If the drought is so serious, I don't understand the Governors actions (Sacramento: train, money)

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by GoldenZephyr

Why would he not try to force Big Ag to take a water cut, when they use more than 80% of all the water? Instead he goes on and on about long showers and lawns, which constitutes about 3% of the water usage?

Because they contribute millions to his campaigns to look the other way. Simple as that.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/...ifornias-water

[sourdough]

The government isn't connecting the dots for the people of California. the Drought is real and not going away. Google the warm blob off the west coast. It's not Godzilla but it is going to make changes in California that nobody wants and Jerry Brown doesn't seem to have a clue. I read one fed report saying the climate of California has taken a step towards a new weather pattern and don't expect it to change back.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...the+west+coast

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by sourdough

The government isn't connecting the dots for the people of California. the Drought is real and not going away. Google the warm blob off the west coast. It's not Godzilla but it is going to make changes in California that nobody wants and Jerry Brown doesn't seem to have a clue. I read one fed report saying the climate of California has taken a step towards a new weather pattern and don't expect it to change back.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...the+west+coast

Maybe. Right now they are speculating it is effecting the weather. They say "may be", not "It is". It also is not just CA, the weather around the world is changing. Here in the US CA gets less water, the Northeast gets more snow, the Southeast gets more rain. It isn't just a West Coast thing.

[Pretzelogik]

You people should have a humongous Delta Smelt fish fry and end the miserable critters forever.

[tickyul]

Eventually going to HAVE to build a desalination plant or 2.

Maybe do that instead of the Kahtrillion dollar slowspeed rail????????

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by GoldenZephyr

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/bu...-low.html?_r=1

Robert Glennon » Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It


What do these and other radicals have in common. They are begging for huge rate increases to residential users while ignoring that 95% of the water is used elsewhere Agriculture, Industry or flushed out to sea.

Mostly they go on rants and tirades about the same things, lawns, showers, glasses of water in restaurants. Collectively these things are less than 2% of total water use. But it's a huge deal to these radicals.

So why do they hate lawns, and showers when they comprise such a small part of the water ecology? Simple, they are radical leftists who hate suburban life what it represents to them. When given the power, will do all they can to attack that community and way of life.

That's why there has been no talk of increasing the water supply, only higher prices. No talk of massive investment, just charge people more and of course, mostly just residential users.

If they were actually serious about the drought, they would go after the 80% of water usage. But the left doesn't even address it, which makes it hard to believe that they take the drought seriously and aren't just pushing a political agenda.

California almond growers to expand orchards, despite drought BTW Almonds use more water than every resident and business in Los Angeles and San Francisco combined and half the crop is exported to China. If we are in such a water crisis, why are we effectively exporting our water for private profit?

I didn't see anything there about radical leftists..do you think that perhaps if you left out the partisan politics your posts might have more credibility?

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I didn't see anything there about radical leftists..do you think that perhaps if you left out the partisan politics your posts might have more credibility?

And who are running the Gov't? It ain't the Right.

[HappyinCali]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Not another smelt and illegals rant.

You know, your time would be better spent writing to the Guv and your legislators.

There are times when the rants are driven by racism and partisanship and there are times when they are legit. It all depends on context. In this case, I find both objections raised in the OP to be valid and well-placed

[Ruth4Truth]

Here's the report on why there's so much ag development given over to almonds. It turns out that CA almonds are the new investment bubble. Money from investment funds has flooded the state, spurring almond development on land previously considered marginal. There aren't local farmers; it's investment funds that own the crops.

News from The Associated Press

Rows of almond trees now cover nearly 1 million acres in California, many of them on previously virgin hillsides or in pastures or desert with little rain or local water. Since each tiny nut requires a gallon of water, almonds are consuming 1.07 trillion gallons annually in the state, one-fifth more than California families use indoors.
[...]

"The tomato growers use a lot more water than we do. You should go after those guys," said Ryon Paton, a global real-estate developer and principal of Trinitas Partners.Paton's online literature tells investors to think of his newly planted almond orchards in Stanislaus County as "the classic Silicon Valley startup, except we have nothing to do with technology."

Other top almond producers include Stewart and Lynda Resnik, the politically influential Beverly Hills billionaires behind Fiji bottled water, Pom pomegranate juice and a Central Valley almond and pistachio operation that they say is one of the world's largest.

The TIAA-CREF retirement fund also boasts of its California almond operation as one of the world's biggest.

Smaller almond farmers view the newer, bigger almond investors skeptically.
"They shouldn't be growing almonds or walnuts in those areas," including parts of the state that are naturally too dry and too cold for almond trees, said Paul Wenger, head of the state Farm Bureau and an almond and walnut grower on land near Modesto that's been in his family for a century.

Unlike the row crops they're displacing, the new almond trees require water year round.

[Bulldogdad]

Pertamina Oil-

Live with it.