• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

The Drought

They better hope it rains, 'cause that's a trick that can't be repeated many times.
Yes, we hope, always hope. Its the snow and the monsoon which fills the reservoir, 5 years no monsoon, some last year and hardly any snow.
Last year in October my soil moisture meter at 16 inches in the ground read 198 centibars, which means 00000000 moisture, even after a short monsoon.

Never seen it that dry in 40 years.

Right now the moisture at 16 inches looks good, 11 centibars. We had 4 month snow on the ground and it melted into the ground, during that period.
But run of was just 2 weeks.
We already had fires, that is 3 month to early
 
We have been in a very long drought in the SW and our reservoirs are running on empty.
Drastic measure from the Feds, to keep Lake Powel power plant going.

Yup, and my neighbor waters her lawn twice a day, and a huge amount of it runs into the street. Last year, the ground was so soft that her 80 foot tall pine tree went down in a monsoon, and destroyed one of my trees and nearly hit my house.

I water sparingly, I live in a desert.
 
The SW has been going through those cycles for a rather long time. From plenty of moisture to drought.
I call that the irony of history. When the white folks arrived, the area just had recovered from a 500 year drought. The big rivers were flowing and overflowing. The land of plenty. Big water hungry farms and plantations were built, giant cities, gigantic reservoirs.
Scientists in the 1900 started to warn, because they were now able to read the historical records, of plants, historical sites. Nobody cared and very few believed.
20 years ago the normal cycle started again and nobody cared. Then the climate change added to it and nobody cared.
Water, give me a break, it comes out of the faucet, the sprinklers and the gigantic irrigation system, endless, like the sun shine.

Tja
 
I went from a vegi farm to a hobbyist garden farm, just supplying my families. My reservoirs last till June, without using any of that water, I have to haul water.
Even using all the best methods, wicking beds, trickle irrigation, tarps and so on, I have to haul 500 gallons everyday to feed 5 families, 20 miles everyday.
I started already with that routine.

Thats how bad it is.
 
Total Population:

1651624903938.png vs. 1651624933740.png
 
The Colorado River runs right between the LA and Phoenix metropolises:

1651625037068.png

But guess what, that once mighty river that used to dump into the gulf of California has now dried up and no longer even makes it to the gulf.

Y'all can blame "climate change" till you dry up too - but the problem is too much demand for water resources. Period. Too great a demand for what has ALWAYS been a limited supply (there's a reason the southwest is DESERT). A drought only magnifies the problem; but guess what - there have ALWAYS BEEN DROUGHTS - just never ones during times of excessive demand - and that's the problem, not your silly manufactured carbon crisis.
 
The all-time high temperature in Phoenix is still at 122°F set back in 1990.

On June 26, 1990, the temperature reached an all-time recorded high of 122 °F (50 °C).[104]

I was living in Southern California back then and remember when that record high temperature occurred in Phoenix. I believe that high temperature in Phoenix will be broken sometime again within the next few years.
 
Someone once observed that there is no water shortage in the desert. It has just the right amount of water for a desert. What it has is way too many People for a desert!

But just try to get anyone in government or politics to discuss overpopulation. Forbidden subject. Might piss off the Pope. Might piss off POCS. Might piss off anti-abortion Thumpers. Might piss off Realtors.
 
Well, the main user of our water in the Southwest is agriculture, 80%. In the last 30 years the irrigated fields in my area, acreage, has tripled.
Especially hay, which needs a ton of water.
We even export out hay to Asia, pack it into container and ship it.
 
Population controls how much snow the mountains get each winter? The population certainly impacts water scarcity, but it has nothing to do with the historic drought in the west.
No snow no water, simple as that.
I drove across Wolf Creek Pass several weeks ago, April, no snow at all, at 11,000 feet. That's the Rio Grande and Colorado River, which provide our water.
Normal is no snow at the Pass end of June..
I live at 7500 feet, my snow was gone in March, normal is end of May.

No snow no water.
 
Population controls how much snow the mountains get each winter? The population certainly impacts water scarcity, but it has nothing to do with the historic drought in the west.
Did I say, or even infer population controls how much snow the mountains get? No, I did not. Moreover, that's an absurd take-away from what I did write. Do you even bother to actually READ what people post before you retort?
 
Mega droughts are the norm in the southwest.

yup,... the past two centuries were the exception not the rule (i.e. there was an abundance of water in the south western USA starting about 1800,... AND NOW pendulum is swings back the other direction)

what people should find troubling is scientific analysis indicates the great basis region can be arid for thousands of years

FWIW here is a summary of the drought problem (along w/ an infrastructure adaption that should be build ASAP)







hopefully people and especially elected officials grow a backbone and directly confront the extensional threat situation

The school’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography published a paper that said there is a 5 percent chance of catastrophic change within roughly three decades, and a smaller chance that it would broadly wipe out human life.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-scripps-climatechange-20170914-story.html
 
Last edited:
yup,... the past two centuries were the exception not the rule (i.e. there was an abundance of water in the south western USA starting about 1800,... AND NOW pendulum is swings back the other direction)

what people should find troubling is scientific analysis indicates the great basis region can be arid for thousands of years

FWIW here is a summary of the drought problem (along w/ an infrastructure adaption that should be build ASAP)







hopefully people and especially elected officials grow a backbone and directly confront the extensional threat situation

Those irrigation canals are a gigantic waste of water. In the summer they reach 90 to 100 degree water temp, the evaporation is mind boggling.
Even worse they are not lined, they are just big dirt trenches. Built as cheap as possible
 
Those irrigation canals are a gigantic waste of water. In the summer they reach 90 to 100 degree water temp, the evaporation is mind boggling.
Even worse they are not lined, they are just big dirt trenches. Built as cheap as possible

irrigation canals built as cheap as possible,... is short-sighted obliviousness

OODA-loop-insurance-against-a-darwin-award.png


...unfortunately few see the BIG picture and seems elected officials are turning a blind eye to the root cause of BIG PROBLEMS (for example)

Big Water Abusers Ignored as California Drought Persists

In response to the drought, Governor Newsom has largely ignored these large corporate water sources. Instead, he has taken small measures aimed at the most wasteful of urban water uses, asked for voluntary conservation

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/20...users-ignored-as-california-drought-persists/

perhaps because BIG AG financial 'greed' (for example in my neck of the woods)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pr...rsening-californias-water-shortage/ar-AALdpSW

AND the end result of all this short-sighted obliviousness is an increased probability of a famine (of biblical proportions) or perhaps something worst (i.e. the extension of homo-sapients)

The school’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography published a paper that said there is a 5 percent chance of catastrophic change within roughly three decades, and a smaller chance that it would broadly wipe out human life.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-scripps-climatechange-20170914-story.html


existential-threats-to-humanity.png
 
Back
Top Bottom