4 ms·
California is full of them. But it’s better to live within the means of the area you live. Not growing things that need a lot of water in a desert is a good s
by beached_whale 5y ago
California is full of them. But it’s better to live within the means of the area you live. Not growing things that need a lot of water in a desert is a good start.
- refurb 5y agoThat’s silly. If you have a ton of water in one place and can move it to a more useful place you should do it.
- betwixthewires 5y agoA desert is by definition not a useful place where agriculture is concerned.
- satori99 5y agoIt's not that simple. Semi-arid areas where water can be provided consistently, can have agricultural advantages like more sunlight and fewer pests.
- s0rce 5y agoI don't think people understand that large rivers can flow through deserts and provide water.
- betwixthewires 5y agoNot only am I aware of this fact, I have actually been to a river in a desert! And there's still a reason not much grows there. You start piping the water from that river into the desert and grow tropical fruit orchards you wind up with problems, such as those we see in southern california, which you might be surprised to find out is what we are actually discussing, water shortages caused by trying to grow tropical fruit orchards in a desert with rivers flowing through it.
- s0rce 5y agoThat's not universally true though the Nile river delta and the Columbia basin have tons of agriculture and I'm not aware of water shortages, although large dams can cause issues.
- betwixthewires 5y agoBut water can't be provided consistently, hence them being arid. And when men try to engineer that problem away, you wind up with problems such as depleted aquifers...
- satori99 5y agoOh, generally I agree. I live in Australia. We, like much of the developed world, have built our cities and suburbs on the fertile parts of the country and drain our rivers to irrigate semi-arid farmlands. We only have one long river system, and we have nearly killed it outright via this behavior.
- s0rce 5y agoTell that to the Columbia River basin.
- beached_whale 5y agoTo what end and when that runs out, what do you do? Also, there is an ocean's worth of water right there.
- refurb 5y agoTo what end? Growing food? And one should use it in a sustainable way, so hopefully it doesn't run out. And yeah, the ocean has water, but you can't use it unless you desalinate. Seems smarter to use water that's already useable and readily available?
- Nasrudith 5y agoI thought the point of a water pipeline was to even out floods and droughts across an area or allow for superior planting locations to be utilized for more systemic efficiency than just local growth, heretical as the last notion may be.
- Gibbon1 5y agoIn California they doo'd it. Something around 70% of the water that flows in rivers and streams is spoken for.