The Problem Of California Drought

How do we halt a seemingly endless drought? California has many varying climates from the chilly Sierra Mountains to the parched deserts of Death Valley, but today they all have one thing in common: they are in a drought. The California drought has been a creeping phenomenon that has taken a hold of the state for the past five years. There has been little rain, soaring temperatures, and dropping water levels. The lack of water lead to severe water cuts, the spread of wildfire, and thirsty crops. In order to end the drought, California must conserve water.

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.

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

Imagine having to go outside every time one needs to use the restroom. There has been a drought going on in California for the past four years. There is a feud for water between farmers, citizens, and the drillers who get drain the water. The drought is a damaging issue that is affecting the lives of many. Therefore, California’s government should pass laws to manage how aquifers are to be properly used.

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

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.

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.

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.

And for the better part of the last decade the most of that water has been wasted, vanished, and overused. According to the article California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know by Amanda Zamora, Lauren Kircher and Abreham Lustgarten, Acrane laws aren’t telling framers to reduce or stop taking water from the rivers, instead there doing the complete opposite where there encouraging the farmers to take more water then they require from not only the limited amount the Colorado has, but also from the other rivers in California as well. You even have some “federal subsidies encourage farmers to plant some of the crops that use the most water.” (Zamora, Kirchner and Lustgarten) Because of all the overuse, misuse and wasted water the Colorado Rivers flow has decreased tremendously and that has directly impacted the critical low amount of water that Lake Mead now holds. The amount of disregard the citizens and leading officials have towards this severe drought, is what is going to make water the oil of the 21st

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.

California has been in a drought for about 4 years now and it has been considered the most severe drought in the last 15 years. The California drought has been causing multiple ongoing problems for the last few years. The state of California has tried to take actions toward ending the drought, but the efforts put forth are clearly not enough to end this drought. The main focus in ending the drought has been water conservation, but many California resident are taking the seriousness of the drought too lightly. The drought has already caused several problems, for example water shortages, dying crops, and wildfires all across the state. If serious actions towards ending the drought are not taken soon, California will continue to surface or may get worse. There are a few ideas underway to try and end the drought in California such as, desalination, wastewater recycling, ground water digging, and the main focus water conservation. All of the solutions to ending the drought will cost a good amount of money, so the fact of the matter is which idea would be most efficient and less costly.

In the big problem we are in, this drought effects the farmers, businesses and every person that lives in California. Regarding, nevertheless, there are methods of cutting down the water system to restore the water back that we lost. As the article of California’s Historic Drought says, “Most water is used outside of the home… and nearly sixty percent of a person’s household water footprint can go toward lawn and garden maintenance.” Finding small ways decreasing water usage can cut the percentage more than half. As the article Save Our Water tips solutions, “Water early in the morning or later in the evening when temperatures are cooler; wash cars/boats with a bucket, sponge, and hose with self-closing nozzle; check your sprinkler system

California has been dealing with a drought for many years and day by day, month by month, and year by year, this drought is getting worse and worse. Due to this very low amount of water there have been mandatory water restrictions set in California.

This is stage 6 of the public policy cycle, choosing an alternative. This alternative makes sense considering that Governor Brown has already asked California residents to reduce their water consumption, and they haven’t been able to meet his desired goal of reducing water usage by 20%. Punishing people who are excessively using the water supplies with fines is a great solution because it will ensure that the water is being used wisely. Only the people and businesses that have to use so much water will be able to pay the fines, and those that find the fines to be expensive will