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I live in California, which has infrastructure built for 20m people and a current population of 40m and rising. 'Climate change' is not the issue, unrealistic

I live in California, which has infrastructure built for 20m people and a current population of 40m and rising. 'Climate change' is not the issue, unrealistic population infrastructure capacity is. In California the ecology is that we have regular cycles of heavy rain every 5-7 years. The reservoir systems were originally built to store water for the dry years. Forestry management took into account tree disease and the fact forest floors have self cleansed with fire for millennia. Today we appear to have forgotten all this and are instead astonished and horrified if it rains/ doesn't rain and when there are fires during fire season. Arizona is in a far more serious situation with inadequate infrastructure capacity to sustain massive population increases, but currently the mania for housing anyone who wants to live in the west outstrips common sense. Obviously good ecological stewardship of our planet is a no brainer but it seems as though a lot of people just can't join up the historical dots on this and feel human migration to the more pleasant geographical and climate areas are a human right independent of 'tragedy of the commons' logic.

deleted 3y ago
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themodelplumber 3y ago
> Today we appear to have forgotten all this Not sure if that's the right wording. I live in CA too and the wave of remediations to your "fire event acceptance" and coastal water supplies has been pretty dramatic. I regularly see more activity to clear land around natural burn territory while out hiking, in addition to laser-scanning vegetation patrol helicopters that map down to individual leaves nearing PG&E lines. Citizens here also have better access to early warnings and fire monitoring tech. Coastal cities are implementing desalination plants with $80M+ of state DWR grants for this awarded so far. This includes brackish groundwater treatment. Torrance, Santa Barbara [1], and Catalina island now have new desalination infra up and running and contributing millions of gallons a day to local water supplies. Water resources are managed as part of a diversified portfolio-style contingency strategy. There's also a new interagency group / process to make the planning and setup more efficient than it would be otherwise. Even up here in rural NorCal we have received millions in state grant money for coastal works like this. 1. https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/departments/public-works/water-resources/water-system/water-sources/desalination https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/departments/public-wor...
- olivermarks 3y ago
  Newsom is blasting out endless climate hysteria while lying about forestry management. https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/#:~:text=The%20investigation%20found%20Newsom%20overstated,the%20state%27s%20most%20vulnerable%20communities https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-t... I'm in NorCal too and an unhappy registered democrat
  - polski-g 3y ago
    "Climate change" is the skeleton key of blame shifting for politicians: Not enough water in the reservoirs (caused by badly pricing the cost of water)? Its that dastardly climate change. Too many wildfires (caused by poor forest management and PG&E)? Definitely climate change. Insurance companies leaving the state (caused by price caps on insurance)? You guessed it: climate change.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 3y ago
  Minor nitpick: Santa Barbara's desalination plant isn't "new" -- it was constructed 30+ years ago.
  - themodelplumber 3y ago
    Heavy recent modifications, see history in article
margalabargala 3y ago
> a current population of 40m and rising. California's population peaked sometime between 2018 and 2020 (depending on the data source), and has been consistently falling since then.
- olivermarks 3y ago
  These official figures don't account for transients and illegal aliens.
  - margalabargala 3y ago
    That's flat out incorrect. The official figures absolutely do account for illegal aliens. Citizenship status and legality of presence are not filters used when deciding which humans to count. Transients aren't residents. The numbers similarly do not account for tourists. Is the point you're trying to make that California's population is not in fact shrinking despite all official sources saying otherwise? That would be a pretty extraordinary claim. I'm sure you have a source to back it up though, would you share it?

deleted 3y ago

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themodelplumber 3y ago

> Today we appear to have forgotten all this Not sure if that's the right wording. I live in CA too and the wave of remediations to your "fire event acceptance" and coastal water supplies has been pretty dramatic. I regularly see more activity to clear land around natural burn territory while out hiking, in addition to laser-scanning vegetation patrol helicopters that map down to individual leaves nearing PG&E lines. Citizens here also have better access to early warnings and fire monitoring tech. Coastal cities are implementing desalination plants with $80M+ of state DWR grants for this awarded so far. This includes brackish groundwater treatment. Torrance, Santa Barbara [1], and Catalina island now have new desalination infra up and running and contributing millions of gallons a day to local water supplies. Water resources are managed as part of a diversified portfolio-style contingency strategy. There's also a new interagency group / process to make the planning and setup more efficient than it would be otherwise. Even up here in rural NorCal we have received millions in state grant money for coastal works like this. 1. https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/departments/public-works/water-resources/water-system/water-sources/desalination https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/departments/public-wor...

olivermarks 3y ago
Newsom is blasting out endless climate hysteria while lying about forestry management. https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/#:~:text=The%20investigation%20found%20Newsom%20overstated,the%20state%27s%20most%20vulnerable%20communities https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-t... I'm in NorCal too and an unhappy registered democrat
- polski-g 3y ago
  "Climate change" is the skeleton key of blame shifting for politicians: Not enough water in the reservoirs (caused by badly pricing the cost of water)? Its that dastardly climate change. Too many wildfires (caused by poor forest management and PG&E)? Definitely climate change. Insurance companies leaving the state (caused by price caps on insurance)? You guessed it: climate change.
aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 3y ago
Minor nitpick: Santa Barbara's desalination plant isn't "new" -- it was constructed 30+ years ago.
- themodelplumber 3y ago
  Heavy recent modifications, see history in article

margalabargala 3y ago

> a current population of 40m and rising. California's population peaked sometime between 2018 and 2020 (depending on the data source), and has been consistently falling since then.

olivermarks 3y ago
These official figures don't account for transients and illegal aliens.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  That's flat out incorrect. The official figures absolutely do account for illegal aliens. Citizenship status and legality of presence are not filters used when deciding which humans to count. Transients aren't residents. The numbers similarly do not account for tourists. Is the point you're trying to make that California's population is not in fact shrinking despite all official sources saying otherwise? That would be a pretty extraordinary claim. I'm sure you have a source to back it up though, would you share it?