Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on March 16, 2015
California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans
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?
137 Comments on "California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans"
kenny on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:35 pm
Everyone knows the climate history of California. What we are seeing is nothing new. The corrupt politicians ignored real science and decided to make money for themselves and screw the people. Climate has been in a constant state of change for 4.5 Billion years. Democrats don’t understand that and blame human activities last year for today’s drought. They have screwed the people with their ignorance! The People need now to eliminate population to survive. They should eliminate Democrats who caused the problem. They would make good feed for livestock and body parts could be sold on the market. Obama’s heart, liver, lungs could get $1000 for California.
sam on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:38 pm
I see people leaving Cali by the millions, and infiltrating other states, to the point where they will strain them. The illeglas need to be send packing, and we can always grow MOST of those crops in other states…… what goes around, comes around.
Paul on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:43 pm
Our lawmakers are more concerned with getting that fast train started than about anything else.
john on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:44 pm
it is pritty obviouse if the govener lets 10 20 million illegals in and then say wow we need more water what a joke
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:51 pm
Kenny, get with it dude, we here on this forums roast political rhetoric. It so so lame and out of touch with the real issues. Why don’t you hook up with Planter for a night out of bashing Obama. You guys could have a wonderful lustful night.
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:54 pm
Law, being a little further north I am just getting into the garden. It is muddy as hell but I am hopping to get Potatoes and few other odds and ends in tomorrow.
Peter Frey on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:03 pm
Like most serious problems, there is no silver bullet to provide a fix. It would be sensible to explore options such as an aqueduct (remember the Romans) from Lake Michigan and/or Lake Superior (the largest fresh water reservoirs on the planet) or a solar distillation system that converts sea water to drinkable water whenever the sun is shining. Taking a serious attitude toward water conservation is also a rational option.
Darkforceb on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:05 pm
I have been saying it for awhile now, we do not need Oil pipelines from back east we need water pipelines. Ones connected to our main reservoirs, to resupply the aquifers.
By directly making a couple of major pipe lines from the Mississippi River, and the Columbia River, this would drastically reduce flood risk during heavy rainfall seasons along the Mississippi, it would also allow water to fill the depleted reservoirs in CA, and in turn provide valuable water for the crops that supply 1/3 of the earths food.
roy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:07 pm
Not a problem.
1. have farms in the barren plains and desert
2. have every rich celeb have a large pool and vast lawn
3. bring in millions of always-pregnant illegals to get those future democrat voters
4. use lots of water for fracking
Surely that’ll fix it, right?
Lisa on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:07 pm
This article is so over the top alarmist. What is not stated is that Southern California is now using 40% less water than it did when its population was 50% less. In other words, Californians adapted and will do so again. The Pacific right next door will be our new water source. A lot of these posts have a tinge of envy and hysteria which is not very becoming.
hvacman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:14 pm
The lead sentence of this article is catchy and completely wrong. Once upon a time, most of California was NOT a barren desert, even in a drought. Once upon a time, California’s valleys and hills were covered with drought-tolerant grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees that had evolved over the eons to deal with the great fluctuations of flood and drought that California experienced and continues to experience.
Cattle grazing and agriculture stripped the native grasses from the soil, leaving it vulnerable to “desertification” if crops were not constantly planted to assist with soil stabilization. Fast-growing and spreading, less drought-tolerant introduced non-native grasses also filled in the non-agricultural areas.
There has been a recent renaissance in “California native” landscaping that replace the water-thirsty turf lawns, shrubs and trees with native species.
California’s agricultural areas and water management plans must either adapt as the native plants did to periodic droughts, or their industry will go the way of their water-intensive plants – whither and die. Given eons, the native plants will come back and reclaim the “desert” the dried up ag industry leaves behind.
Jerry on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:16 pm
This issue was known years ago. I suspect the deep pockets politicians weren’t offered sufficient payola to start building desalinization plants along the coast. Finally one is being built. Too little and probably too late. Unless there is corruption nothing gets done. To hell with the people. How come only one is being built? How about 10 more? The feds seem to have unlimited funds to give to overseas countries. How about some of that graft to our own country?
Jerry on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:21 pm
If oil and gas can be piped all over the country, how come water (non polluting) cannot be piped from typical flood areas to drought areas? Oh I forgot, not enough graft for the deep pockets. Texas is a perfect example. Some areas of Texas are proverbial flood areas while other are dry. How about a water grid much like the power grid with water storage areas along the route.
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:43 pm
Dark force, you can’t afford piped water from the Midwest. It is not economically feasible. As an alternative you can turn away from wasteful lifestyles and attitudes. You can stop unsustainable growth which in California is any new growth. You can set an example for the rest of the world if you want to.
As a Midwesterner we know better than to send you our water that once you get it there is no turning back. We already have the Great Lakes water lever dropping. The Missouri and Mississippi already have issues with water usage and drought. The lack of snow pack melt is effecting the Missouri also.
You are on your own and the rest of the country will have to start eating seasonal and make gardens instead of relying on a production AG system that is an example of the worst of BAU. What is more absurd than trucking lettuce and celery across the country for an all you can eat salad bar nonsense.
mike on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:52 pm
california is a desert let it happen they should move to the northeast more water then we know what to do with,we need more farms in the norteast most are gone
Victor Godot on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:03 pm
What will happen, will be the biggest land-grab since the plot of “Chinatown.” Investors will buy up all the land for a pittance, (like they did with the San Fernando Valley) and then (after building de-salination plants and national water pipelines – imagine, Massachusetts “snowpack” pumped to Lake Mead and Ketch Ketchy re-sell it back to the suckers for BILLIONS. (JMHO)
Al on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:06 pm
Meanwhile folks in CA continue to live as though in England, every yard including huge ones must be a beautiful carpet of green…
Kalamakuaikalani on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:12 pm
I’ve long thought that every city with a population of over 25K along the west coast, east coast & Gilf of Mexico should have a water desalination plant(s). Bigger cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, NY & others should have at least 5 desalination plants.
Joda Solomon on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:12 pm
These are all wonderfully appropriate comments, especially the one about the desalination plants being built instead of the train to Fresno. However, Cali cannot afford any rational plans, we are too busy building thousands of new homes, giving away the state to illegals and paying preposterous pensions.
Kevin on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:39 pm
California does more than grow a lot of veggies. A large number of phones, computers, Pharmaceuticals (Ebola Cures for one), medical equipment, home& business software, space exploration (SPACE X is going to get us to stop paying Russia millions of dollars in cab fair), beer/wine (more than you think), Aviation (Lockhead, McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon to name a few),4 major guitar makers, a lot of movies might be filmed outside of CA but the production companies and even the cameras made to film them are in CA, Zamboni (for all the hockey fans),and the dozens more companies that produce/ manage the necessities in life we can’t do without. Lets not forget our Military that live, train and go all over the world to keep us safe. San Diego alone is the number one strategic deployment and dispersment of soldiers and equipment on the West Coast. People in Cali obviously know this because we work at these companies and live here. The rest of the country can keep saying how worthless of a state Cali is but without it most peoples lives would be miserable. I’ve lived all over this great country and every state has problems (some worse than others) but don’t say: “Who cares what happens to California.”
Leslie C Blenkhorn on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:49 pm
Still plenty of water for the millions of third worlders they are letting into California.
GregT on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:53 pm
We studied the coming water shortages in Cali when we were in grade school back in the 70s.
How this is surprising to anyone is rather shocking to say the least.
American Idiot on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:04 pm
According to NASA they have only 1 year of water left….Bye..Bye…California!!!
I hope those high speed rail lines runs on time!!! 🙂
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-13/nasa-scientist-warns-california-has-one-year-water-left
peter wolf on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:07 pm
No contingency plans. Yeah, want to know why? Because for the last 40+ years the radical environmentalists ( aided and abetted by the Democrats) have fought to a standstill every attempt to build water desalinization plants in the state. Now, we’re out of water and we have ‘no contingency plans’, other than to re-elect into perpetuity the same old, worn out Democrats that got us into this mess.
Go Speed Racer. on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:09 pm
Jerry. What you proposed is intelligent. Therefore, it will never be done. Watching California run out of water is the most impressive reminder of all the psychotic criminal mafia men drunk in their hot tubs with their 1000 per hour escorts, also known as politicians, too addicted to their designer drugs to even be capable of comprehending what is a cup of water, or what is a pipeline.
dubya on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:21 pm
I find the “great lakes solution’ to be quite humorous. The great lakes are the largest freshwater reservoir on earth, indeed. However they are in a fairly low precipitation area, I don’t know what the St Lawrence flow rate is but it is not particularly high. I think it takes about 100 years to move the volume of water through lake superior. So most of these plans imply that they will be ‘mining’ the lakes, I can’t see any problem with that, can you?
Then there is the trivial detail of shipping costs. Try an experiment – fill a five gallon bucket with water then pick it up. Now carry it across the united states. OF course you can just use some fossil fuel to do this, but there is some evidence that is part of the problem.
dubya on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:22 pm
I don’t know if anyone else is seeing the cartoon monster avatars today, but I like them.
Charles R. Donaldson Sr. on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:27 pm
California supported the largest number of Native Americans than any other place in the United States. The use of desert for a Mediterranean climate is misleading. What has happened is California is a victim of its own success that used mining of water sources to achieve what we see here today. The drought merely has moved forward what needs to be done to sustain the area.
The only way to sustain this economy on a permanent basis is to desalinate water. Yes it is expensive but it can be done. The higher price will spur natural conservation.
We have two plants being built in Carlsbad and Huntington Beach plus Marin has a reclamation and desalination plant that was recently approved. What the article failed to mention is the reclamation project to clean water before it is put back into the streams and rivers.
What we need is the governor, and other leading politicians get the people behind desalination plants. That is a long term solution but needs to be done because we have actually mined the water for over a hundred years.
A recent article about whether the Salton Sea should be allowed to dry up since it was an accident that formed it, mentioned that because the Lake Tulare, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi was pumped dry by the San Joaquin agriculture interests, the western flyway for migrating birds use the Salton Sea.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:28 pm
Curiously, there are many newbies here for this one, many with a corny/BAU view. Like people bused into political rallies. I smell a rat.
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:30 pm
Geeze Louise how do all you high energy boys think all these desal plants are going to be paid for. Typical Californian attitude of spending with no limits. Why do you think you are in the position you are boys. California is broke now California is without water. You boys are up the creek without a paddle. You want your cake and eat it but reality says otherwise.
Desal plants are no economic at the scale you are talking. The energy needed is off the charts. The environmental damage of all that salt from the desal plants you are fantasizing about is enormous. .Just google desal in the ME for a picture of a mess. The amount of friggen water you guys are short in California is in another league from manmade solutions. Only less with less will work for you all. Get a grip and prepare to down size. The rest of the country will be right behind you as usual.
Kevin California was once a great state now it is a mess. The place cannot support the population it has now hence the non-farm economy needs to drop significantly. I want to add anyone bitching about the illegals should refer to history when the butthole Anglos took California from the original Hispanics that had a much higher societal level. The land was special then. Now California is a continuous sprawl in those once beautiful areas.
Bluedog on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:40 pm
California will do what all American states do. Ignore preparations for disaster until it happens, then expect the rest of the country to pay to fix the problem. Many millions of people have moved to the costal areas for the lifestyle, but they do not want to pay the true cost of living there.
JuanP on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:46 pm
What’s up with the avatars?
Plantagenet on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:48 pm
California can easily pay for desalinisation plants simply by increasing property taxes to the same levels that the rest of the country pays.
Homeowners are the ones wasting all the water by watering their lawns and drinking mates by their swimming pools. Simply tax their very valuable property.
Tom C on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:48 pm
I live in California and though parts of the state have water shortages, where I live we are fine. This state does not really have a water shortage. It has no water management plans. All the run off from the mountain ranges run to the Pacific Ocean. There is a tremendous amount of run off from the Siskiyou Mountain Range, the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada’s.
Now the feds are considering taking out three dams on the Klamath River in No. Cal. meaning there will be no reservoirs on that river. Farmers and ranchers require that water for irrigation.
If So. Cal. is going to need to use sea water for irrigation and human consumption, they better get on the ball and build those facilities. The High Speed Rail between L.A. and S.F. will have to wait or preferably be canceled forever.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:50 pm
Ever more complexity/energy use, Juan. It’s our evolutionary programming.
ghung on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:51 pm
That’s one hyped-up multi-polar dude, eh?
rebel on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:22 pm
Time for everyone to start planting prickly pear cactus and every other edible desert plant.
Debbie Twohig on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:23 pm
My ass..Our government has already been piping the water into the underground cities already..You cant believe anything they say..Send all the illegals back to their own damn counties and maybe we will have enough…
Nita on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:38 pm
In the western midwest states, such as Kansas, OKlahoma, Nebraska, etc., the aquifer is only at 50 percent, used up and wasted since the Great Depression. So, California is not the only state in trouble.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:40 pm
Just what scumbag think tank or organization do you fucking phony cunts belong to? Definitely one that likes to blame “illegals”. Fuck off to some other site – you will get no converts here.
WaffenSS on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 5:09 pm
In the early sixties when the state was laying out a general plan: I remember reading scientific information that supported the weather patterns this article is using as a premise to the argument. Scientific information(tree rings) suggested that the weather in California was wetter in this century than the tree rings showed over a total period of time. The media supported the politicians and vilified the scientific community as tree ring kooks. This was to allow the general plan for the development of California as know it today.
dave T on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 6:08 pm
Once the food goes away and the ability for sustainable human habitat we all die.
Jeff on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 6:14 pm
“California Is Turning Back Into A Desert…”
Stop with the hyperbole. Its a drought. It will rain again. Parts of the state are natural desert, but most of it is Mediterranean and subject to both wet and dry patterns as a result.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 6:32 pm
Jeff-crawl back to your ideological shit hole.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 6:43 pm
94 comments and many by people we have never seen or heard from before all preaching a similar theme. Of the other new articles posted today the highest number of comments is 12 , but none of the “new” guests to this site commented on those stories.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 6:50 pm
Here is the best commentary ever on the losers who blame all their life’s failures on immigrants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_iBOEDb7PM
Mike in Calif. on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 7:05 pm
Davy:
“…butthole Anglos took California from the original Hispanics…
Kindly read a book before maligning my state with your ignorance.
First of all, the massive territory of Alta California was never solely “Hispanic”. The region has been multi-racial, multi-cultural from the first settlements to today. There were perhaps 100,000 Californios scattered through the territory with concentrations in places like the southern California coast. While this population could be called culturally “Hispanic” it was not monolithically “Mexican.” They were Mexican, Spanish, American and native. By 1845 huge areas of Alta California were still native and others were settled by Americans (Northern California, Utah, etc).
The Mexican government largely ignored the sparsely populated region and Californios and “Anglos” often ignored proclamations from Mexico City. The status of the territory was disputed on nearly all boundaries and repeated attempts, including French and British missions, failed to broker peace. Mexico grew increasingly bellicose and finally seethed over the annexation of Texas. War was all but inevitable and both sides knew it.
The Californios, however, were largely ambivalent and debated leaving Mexico even before the war. The treaty of Hidalgo offered, and most Californios accepted, US citizenship. Their property rights were largely (if sometimes imperfectly) recognized.
Today, half a million people proudly claim Californio descent but call themselves “American”, not Mexican. It is recently arrived Mexicans – whose families had never set foot north of the Rio Grand – that make noise about Alta California being Mexican, being “taken.”
Oh, and those ignorant of history…
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 7:30 pm
Thanks Mike history is one of my favorite subjects. While I am partially ignorant of the details of early California history I have seen enough documentaries to know that once the Americans moved in the so called Californio’s suffered injustice and prejudices. That is unless the documentary producers of the documentaries I watched are also ignorant of history. These days one never knows.
steam'n on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 7:31 pm
no water…..no food…… people die….this is how to control the population, like they’ve talking about for years. I would bet, with some of the people we have in Washington, and greedy wealthy people, as well as corporations, I know its ridiculous, but, nah, couldn’t be part of a plan. I mean, really, who cares? just keep water’n the lawns.
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 7:43 pm
steam’n, this control of population thing, uh if they have been talking about it that’s all they have been doing because every 4 days there is 1 million more people added – that’s births minus deaths. Got any links to quotes from officials talking about some nefarious plans to reduce the population? Would not be very wise for any government to knock off their tax base and consumers in a consuming society. Seems like that it would not be very good for corporations who would not exist without constantly increasing their customer base. I guess it could be a plot to cut back on their advertizing budgets.