"California will run out of water in a year..........." (Sacramento: buy, cinema)

[CALGUY]

Originally Posted by scottinpdx

There already is a pipeline that sends water from Northern California to Southern California, I remeber watching something on it a few years ago. More resently I watched a news segment about how some farmers in Nor Cal are not going to plant this year, instead sell their water rights off.

That water is being piped in from the Owens valley, and is just a trickle compared to what the southwest united states needs.
One day a pipeline similar to the Alaskan pipeline will need to be built to carry water to the southwest.
If that doesn't happen,the area will revert back to the barren desert it was way back before the region was settled.
People will not survive if there is no water, and if something is not done within the next decade, I believe the situation will become critical, to the point people will migrate to places beyond the southwest.

Bob.

[coltoncity]

I am wondering about this too. But building a pipeline. How many years do you think that would take? And of course we have so much red tape to cut through to do it. would a desal plant be quicker or better?

[MordinSolus]

Water pipelines can be built pretty quickly since they don't need the same sorts of safety features/failsafes that oil pipelines are supposed to have. It's essentially a long tube. But it would have to be a very long tube since nearly the entire West Coast is experiencing abnormal drought. And this drought won't just end and be something that we experienced once. The droughts are going to be more frequent and more severe. But we have to find a solution that keeps California agriculture running. Even if agriculture is only 2-3% of California's annual GSP, that's 2-3% of the biggest state economy. California has one of the biggest economies in the world, by itself. That's over $50,000,000,000 a year and huge amounts of food that the entire American economy relies on. And just sucking out the groundwater is no solution. The land is already sinking from tapping so much of the groundwater. If we keep draining the groundwater at this rate California will experience massive cave-ins and sinkholes.

[Teckeeee]

Why are we even talking about this when the City of LA is wasting millions of gallons everyday and don't give a damn. You have politicians in Riverside cheating the system too flooding their lawns while telling us to do better.

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by Teckeeee

Why are we even talking about this when the City of LA is wasting millions of gallons everyday and don't give a damn. You have politicians in Riverside cheating the system too flooding their lawns while telling us to do better.

You'll have to elaborate.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by Teckeeee

Why are we even talking about this when the City of LA is wasting millions of gallons everyday and don't give a damn. You have politicians in Riverside cheating the system too flooding their lawns while telling us to do better.

golf courses, parks, cemeteries, etc. are watered with recycled water. LA actually uses less water than it did in 1970.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/op...ater.html?_r=0

[Cinema Cat]

Originally Posted by newtocolumbia

Because Israel is a failed state and it can not support itself on its own.

Yet I keep reading about Israeli tech billionaires. Clearly, Israel has its own 1% who are doing very nicely.

If the U.S. ever did cut off aid, Israel could still maintain its military/national security apparatus at current levels. It would only need to tax its 1% more, and divert money from its single payer health care, and other West European-style socialist entitlement programs, to its military.

Israel is both wealthy and militarily powerful. Israel wants free money, but doesn't actually need it. But it's a much better talking point to exclaim "If the U.S. cuts off aid, Israel will cease to exist! Is that what you want?!" A good way to silence any debate.

[Cinema Cat]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

Almonds are grown for money; most of them are exported to China. If you're talking about vegetables we eat here, then fine.

I agree farmers should grow more water-friendly crops. Not only almonds, but rice too uses way too much water. Rice is appropriate to a wet climate like southeast Asia, but not for the desert. Yet we have farmers in California growing rice.

However, we must create something we can export to China. We've borrowed a ton of money from China. We must find ways to pay it back. Better they buy are exports than our real estate, which drives up home prices, making SoCal housing unaffordable for many Americans.

[Taiko]

I have heard variations of this story since Mayor Bradley said if its yellow let it mellow. The big user is the one that has to stop because in the end we will not allow millions to die of thirst for the sake of thousands making millions of dollars.

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by Cinema Cat

Yet I keep reading about Israeli tech billionaires. Clearly, Israel has its own 1% who are doing very nicely.

If the U.S. ever did cut off aid, Israel could still maintain its military/national security apparatus at current levels. It would only need to tax its 1% more, and divert money from its single payer health care, and other West European-style socialist entitlement programs, to its military.

Israel is both wealthy and militarily powerful. Israel wants free money, but doesn't actually need it. But it's a much better talking point to exclaim "If the U.S. cuts off aid, Israel will cease to exist! Is that what you want?!" A good way to silence any debate.

Israel's military is also subsidized by the US though. They get most of their military tech and equipment for free either through the US directly or by piggybacking onto US contracts. Their military is massive(per capita the largest in the world iirc) but it's wholly reliant on the US like the rest of the Israeli apparatus. As for taxing the billionaires for all they're worth and taking away univeral healthcare to make up the difference, that's a nonstarter. The billionaires can go anywhere else and the people who immigrated to Israel can go back to where they came from very easily. Not everyone is a hardliner like Netanyahu. If it will deeply impact someone's bottom line or endanger their family they will do what's right for themselves, not a militant Israel. Besides, none of those measures would make up for how much the US gives Israel. Just in direct funds the US gives Israel's military more than $8,500,000 every day. That's just Israel's military, and just direct financial support. Much of the money and support that the US offers Israel is unknown. And doesn't that make you wonder how fruitful our relationship with Israel could possibly be if we have to be kept in the dark about it? We get nothing out of the deal and yet Israel gets to use us as a shield, dictate our foreign policy with impunity, and make demands of our nation and our military.