More Water Talk

Another exploration of the water woes in CA.  This one from the Washington Post.


http://wapo.st/1aJRkrI

The Water in Our Food

In CA, Governor Brown's recent mandatory water use restrictions largely spared agriculture.  That  sparked a discussion about agriculture's use of water and its role in helping the state deal with the Big Dry.  There was a particularly lively discussion about the large amount of the State's water resources that go to growing almonds.  Check out this info-graphic from the LA Times that breaks down the water use for some of the state's crops.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-water-hungry-foods-20150406-story.html

You might also want to check out the fuller coverage on the drought that the LA times has compiled here:
http://www.latimes.com/local/drought/

The Big Dry

It has been dry in CA.  Several years of below average rainfall have been topped off this winter by record heat and the lowest  Sierra snow pack on record.  Faced with dwindling supplies, the Governor has ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in the state's history.

It might be tempting to see CA's plight as simply a cautionary tale about people living in an inherently arid climate.  But CA (as it has so often been) is a harbinger of a new reality that all or us will likely have to adjust too.  We increasingly live in a world where resources are limited, or where we will need to self-impose limits on how we use the planet if we want to sustain the earth's ecosystems for us and future generations.

Check out this interesting story from the New York Times about the new reality in CA:
http://nyti.ms/1DKkfab