5 ms·

Drought emergency declared for all Southern California

18 points by JSeymourATL 4y ago

mikestew 4y ago
https://archive.ph/nvlBB https://archive.ph/nvlBB
cultofmetatron 4y ago
Its hard to feel sympathy. They need to cut down the damn almond groves and put down some native plants!! The entire region has had their heads up their behinds for the better part of a decade and have refused to do anythign about it.
- dumbotron 4y ago
  Over the past decade, a lot of almond farmers have switched to more efficient drip irrigation. They're very aware of the situation.
  - 121110987654321 4y ago
    Source?
    - dumbotron 4y ago
      I'm from that part of California and have seen it first-hand? Growing up, no one used drip irrigation. These days, it's more like 50/50.
  - cultofmetatron 4y ago
    this is akin to an alcoholic with a failing liver "cutting back" on the booze. Nothing short of full stop is going to help us. there are plenty of crops that don't require so much water. we should be growing nopal and other drought tolerant crops.
mikestew 4y ago
Guess what word Cmd/Ctrl-F won't find in TFA? "Agriculture". All that I saw mentioned was "residential". I'm not saying CA has to immediately cut off the almond farmers (sure seems like a damned fine idea, though), but could agriculture's role in the situation get at least a passing mention? Other than that, I don't know what else there is to say that hasn't already been said. The Colorado River is drying up, that doesn't look to be changing any time soon, but governments seem to still be going on about watering grass while avoiding the mention of the largest consumers, agriculture and industry. Okay, I guess the Southwestern U. S. is screwed; with that dead horse thoroughly beaten, let's go back to talking about Twitter.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  I can maybe somewhat see it. If your can't water your yard and it dies, you can put down sod next year, and have a yard. If you can't water your almond orchard and it dies, and you have water next year, how long before you have a functional orchard? So one could argue that it makes some sense to route the damage to the places that can recover from the damage the fastest. But, of California's agriculture, how much of it is alfalfa and lettuce and stuff like that? Stuff that, if you got no water this year, you could just replant next year? (Can you just replant alfalfa in one year? Lettuce I'm sure you can. Strawberries... not sure. Tomatoes, definitely you can.)
  - AustinDev 4y ago
    What I don't understand is why can't we just grow the Almonds in Georgia or Virginia? Both states have amazing soil and tons of water. Are Almonds that much harder to farm than peanuts and pecans? I'm genuinely curious I only know how to grow hydroponic herbs like basil, so I have very limited knowledge of this stuff.
    - labcomputer 4y ago
      You can. California grows almonds because labor is expensive and almonds are a low labor, high value crop. And since farmers pay artificially low prices for water, they don’t care that almonds are an inefficient use of the state’s limited water supply.
SiVal 4y ago
What I don't understand is how lawns remain legal in California. Drive through a Silicon Valley neighborhood at midnight when the sprinklers are spraying and maybe one in fifty of the sprinklers, run over by some gardener, are spouting a fountain into the air that's just running down the storm drains, and you'll see what I mean. Yes, it's now usually partially treated (not quite drinkable) water, but it's not seawater. I don't understand why they don't mandate desert landscaping, like Arizona, and divert landscaping water indoors.
mesarvagya 4y ago
Stop growing almonds and alfafa in CA. There problem solved.

18 points by JSeymourATL 4y ago

https://archive.ph/nvlBB https://archive.ph/nvlBB

Its hard to feel sympathy. They need to cut down the damn almond groves and put down some native plants!! The entire region has had their heads up their behinds for the better part of a decade and have refused to do anythign about it.

dumbotron 4y ago
Over the past decade, a lot of almond farmers have switched to more efficient drip irrigation. They're very aware of the situation.
- 121110987654321 4y ago
  Source?
  - dumbotron 4y ago
    I'm from that part of California and have seen it first-hand? Growing up, no one used drip irrigation. These days, it's more like 50/50.
- cultofmetatron 4y ago
  this is akin to an alcoholic with a failing liver "cutting back" on the booze. Nothing short of full stop is going to help us. there are plenty of crops that don't require so much water. we should be growing nopal and other drought tolerant crops.

mikestew 4y ago

Guess what word Cmd/Ctrl-F won't find in TFA? "Agriculture". All that I saw mentioned was "residential". I'm not saying CA has to immediately cut off the almond farmers (sure seems like a damned fine idea, though), but could agriculture's role in the situation get at least a passing mention? Other than that, I don't know what else there is to say that hasn't already been said. The Colorado River is drying up, that doesn't look to be changing any time soon, but governments seem to still be going on about watering grass while avoiding the mention of the largest consumers, agriculture and industry. Okay, I guess the Southwestern U. S. is screwed; with that dead horse thoroughly beaten, let's go back to talking about Twitter.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
I can maybe somewhat see it. If your can't water your yard and it dies, you can put down sod next year, and have a yard. If you can't water your almond orchard and it dies, and you have water next year, how long before you have a functional orchard? So one could argue that it makes some sense to route the damage to the places that can recover from the damage the fastest. But, of California's agriculture, how much of it is alfalfa and lettuce and stuff like that? Stuff that, if you got no water this year, you could just replant next year? (Can you just replant alfalfa in one year? Lettuce I'm sure you can. Strawberries... not sure. Tomatoes, definitely you can.)
- AustinDev 4y ago
  What I don't understand is why can't we just grow the Almonds in Georgia or Virginia? Both states have amazing soil and tons of water. Are Almonds that much harder to farm than peanuts and pecans? I'm genuinely curious I only know how to grow hydroponic herbs like basil, so I have very limited knowledge of this stuff.
  - labcomputer 4y ago
    You can. California grows almonds because labor is expensive and almonds are a low labor, high value crop. And since farmers pay artificially low prices for water, they don’t care that almonds are an inefficient use of the state’s limited water supply.

SiVal 4y ago

What I don't understand is how lawns remain legal in California. Drive through a Silicon Valley neighborhood at midnight when the sprinklers are spraying and maybe one in fifty of the sprinklers, run over by some gardener, are spouting a fountain into the air that's just running down the storm drains, and you'll see what I mean. Yes, it's now usually partially treated (not quite drinkable) water, but it's not seawater. I don't understand why they don't mandate desert landscaping, like Arizona, and divert landscaping water indoors.

mesarvagya 4y ago

Stop growing almonds and alfafa in CA. There problem solved.