California drought: is there light at the end of the tunnel? “If you do not take care of nature, nature will not take care of you”. Those were the words of the late Nobel award winner Professor Wangari Mathaai. Being a great lover of the environment, she foresaw the numerous effects that lack of environmental conservation would result it and true to that the world is receiving a big blow from Mother Nature. Global warming, droughts and famine, irregular climatic changes are among the effects that have adversely affected the globe and if something is not done and fast, this could get worse. California has for many years being battling with drought. Drought can be defined as a prolonged period of rainfall below normal, extended depletion …show more content…
According to scientists, particularly stubborn "blocking ridge" over the northeastern Pacific; commonly referred to as the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, or "Triple R" – that prevented winter storms from reaching California during the 2013 and 2014 rainy seasons, is the immediate cause of the drought. Blocking ridges refer regions of high atmospheric pressure that disrupt typical wind patterns in the atmosphere.3 Because winds respond to the spatial distribution of atmospheric pressure, this persistent blocking ridge has led to California remaining dry over a long period of time. Blocking ridges are not a rare phenomenon especially in the temperate latitudes but the longevity and size of the Triple R is what is worrying. It dispersed in the 2013’s summer months but came back in fall even stronger. The condition went through to winter a period when California receives most of its rainfall. The Triple R affects rainfall by diverting the jet stream (high speed air currents) towards far north. Due to this, pacific storms bypass California as well as Washington and Oregon resulting to snow and rain that would fall on the
The drought is not a result of Global warming because the California drought is caused by a lack of Pacific subtropical storms and the Nina ocean current pattern. However, Global warming does make California’s drought more severe in effect due to the rise of temperature which only contributes to hotter days resulting in more inland water evaporating into the atmosphere. As global warming persist and increases California’s current or future droughts will only become more severe. The implications Globe warming causes in just one state’s drought should be a realization of what global warming can cause in areas of drought at a larger
Right now there is a drought in California and it is due to the water usage. Bach in the gold rush due to miners mining for gold, the rivers became polluted and freshwater became limited. After the earthquake in San Francisco that cause a big fire, San Francisco was in dire need of water so they made a plan to built a dam in Hetch Hetchy. Many people argue as to whether to build the dam and in the end the dam was built and that has shape California’s water system hugely. The use of water in California now has not been in the best interest of the state because The amount of water use for agriculture is disportional, laws are making us use more water than needed and the Indians and environment are being harm.
California is known for its vast production of agriculture; having some of the most fertile soil on Earth, a 4-year drought is not what California wants. The lack of water in California has had dramatic effects within the state. In fact California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has declared it a state of emergency. A drought is a serious weather condition in which many people and the environment is entirely affected. A drought is essentially a difference in the amount of water in a region and the amount of water that the people and the environment in that region needs (Mann et al. 2015). The definition of a drought varies throughout regions depending on the amount of water each region receives and needs. The time limit to announce a drought also
California's future will be heavily impacted by this drought if things don’t change. Everything from its economy, to the people, to the physical land itself, is being threatened. According to American Farmland Trust, one eighth of the nation’s agricultural production comes from California: a third of the nation’s vegetables, and almost two thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. Agriculture is an enormous industry and is occasionally the only industry in certain parts of the state that is going through a severe drought. It’s impossible to grow crops without water, and it’s impossible to make money from crops that never grew, so in many areas the economy would collapse without sufficient water. American Farmland Trust
Slowly overtime, to prevent any more bizarre events in the future, California shouldn’t take drought lightly. As of the recent drought, Government Brown taken action, have produced a restriction by 25% of decrease of water usage back in 2015, luckily in 9 months California was able to save 1.5 million acres-feet of water(Sanders). But farmers aren’t the only people with large lands, this also applies graveyards, golf courses, and more. Agriculture plays a big part of needing the water and if they can help cut down the portion of water used, so should the people in the city. So far, California haven’t prevented the drought from happening, but definitely not repeating the same mistakes from previous.
In order for their to be a drought there has to be a long period with dry weather which is caused by lack of perception. And that lack of perception is being caused by climate change. Due to climate change, temperatures are rising and that is leaving less and less water behind. The climate change is also forcing the mountain snowpack to melt.The snowpack which provides for a third of California’s water supply and builds up during wet winters, causes a big impact on the drought. The change in climate patterns is forcing the snowpack to melt faster and earlier, making it more difficult to store and use in the dry spring and summer. Also with the climate change California's rate of evaporation is also high. So, water is being evaporated rather quickly, but with no perception it's not being replaced.But the blame can’t solely put on climate change. Since it's part of a chain sequence which ultimately comes back to us. Through us being careless with our environment we are not only hurting the Earth, but also ourselves as proven by the drought. We must be more aware and active in our fight against climate
California is a geographically dry area and water shortage has been a serious issue affecting the state since 2012. California has the highest water consumption compared to all the other states and this partly due to the reason that roughly eighty-percent of the state’s water is used towards agriculture; California being the largest agricultural export distributor in the country (Green). Since of 2012, California has been on a severe four-year drought and has had immediate plans and regulations in order to reduce the impact it has. According to California Water Science Center, “2014 was the third driest year on record” and following that, “2015 [was] the warmest year on record.” The recent record breaking climate has contributed to the drought of California and as a result has had detrimental impacts to the environment. Severe climate during a shortage of water can lead to drastic problems because it can lead to an increase of evapotranspiration and increase of precipitation falling as rain rather than snow. Having precipitation falling more often as rain rather than snow during warm weather can lead to early snowmelt which can unbalance the water supply demands (Causes of Drought). During a drought, occasionally humans are impacted, but more importantly the environment experiences the impacts harshly. Wildlife habitat lost, inadequate food and water
Now you may be thinking to yourself, “How can California even start to cope with this drought? How can it go back to normal in a climate that receives little snowpack and rain?” Well although these issues are complex, there have been some achievements-political and otherwise-toward developing more resilient water supplies. One way is groundwater legislation: our Governor, Jerry Brown, signed legislation mandating “sustainable groundwater management,” though the law leaves local entities to define that idea further."We have to learn to manage wisely water, energy, land and our investments, that 's why this is important," said Governor Brown (CA.gov). Another way our government is helping is the spending on water projects.
This historical timeline of government mandates and corporate processes demonstrates just how much they have made the current drought even worse, and has transformed what would looked like a natural disaster into an unnatural one. The drought will have a tremendous social impact on California; executive orders now make it essentially illegal for citizens to take showers longer than five minutes due to punitive fees . People and corporations will have to drastically alter the way they do business now. Housing developments will have to subside and the drought will, I imagine, make housing much more expensive, thus forcing people to move away. Peoples’ idea of the California lifestyle will shift into one that embraces conservancy and environmental awareness. The same goes for the farming industry. Droughts in California have always been a threat to the state of California, but it’s a shame that these historical developments had to make this problem even worse. Yet, the state will have to adapt whether its citizens like it or
California’s ideal weather would be rainy winters and dry summers, but that isn’t the case anymore. Many people are concerned and deeply worried about the world’s constant decrease in the fresh water supply and the social, economic, and environmental issues that are caused from this drought. A textbook definition of a drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall which results in a shortage of water, which is normal considering California has been given the title in its recent years the term drought since 2012. Even though being in a drought is nothing new to California, for the past three years it has experienced severe drought conditions in the
The California drought is actually part of a much bigger water crisis that spreads throughout the entire world but is mostly focused on California. This is due to climate change in many ways and affects many things, but it especially affects the food production
According to NASA studies The Great North American Mega Drought is predicted to happen within the next few decades (Howitt). California being one of the states heavily hit by this drought and it is already evident that the mega drought will happen. Central California was once one of the most fertile lands on the earth is drying up and the Sierra Nevada snow packs are melting away. The cause of the drought can be directly attributed climate change. The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge is an area of persistent high pressure that redirects moist subtropical air to the north. The ridge causes atmospheric water to flow around the pacific edge of California and move up north into Alaska and British Columbia. Leaving us with precipitation deficits and
The drought has a profound effect on California's weather, economy, and health. Unlike other natural disasters, droughts are a chronic issue that take place over several years and have a gradual impact (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). The duration and severity of the drought on affected areas have quite a few negative consequences to humans and other living beings (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,, 2010). Temperatures rising due to climate change prolongs droughts, which worsens air quality (Climate Change Threatens ….n.d.). A vicious cycle has started where we are creating more pollutants through various activities in everyday life; the environment
The historic drought of California has been and still is one of the greatest problems California faces. It has lasted a whopping three years already. The drought started in early January and it shows no sign of ending anytime soon. This drought has farmers and many citizens being driven up walls because of the soaring water prices. This problem will only grow worse and should become a national concern or the whole nation will be in distress.
U.S. Secretary John Kerry calls, ” climate change can now be consider another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction” (Arshad Mohammed,2014). In fact, many scientists say that today in California’s drought get worse on the record, for example in 2015, more than 97 percent of California was involved in an average drought or worse. (Stephan Feller, 2016).I try to find some reaches about California’s drought because my family and I are living in California, where it is a significant state in economy and politics. In addition, California’s drought has an effect on everything our life and environment. For example, in 2015, my family felt the weather was too hot, dry and intense, so some of us were more stressed and got sick. Moreover, according to the article “Global Climate Change” heat waves cause more deaths in the USA every year than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined. For example, in the summer of 1995, according to Eric, Kleinberg (1995) reported” in Chicago , over seven hundred people had perished-more than twice the number that died in the Chicago Fire of 1871, twenty times the number of those struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1992—in the great Chicago heat wave, one of the deadliest in American history.” Drought in California affects us in many ways; as a result, we should know cause, effect and what to do about California’s drought.