The California Drought Problem

I.) Water and Drought in California: Facts and data show that the weather we are experiencing here in California is that there is a difference between La Niña that brings the ocean temperature down and making them cooler and El Niño brings much warmer ocean temperatures. Currently california is experiencing a weakened La Niña. With a 55% chance of this weather continuing for the next 3 months. La Niña affect patterns of rainfall, atmospheric pressure, and global atmospheric circulation. Even though California is in a severe drought, with coordination, modernization, and compromise, California should be able to provide enough water for a growing population and growing economy.

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

What would you do if you lost access to running water? That is what the small town of Porterville, Ca is currently experiencing. Water is an essential part of life, a place without water becomes inhabitable. The drought in California is not affecting everybody the in the same way but it has become a bigger problem the longer it lasts. Finding a solution to such a big problem is not an easy task. If you approach the problem from only one direction you might miss something vital. Limiting water to everybody seems to be a simple solution, but if that happens there are many problems that appear because of that. In the book Think Like a Freak, by Levitt and Dubner they explain why looking at a problem from a different angle will yield unexpected results. Although there is no simple solutions, there are ways to fix the drought and to be better prepared for the next inevitable one.

At some point of our lives we have been asked or have heard the question, what can we not live without?. Many of us will not hesitate to mention family, friends, food, water, and other living essential we find futile to our survival. If we place these living essentials in order of importance some of us may place family over water. If you then think about it, we can live without our family, but we cannot live without water. Water gives us life its in our fruits, foods, and drinks. Without water we would not be alive and healthy for the most part. The importance of water is substantial and California is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts in history. The planet itself is also undergoing global warming, which only contributes to a more severe drought occurring in California. Droughts in California’s history did not have the contributing factor of Global warming diminishing their severity. California’s drought and Global warming share a common link in the factor that would contribute to the severity of the drought we are currently experiencing in California and

California’s continuous drought not only affects California, but essentially impacts the entire food system. Could you imagine an entire state unable to contribute to the growing demands of a thriving economy? As California enters its fifth year of drought the consequences of an ever depleting natural resource, water, continues to negatively impact landscape plants, agricultural production, wildlife, and the economy. The lack of water in California has the potential to have a devastating effect on an ever thriving economy.

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.

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.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

Droughts are caused a number of different ways. Changes in wind patterns move the clouds and moisture through the atmosphere, which can result in an area having abnormal amounts of rain or snow over an extended period of time. 4.4 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado River is entitled to California annually. In areas where most water used comes from rivers, droughts can be caused from places upstream that are not getting enough moisture. In many cases, humans play a big role in droughts. Excessive use of water during times of regular rainfall lead to not having enough water during droughts. Chopping down trees makes it tough for soil

In accordance with Adam Nagourney and Jack Healy’s New York Times article, “ Drought Frames Economic Divide of Californians,” it is believed that the residents of California are economically divided which determines the amount of water they consume. In the two cities of comparison, Cowan Heights and Compton, consumption of water has a lot to do with the residents financial background. The daily water consumption rate for the residents of Cowan Heights, whose household median income is $122,662, was 572.4 gallons per person. The daily water consumption rate for the residents of Compton, whose household median income is

The California Drought is one of the most catastrophic weather and climate related events in recent history. It has singlehandedly altered the geographic landscape of the state and brought down entire industries to a grinding halt. Not since global warming became a prominent fixture in the national spotlight has a climate issue so deeply challenged Californians to reconsider their lifestyles according to their climate conditions. This essay will examine the origins of climate change and the California Drought, how the two are related, the current state of California as a result of the drought, and the future outlook of California.

The low of water affect the most important supply of agriculture in the U.S. California agriculture produce more than 90% of food to the United States. The drought causes a massive economic problem from two directions. Katie Fehrenbacher from The Guardian states that agriculture industry has lost $1.5bn and more than 17,000 seasonal job. That statistic shows that the drought causes the agriculture a huge loss of money and farmers do not have jobs anymore. As a result the prices of food will rise and the cost of water will decrease. Since 2011 when the draught begun no one take a position or talk about it as a real problem they did not start to think about a real solutions to solve the problem until now. The mandatory cut of using water is a temporary solution the water will not last for more than one year. Reduce agriculture will hit the economy of the state and cause many problems because the lack of jobs. The number of Crimes will rise in the areas that suffer mostly from draught; people cannot find food or water. Farmers digging for water underground which increase the consumption of the underground water by 40%. Also, as far they go underground the amount of salt in water increase,

The drought in California has presented some controversial and difficult issues for the residents of the state. Due to the lack of rain and fresh water the state has began, with no regulation, pumping irreplaceable groundwater to aid the drought. This is an out of sight crisis considering it is invisible in the average persons life. Furthermore, as long as residents are continuing to have access to water in their homes and work places the crisis is largely out of sight out of mind. However,

Droughts are a natural occurrence that has been around for millions of years. Droughts are unpredictable; no one can tell when they are going to take place, the severity, or how long they will last. Impacts on of a drought can send shockwaves thought the region. The economy, agriculture, the environment, and the residents of the region are all affected. (Vicente-Serrano, Beguería, & López-Moreno, 2009, p.1696)

California is in its fourth year of a drought and continues to affect the lives of our community. The drought is the “region’s worst in at least 1,200 years” (Holthaus) with “more than 70 percent of the state classified as in ‘exceptional’ or ‘extreme’ drought” (Cockerham). As a result, California has experienced many more wildfires, the drainage of main reservoirs and less crop production. Over the years, studies regarding the cause of the severe drought have been performed and the government has deliberated ideas for solving it.