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And the alfalfa is exported to Saudi Arabia, which is effectively water export. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/california-water-drought-scarce-

by fh973 5y ago

And the alfalfa is exported to Saudi Arabia, which is effectively water export. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/california-water-drought-scarce-saudi-arabia https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/california-w...

Justin_K 5y ago
This is the other perfect example I couldn't find a link quick enough. This is for all intents Saudi sucking up water and putting it on a ship to cross the world, because they depleted their sources. Let's generate some more greenhouse gases to accelerate the temp increases.
tzs 5y ago
99.995% of the water use to grow alfalfa ends up in the local atmosphere, to go wherever the winds and/or diffusion takes it presumably eventually coming back out as rain or dew somewhere. Only 0.005% ends up actually in the alfalfa to be exported to wherever the exported alfalfa goes. Similar for almonds. I don't know the exact amount, but an upper limit is 0.03% of the water exported with the almond, and 99.97% left behind in the local atmosphere or local ground. That upper limit comes from counting the entire mass of the almond as water. There are legitimate grounds to criticize growing high water usage crops in regions that do not have enough water naturally, but exporting water is not one of them.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  I don't think the atmosphere is as "local" as you imply (diffusion of the water molecules should spread them out of state far faster than they can condense in-state).
- nextaccountic 5y ago
  The issue here isn't physically exporting the water but exporting the externality. It's like investing in a heavily polluting industry is "exporting pollution" - the product itself contains trace of the pollution, but the local damage was done on behalf of the product. I mean, once used this water ain't getting back to the aquifer anytime soon! If it were, we wouldn't be talking about aquifer depletion and there wouldn't be any concern regarding its use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrafting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrafting
- Justin_K 5y ago
  I'm sorry but moving ground water from below the surface to the local atmosphere means you are taking a limited resource and removing it from the area. In California, a desert landscape, evaporated water does not turn into local rain.

by fh973 5y ago

Justin_K 5y ago

This is the other perfect example I couldn't find a link quick enough. This is for all intents Saudi sucking up water and putting it on a ship to cross the world, because they depleted their sources. Let's generate some more greenhouse gases to accelerate the temp increases.

tzs 5y ago

99.995% of the water use to grow alfalfa ends up in the local atmosphere, to go wherever the winds and/or diffusion takes it presumably eventually coming back out as rain or dew somewhere. Only 0.005% ends up actually in the alfalfa to be exported to wherever the exported alfalfa goes. Similar for almonds. I don't know the exact amount, but an upper limit is 0.03% of the water exported with the almond, and 99.97% left behind in the local atmosphere or local ground. That upper limit comes from counting the entire mass of the almond as water. There are legitimate grounds to criticize growing high water usage crops in regions that do not have enough water naturally, but exporting water is not one of them.

phendrenad2 5y ago
I don't think the atmosphere is as "local" as you imply (diffusion of the water molecules should spread them out of state far faster than they can condense in-state).
nextaccountic 5y ago
The issue here isn't physically exporting the water but exporting the externality. It's like investing in a heavily polluting industry is "exporting pollution" - the product itself contains trace of the pollution, but the local damage was done on behalf of the product. I mean, once used this water ain't getting back to the aquifer anytime soon! If it were, we wouldn't be talking about aquifer depletion and there wouldn't be any concern regarding its use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrafting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrafting
Justin_K 5y ago
I'm sorry but moving ground water from below the surface to the local atmosphere means you are taking a limited resource and removing it from the area. In California, a desert landscape, evaporated water does not turn into local rain.