“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water,” W.H. Auden says. It is true that water plays an important in our lives; nobody can survive without water. Importantly, water is a scarce resource which means that society has insufficient productive resources to meet all citizens’ needs. Once the scarce resource becomes more and more terrified, people will turn to limit the usage. Since California has been dried for four years continuously and reached near-crisis proportion, on April 1, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order that will restrict urban water usage by 25 percent to deal with the drought (Nagourney). The bill seems to make sense by limiting the water when it becomes scarce. This order will affect some …show more content…
in Johnson). Technically, farmers use 80 percent of water while cities use 20 percent (Johnson). However, as Governor Jerry Brown claimed California to reduce water using by 25 percent, he did not indicate agriculture (Johnson). Yet, Robert Glennon stated that “For California to solve its water crisis must also come from farmers.” Definitely, with a huge water consuming, restricting agriculture will conserve water more significant water than households’ water saving. Glennon points out that “By my calculations, even a four percent reduction in water consumption could increase by 50 percent the water available for municipal and industrial uses.” Thus, to solve drought, California should not restrict personal water use, but regulate agriculture instead.
Secondly, wisely using appropriate management, water in agriculture is one of the best ways to control water instead of restricting personal water use. Agriculture consumes about 80 percent of all water usages in California, and the primary water consuming in agriculture is irrigation. This irrigation system helps lands that don’t annually receive enough rainfall to be utilized for growing plants. According to University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication
On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to
After more than five years of drought in California, we are just now beginning to see an above-average precipitation,and this is leaving many to ask, "is the drought over?" This last drought was one of the worsts droughts California has experienced in history and it left many panicked and trying to come up with solutions. “Governor Jerry Brown even made one of the first cutback to farmers ' water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent ” (Zamora,et al..) Overall California has 39 million residents and on top of that California also grows an unbelievable amount of
Californians are being heavily fined for using a certain amount of water a month, which impacts the daily lives of everyone. Water is a natural resource that is crucial to everyone’s survival. Whether if it’s being used for cooking, showering, gardening, washing your car or just simply drinking purposes; water is a necessity for everyone. Though the bill has not yet been passed by congress and officially has not become a law, the issue still remains on the table. The drought in California has taken a massive toll on agriculture, the environment and infrastructure. The drought is on its route to damage California’s climate change. In the past three consecutive years the average rain fall has drastically decreased, and the winter temperatures have increased. Since majority of California’s water comes from the Western Rocky Mountains, the water supply there is dropping resulting in more strict laws and regulations on how much water can be consumed by the average
Have you thought about the importance of water recently? Water provides many things to people, from green lawns to nutritious food. An event that may have spurred these thoughts is the drought in California. They are struggling because there is simply not enough water in California to go around for all of its uses. Measures have been taken to conserve water, but cutbacks have been made on everything, even the giant industry of California agriculture. More water should be devoted to agricultural uses instead of residential uses in California for the following reasons:
Many different government campaigns have been created to educate the resident of California about the seriousness of this drought. The Save Our Water Campaign is a government campaign to reach out to residents in order to teach them how to conserve water. This campaign also try’s to convince people to forget about their green laws and focus on clean water (Save, 2015). Incentive programs have also been created for different counties in California. These incentive programs range from up to a 50 dollar reward for replacing a regular toilet for a high efficiency toilet all the way to replacing your entire grass or water dependent lawn to something that doesn’t need water for as much as 10 thousand dollars (Rebates, 2015). California’s Governor Jerry Brown has also mandated water cuts by 25 percent. Setting restrictions on residential water usage and giving out fines or penalties to residents who disobey. Another executive order given by Governor Jerry Brown is that the Department of Water Resources has to replace 50 million square feet of grass with fake grass, dirt, or pavement. There have also been rewards given to people who replace their grass lawns with other types of landscape (California,
One more efficient way people could conserve would be by having their house inspected for leaks as they account for 16% of our water supply If farmers cut back by just 5% it would be equal to the 25% that the cities in California are required to conserve. The main goal of the city-wide water restrictions
Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.
The most consideration that matters to every working American is how this crisis will affect the cost of living. After that how much work forces have to cut off estimating that 17,000 from worker jobs are going to be lost. Since this is the third driest year that it's been a pretty bad drought for California. A lot of waterfalls as rain or snow up in the north in the eastern mountains are cutting off because the climate changes. This crisis and lack of jobs cause many problems in the community, drug use crime and poverty increased as a result of this water crisis. The governor Brown imposed a mandatory water boundary that requires all California's cities and towns to decline their usage of water by 25%. They had been wasting water until the beginning of April when the governor gave a mandatory order to reduce the use of water. Also, he asks farmers to have water management plans. The governor asks people to prevent wasting water and encourage them to conserve the water from waste. Over the past year the State Water Resources Control Board build an unprecedented measures to prohibit wasteful water. The orders require limit the irrigation of the outdoor plants to be twice a week, and that include restaurant and
Californians have been struggling with trying to conserve our water for over three years. Twenty-Thirteen was our driest year in many populated areas in California, and it doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, unless we all act now. In twenty-thirteen, Los Angeles and Sacramento, went down on record as the driest two cities in California. A drought is when area of land scarcely drop rain. Droughts are caused from climate changes and lack of precipitation, resulting in a shortage of water. Water is vital for all living things and is the essential component of all life. This ongoing drought has drastically affected the state of California. The long-term change in climate is truly affecting California. Our water reservations are lower than
California can meet their water needs by using this precious resource much more efficiently than they are presently doing. California has been raising sustainable awareness by adding bulb-lit freeway signs every 10 miles along California Interstate 5 that say “Serious drought, help save water”, they have also printed placards that are posted in sparsely blooming almond and cherry groves, asparagus fields, and mile upon mile of empty dry cracked or tilled earth that warn people to use less water. As California continues to grow, this puts more pressure on their limited water supplies. California needs to figure out a way to manage their groundwater basins to secure the future of agriculture life.
Currently California is facing a water shortage. The issue has been addressed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in February. He called for all state agencies to find the way to help in the statewide water shortage. This is California’s third consecutive year of drought and last spring and summer was the worst of the season because it had the lowest amount of water recorded and California’s reservoirs were at their lowest point as well which did not help in the water shortage. Many agencies have been acquired to find possible solutions to the water shortage, the Department of Water Resources has been directed to find solutions to the problem as well as asking people to conserve water.
In recent years, California’s water shortage has been an issue and in 2014 an alarming driest historical year has impacted the state in different ways. Because of the lack of rainfall and snow, California’s reservoirs are running insignificant water basins below their capacity. While water shortages are experienced slowly and throughout a length of time, the harshest impacts are noticeable in areas that produce California’s food where wells are used as resource for water in agriculture, and residential areas. Though, most agree the drought is an issue some do not agree. To understand the circumstances, this paper will look at the drought’s impacts on California’s economy for agricultural, famers, and consumers. Also, this written work will examine the environmental consequences of surface water obtainability, and the areas that have encounter the most devastating affects. For most, this paper will examine the allocations of the governor’s drought declaration, and the strategies used by residents to conserver water.
No Californian is impervious to the California drought. The Bay Area, Sierra Mountains, and the Central Valley have all reported record drought conditions. Even with this obvious evidence that has been brought forth for about four years now, farmers have been continuously taking local citizen’s water for their own orchards. The California legislature needs to come to the decision that caps need to be put on large water users so the preexisting residents may receive water.
to follow. The Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown (ca.gov, 2015) noted that if everything goes to plan the state could save about 1.5 million acre-feet of water over the next nine months. The water shortage the state is facing is unprecedented. This is why is it is crucial for resident to follow any rules or regulations that are mandated by the state and counties. The State Water Resources Control Board (2015) has implemented new emergency water regulations to be put into effect for residents, business and suppliers (SWRCB, 2015). The snow pack of 2014 was measured here in California’s and was found to be the lowest snowpack in 65 years (ca.gov, 2015). In the state of California snow is crucial because once the snowmelts it provide enormous amount of water supply. In the Governors executive order he announced certain plans to be implemented to conserve water. The goal of the Governors executive order is to make California a state that can adapt to less water usage (SWRCB, 2015). The order in which Brown announced to save more water will include: the replacement of 50 million square feet of lawns across the state with landscaping that needs less water, a consumer rebate program for those who use more water and energy efficient appliances, public properties must make cuts in water use, new homes and developments to use water-efficient drip irrigation systems, and to ban watering in urban areas (ca.gov, 2015). Brown in his order
California suffered the driest year in its recorded history in 2013 (Erdman, 2014). In January of 2014 Governor Jerry Brown identified the drought as a State of Emergency for California and asked that all state officials take actions to help the communities hit the hardest and asked all Californians to cut their water usage by at least 20 percent (Governor Brown Signs Drought Legislation, 2014). The governor and lawmakers in California put together a relief program that gives 687 million in relief to help with the drought and fund conservation improvement, irrigation efficiency and clean up for contaminated groundwater (Governor Brown Signs Drought Legislation, 2014).