California Water Crisis: What You NEED to Know

-

Source: http://keywordsuggest.org/

California has been dealing with climate change, and water scarcity due to an extensive drought, but March of 2015 marked the date when Governor Jerry Brown mandated water restrictions to combat the effects of the drought from the previous 4 years. We are coming up on nearly a decade of the drought, and the damage is unsurmountable thus far. The drought is not only affecting California, but the entire West Coast as well. There are five key points to understand about the drought in order to continue the process of conserving resources for our future generations.

1) The majority of California's water supply comes from snowpack that melts flowing into lakes, or streams. The climate change causes record breaking temperatures for the winter seasons leading to a decline in storms that replenish the snowpack. The consumption of California's water is at a higher pace than the environment can produce, and causing us to see the effects.

2) Water on the surface is not the only source, because there hidden supplies beneath the surface in aquifers, or groundwater. These resources have been being used to make up for the lack of resources above the surface, but the aquifers in the Central Valley are being depleted at an exponential rate. These use of these resources have not been regulated in the past, but the legislation to regulate was passed in 2015.

3) There is a 25% water restriction to reduce demand, but the majority of water used in California is used by farmers for agricultural purposes. With no restrictions put on the farmers they are abusing the groundwater supply to sustain the growth of their farms due to the lack of water available above ground. There will be a larger step towards conservation once the legislation changes from "reporting" water use to the state, and evolves into a full on "regulation" of water use by the farmers.

4) To think the California is the only state dealing with a drought, or water scarcity is a misconception. Much of the West is dealing with similar issues, because snowpack is below normal in Washington, and Oregon as well. Areas from Las Vegas to Phoenix to Los Angeles have all been experiencing a drought for over a decade, because the Colorado River Basin has been declining as well. If these resources continue to decline this will grow from a regional issue into a national issue, and a global issue not far after that (Some would argue we have already reached that point).

5) This is NOT the FIRST drought in California. There was a drought in the 1970's, but at the time only 20 million people resided in the area while over 40 million people live in the region now. Californian's have improved their efficiency in water use immensely over the years, but the resources used as back-up are non-renewable, and once those are depleted we will be stuck looking for new conservation tactics to sustain an environment suitable to inhabit.

For further information check out https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150406-california-drought-snowpack-map-water-science/

Keywords: California, Drought, Water, Crisis, Scarcity, Conservation, Resources, West Coast, United States, Regional, National, Global, Ojai

By Austin 'AJ' Holman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community

-
Image
  Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community Source: Unsplash The Facts                                                                                          According to  Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 233,832 are people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the United States. Of the 233,832, 50,767 are families with children.  Currently, 30% of homeless people are adult women.  (portlandoregon.gov)   Bradley Angle , which works to support survivors of  domestic violence , reported that 70% of domestic violence reports are from homeless women. ( www.kgw.com)  Homeless women are 1/3 of the fastest growing populations HUD homeless populations. ( portlandoregon.gov)   Specifically, in Por...
Read more

Understanding Homelessness

-
Image
  Source (American Addiction Centers)      Homelessness has a myriad of different reasons it can happen. The similarity between all scenarios in which a person is experiencing homelessness is that each person is human. A popular belief is that homelessness is a choice. People believe there is a set amount of circumstances that cause homelessness and that it is a choice not to fight to get out of those problems. The problems can range from mental health issues to drug addiction. There is no one size fits all, and it is not a choice.  Over the last few weeks, I have learned that there are many factors that can lead to homelessness. One big one that focuses on our class is how affordable housing, or the lack thereof, is a significant contributor to people not getting back on their feet. If you want to learn more about that subject and if affordable housing can help, click here.   This lack of affordable housing is a big roadblock for those trying to ove...
Read more

Air pollution caused by wildfires may increase risk of dementia

-
Image
  There are already more than 57 million dementia sufferers in the world, and by 2050, that figure is predicted to rise to 153 million. It is estimated that risk factors like exposure to air pollution account for up to 40% of these instances. Even when annual exposure was lower than the current EPA annual threshold of 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (g/m3), the researchers discovered continuous evidence of a relationship between PM2.5 and dementia. The researchers discovered a 17% increase in risk for dementia for every 2 g/m3 increase in average yearly exposure to PM2.5, specifically among the studies using active case ascertainment. Despite the fact that the data was more sparse, they also discovered evidence supporting links between dementia and nitrogen oxide (5% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in yearly exposure) and nitrogen dioxide (2% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in annual exposure). According to a recent University of Michigan study, wildfi...
Read more