexico. When I go to the local Sprouts, it is the same. There's a lot from Chile, too. I actually have to go to some effort to get produce that is grown in the U.S. (and I do try to).
I agree that it has been cheaper to grow food here. That's why it has been grown here. I'm saying that could change, and it wouldn't be a catastrophe. BTW, one of the things that made CA agriculture so profitable - cheap undocumented labor, and cheap documented immigrant labor - is about to become history: if you read up on the demographics of Mexico you will see that there is not going to be the traditional cheap farm labor anywhere in the U.S., including in CA. Either we will have a lot more farm robots (which will work as well in New England and the Midwest as in CA), or things will break down enough that typical Americans will be motivated to grow food. Also, as Seek says, those migrant workers that are still available will move to where the work is; they have always done that.
These clueless asshats think the entire world revolves around California.
I can grow ANY of those plants or trees he listed right here in Alabama---without having to water them at all, because there's plenty to go around.
The reason California has become "#1" in all those products is quite simple: by using vast amounts of energy stored in dwindling oil reserves to pump every water source dry. This is obviously completely unsustainable. When the jig is up, California will be a desert again, and all the clueless asshats will starve.
900,000 acres of almonds under cultivation in California. Your wine comes from here, raisins, cheaper cotton, rice. EVERYTHING in your salad bowl comes by truck from California to your grocer. If California ag. suffers you will have corn on the table and little else. Whatever else is there will be double the price you pay now. Mexico and Chile cannot cover the deficit in California production.
People that will hate California will hate even as it hits them in their wallets.
I live in Maryland. We have wineries here too, and we grow strawberries and blueberries and raspberries and more. We grow apples up in the highlands, and corn and wheat and alfalfa and hay down in the lowlands.
We have cows that produce milk here whereas California does not, and we have pigs, goats, horses and some of the largest chicken farms on this coast.
And we don't have to worry about water. The snowmelt from our hills has seeped into the ground rather than flood off into the sea and will provide well throughout the fall. No worries about well water here. No worries about the rivers running dry.
Other states will pick up the slack where CA has blown to dust. A lot of your wine production will move to Oregon and Washington, and as many oranges & peaches as the market can bear will be grown in the southeast.
Enjoy your imports. We eat locally grown organic here straight off the tables at the farmer's market which is fresh out of the fields, never refrigerated.
Californians will not have that luxury.
Also: Enjoy as your homes plummet from $1,000,000 down to $75,000 in under a decade.
Maryland wine production: 344 thousand gallons in 2013. CA wine production: 729 MILLON gallons.
You only need to increase your production 2000-fold! LOL
The industry just getting started outside of CA.
This state has no particular specialty, but it does everything pretty darn good.
I consider that a GREAT thing.
Iowa is fucked if corn goes out of style or if people give up H.F.C.S. Not going to happen any time soon, but as an example we all know what happens all of ones eggs are in one giant basket.
Quite simply, you are a clueless fuckwit who has no knowledge of anything, other than the intricate workings of your own asshole.
You stupid fucks actually delude yourselves into believing that California is the center of the earth, the origin of everything good in the world.
I've got an entire garden growing right now in Alabama, dumb ass...and I eat far better than those hapless schmucks who are burning vast quantities of limited oil reserves to import their shitty vegetables from California.
Get a clue, asshole.
I'm going to call BS on that.
Much of it gets shipped overseas, to far flung places like Ghana or India.
Want to know, for example, how to put an African rice farmer out of business? Just flood his country with even cheaper imports from Texas.
The merchants will purchase the cheap combine-harvested Texas rice before that of their neighbor out in the fields who reaps and sows it by hand.
By this method everyone there stay poor, since much of the money goes back to Texas and the shipping companies, while the farmers live off of subsistance because they can't sell it to generate cash.
No cash in farmers' hands = no cash flowing through those ecnonmies = no savings and no capital purchases (like tractors and combines) thus no business development and no industrial development, thus no tax revenue for reasonable infrastructure like roads or schools so that the Westerners end up providing those things.
But....you knew that of course.
+1000
That's an amazing list when you think about it. Yes, many of those crops can be grown elsewhere in America but you won't be eating them fresh for most of the year.
"you won't be eating them fresh for most of the year."
You mean like our ancestors did?
And those of us who learned how to freeze, can, dry, and use root cellars to store food for winter?
These are skills that are needed in the wimped out Western World of today.
I'm not going to waste a lot of energy arguing with CA folks who don't farm. But I can say here in the Midwest vegetable farming is how I make a living. And with about 15,000 square feet of greenhouse I can do a lot all season. What CA has is climate and cheap labor, that's it. Yes there is more to farming than water but without it you are fucked. Americans a spoiled by cheap produce and will need to adapt but fuck California and thier misguided belief that we can't live without them.
Ever heard of this new invention called a "greenhouse", asshat?
Really? It's simple and will never be tried.
Water in CA is currently suffering from the "tragedy of the commons." The libertarian solution is straightforward and would work.
Kinda difficult to prevent the tragedy when the "solution" is to let the carnage run its course.
Hardly. If the true cost of water were reflected in the market price (which it isn't - only infrastructure costs show up in the price of water) then 2 things would happen because the price would be astronomical (relative to where it is now):
1) Everyone would conserve (or move)
2) Many wineries would probably go out of business while the price of CA wines went through the roof and the only ones that would survive are the ones that introduce technologies (e.g. spot irrigation systems) that allow the price per bottle of wine produced to be marketable.
EDIT: I should say "3 things" 3) Outside suppliers would work to bring water in.
Here's a decent discussion on "the tragedy of the commons": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLirNeu-A8I
Here's an argument for the libertarian approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0vmP7HoFI4
I could counter-argue that the Easter Islander's were Libertarians.
In a free market, there is no control against prices going to infinity only as critical resouirces collapse after having been squandered at too low a price.
In other words, what ensures sufficient pricing when limited resources don't cost enough to dissuade over-use?
May I suggest (honestly) Thomas Sowell's, "Basic Economics:"
First 50 (or so) pages: http://www.altfeldinc.com/pdfs/BASICECONOMICS.pdf (EDIT: Taking a closer look this is just an outline with notes, not the book content).
or http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465060730
A "price controlled economy" is not anarchy and simply doesn't (cannot) behave the way you're suggesting.
EDIT: Easter Island was NOT a price controlled economy but was precisely a government (warlord) controlled and suffered the "tragedy of the commons" as a result.
And golf courses with their well manicured enclaves of 5,000+ sq. ft. houses would dry up and go poof with the wind.
Good fucking riddance too. Who's dumb enough to saddle themselves with a home of that size (and the costs and the debt) anywhere at all, much less in a desert?
California envy. I've seen it various forms and descriptions all of my life. That 5k sqft. with a pool is nice if your station in life affords this. Otherwise make sure your west Kansas home has a secure basement for when the tornados form above.
Dear clueless fuckwit:
Not everyone who despises your despicable and unsustainable way of "living" is envious, asshat. There is no amount of money that someone could offer to entice me to move into your desert shithole. Enjoy your shithole, shithead.
Looks like some downvoter in SoCal has a McMansion on a golf course.
Good luck becuase every $1,000,000 locked up in that is going to plummet toward $75k when the water well goes drip, drip *poof*!!!. Hope you didn't make a down payment either and can stick it all to the bank when you strategic default walk. Might as well, Fuck 'em.
Yeah, much better to have $300k tied up in a hovel that is becoming increasingly Bal'mer daily. LOL
I don't.
And about 9/10th of this state is rural or near rural. Not the sticks and no we don't have the vast expanses of nothingness, but definitely a lot outiside the cities. MD is a lot like most of DE and VA, much moreso than most people think.
9/10ths of the population lives on 1/10th of the land and vice-versa.
Compare that to Wyoming where 9/10ths of the population lives on 1/10,000th of the land and where everyone there is packed into cities too, 15%+ of the population in Cheyenne alone with little run down houses on teeny little lots. Go look at Zillow if you don't believe what I'm typing.
The demographics aren't shifting (not yet) and people aren't allowing Section 8 to spread. We stopped it locally because people actually showed up to the dang meeting and cussed out the council critters. My town is still 94% white and that hasn't changed in decades. People are waking up and white liberal guilt is being exposed for what it is.
So there are a few good signs.
Maryland was a great place to grow up, but with a couple more years experience in my line of work and I'm popping smoke.
Let them shit in their own messkit.
The problem will self-correct.
Sad but true
Tell that to the Passenger Pidgeon, Dodo, and soon to be Tuna, Elephant, Tiger, corals, and Rhino - along with hundreds if not thousands of other species.
The question is a side track from many current events issues.
Tribal behavior from white people seems as strong as blacks or Latinos or Indians, or Pakistanis, or Africans(Yemen, Somalia, Niger), Bangladeshis, Scandinavians, Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, Whatever.
I think this is really how we interact.
I can dress weird, look out of place and that is all it takes for a tribe to reject me. Simple. Simple to understand. We have family, we have community, we have institutions that we relate too. Tribal by definition.
Boom.
Q: What is a libertarian solution?
A: Libertarian solution is the invisible hand of free market will sort it out - many will simply drop dead without water and demand will fall to meet supply
If the libertarian solution had been applied from the beginning, then we wouldn't have arrived at the brink of disaster, to the point where applying the correct solution now results in death and chaos.
What is your solution? Just keep pumping more and more water, and burning more and more energy to do it?
Funny that the entrenched interests are worred about outsiders buying votes, but mention nothing about bigger wineries doing the same thing to smaller ones.
"I drink your milkshake." -- from There Wil Be Blood
I pissed in that milkshake. Drink deep.
Drink the water, let the vines die.
the longest straw, lulz
If one more year of this drought, which has been gettting worse year by year, it wont matter....Agenda 21 and chemtrails.
Jerry Brown, have a plan by 2017 and implement it in 3-5 years...L friggin OL. By next year, if this continues, california will be arizona.
Hmm. Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath.
"Scabs who is these scabs" ?
Reverse Okies?
Oh lordy, now the rest of the nation is going to be infested with Califnornia retards: the land of slutted up valley girls, airhead jocks, pot heads and frat boys, anchor teens, gangsta blacks, and hollywood jew pornographers.
Whereas OK is now known exclusively for methheads and tornadoes.
So not too much will change when the populations of Fresno or Merced get added, except now some of the meth labs will get blown away instead of blown up.
Should help California's car theft statistics a little. ;)
Bit-Argentina Bitchez!!
-
You need water, you need land, you want to grow Grapes, you want Freedom, Liberty, Equality, Justice, Fraternity????
- Come See the Andes
- Come See South America
- Come See Patagonia
- Come to Argentina & Hire a family to help with the Crops and Harvest Bitchez!!
Argentia was once on my list of states to ex-pat too (still is, but notched farther down). Have you already made it there, or were you always there?
I like the low population density, the size of the country, the incredibly large White population with few non-Whites, and the geography of it which contains virtually every landscape this planet has to offer.
If there are ex-pat enclaves there I'd appreciate being pointed in their direction as specifically and locally as you can possibly get.
Have you looked into Uruguay? Mostly european population, native population is relatively small.
I have.
Not enough mountains and not enough climate variation for me.
I'm a cool weather critter and I like me big hills. Heat and humidity are fine for a little while, but I can't live that all the time.
Good place to park money though, yes?, no?
I've never been to Argentina, Uruguay or Chile. But have been further north in the Andes. Unfortunately I don't have the inside scoop on Argentina. I've been looking into these location and others for quiet a while. My guess is the marketing pulls you toward someone's money making scheme.
I ran into a group of young people from Argentina a couple of years ago. They said Buenos Aires was great. But they seem biased. But they were happy, intelligent, well behaved, and open people. I can't imagine Americans traveling that way staying in Hostals and having such class.
I think I'd worry about Kirchner trying to confiscate anything I produce with the land. No thanks.
Yes, Chile would be the choice over Argentina. The "other" California.
Yes. I've heard some good things about Chile'.
You have to bank in Uruguay or outside of Argentina.
But yeah they had Bailins before Cypress.
South America is a big place... Argentina is a little far for my taste. I'm not rushing into anything.
Quick someone spray some water on Pelosi, she looks like a dried grape from her vineyard.
Nooooo! She'll swell up to 20X her normal size!
that's what she said!
-stumpy
Why worry about growing anything at all? Farmers might actually make more selling their water rights (which is a misnomer, they should be called government enforced "draws" or "allocations")....or even sell the actual water by the gallon.
The specialty crops that net the most revenue and profit will win out, or maybe the market will shift toward growing crops with low(er) agua demand.
And since when did So Cal., Arizona and Nevada become the land of sprinkled lawns, manicured golf courses, public water fountains and swimming pools....nevermind, rhetorical.
Perhaps ancient Petra has some historical advise for us.
"requiring groundwater-dependent areas to establish local water sustainability agencies by 2017. The agencies will then have between three and five years to adopt water management plans, and then another two decades to implement those plans."
Does anyone else see that this basically puts off any ground water resource efforts until 25 years down the road. A lot can happen in 25 years, what that bill does is free water users from any sanctions and controls as regard deep water pumping for 2 and a half decades. In effect, this is not a bill, but an extend and pretend bill, like so much else in modern America, there seems no limit to crisis and resource issues that can not be extemded and pretended, so that those farming now and those in government now can avoid doing anything and pass the results to the kids born just about now, when they grow up and join the economic system in 25 years!
Whoever drills deepest taps the most water. Some ground water sources are dropping a wopping 2 inches a day! These are test wells drilled and measured every day. That is how bad some sites are. And the earth is imploding as the water table disappears. Americans want to believe their are no limits, that we can have what we want and take it. They believe nature is limitless, and they have a right to take. Taking is their right. So let the chips fall where they may. Someday soon, a lot of very bad things will be experienced. But for now, grow that wine, pump that water and things are okay Jack! Keep your hands off of my stack!
+1 for the Floyd ref alone.
Yep, I have a friend that lives in Paso Robles. Not a farmer, but has a well for domestic water. His well went dry.
The water table is being sucked down to nothing by the agriculture in the area. Just a result of the water from the Ca delta being cut off to save a friggin delta smelt fish that the enviro nazis deemed more important than people.
Yeah, who needs the entire marine food chain; nobody likes eating striped bass anyway, right?
Fucking moron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkS11FsA2cs
We don't need no stinking water cycle.
The problem will solve itself.
First, understand, the planet could give a shit. The oceans were once sulfuric acid.
Too many people, is the problem. And they elect " leaders" who are useless, but tell them what they want to hear.
Ah, Jerry Moonbean Brown. He will come up with a solution.
No he won't. Decisions will have to be made, and money diverted to come up with solutions, or not. But JB will not be a part of it. Big business will.
But this is a fact. People can't live without water. Lawns, pools, certain agricultural....they can do without. And they will or they won't. And the rains will come, or they wont. But one way or another, the problem will be solved, or solve itself.
Just like Greece.
They will kick this fucking can down the roads for years or decades if they can. Then one day, they will be out of road.
Then one day, they will be out of road.
Shee-it, we're building multi-billoin high speed rails to nowhere...we're never going to run out of road.
Maybe we could ship water on those magneto trains..... Pretty smart, eh?
Can't turn the water into wine if there ain't no water.
Remember ebola?
Yakima, WA, reds or GTFO.
I live in California's Central Valley. While this drought is causing serious problems for a great number of people, I see opportunity. Most of the people in town are letting their lawns turn brown. The people accross the street are taking out their lawn and replacing with desert style landscaping. It looks good, much better than their brown lawn. Many homeowners will make this change, and landscaping companies that do this work will do well.
I've had drinking water delivered to the house since the city started pumping well water with an agricultural aftertaste. The water delivery business in California is going to explode. I would not whisper "plastic" in the ears of a graduate, I would shout WATER!
Tanker trucks, home storage tanks, pumps, purification equipment, rainwater collection gear and many related items will be big sellers as people adapt to the new normal.
Some will move back to Oaklahoma or wherever but most of us will stay. I'd like to see an infrastructure project built on the scale of the interstate highway system that manages water nationally, drawing water from flooded areas and moving it to areas of drought. Bechtel could pull it off.
That's some serious denial and goober worship you've got going on there.
I understand denial, but what exactly is goober worship?
A lot of people write weird shit on here when they're drunk (I know I do) so maybe he was brain farting. I thought you had some great ideas.
The worship of peanunts? Personally, I'd rather worship squash!
Goo-ber-ment. You know, the people who will be paying Bechtel to implement your "genius" solution with everyone else's taxes.
Great,now the Paso Roblans can start growing Agave cactus,and making Mescal,and Tequila,which get me way more fucked up than wine..
Was it here I read the science jokes? A chemist goes to a bar and orders some H2O. His friend says "I'll have some H2O too" The friend dies.
Because Hydorgen Peroxide is poison. Good one!
" The agencies will then have between three and five years to adopt water management plans, and then another two decades to implement those plans."
this is a joke right?
the world is going to wait while the exceptional amis figure this out.
why not just start a war someplace, *ssholes.
isn't that the way you solve all your problems.
can't wait till the day comes when they find their toilets won't flush.
Actually it is William Shattner doing a $30B Kickstarter Campaign.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/William-Shatner-Save-Californi...
But he's busy right now riding his custom motorcycle across the US.
http://tinyurl.com/qxk76el