California in drought emergency

[Chris]

California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency because of a severe drought.

The governor said the drought was having "a devastating impact" on people, the economy and environment.

He urged the state's cities and towns to cut water consumption by 20%, or face the prospect of compulsory cuts.

The state water director said three years of below-average rainfall could cost California an estimated $3bn (£2.1bn) and 95,000 jobs.

"This drought is having a devastating impact... making today's action absolutely necessary," Mr Schwarzenegger said.

"We have a water system that is for 18 million people - now we are 38 million. We've got to go and redo our water system - bring it up to date."

Three dry winters have left California's reservoirs at their lowest levels since 1992, reports the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles.

BBC NEWS | Americas | California in drought emergency

 

[Diuretic]

I can empathise with Californians. Drought is a real bastard.

 

[editec]

Rapidly increasing populations have a tendency to work really well until they tax the natural resources.

Potable water is one of the resources which we took for granted.

As the population centers of the USA migrated to what is essantially deserts everything was fine for a couple generations because we could shunt water to those population centers.

But comes the decades long droughts and suddenly things are looking less rosy.

There is, depite the winters, much to be said for living in temperate fain forests of the the northern latitudes, folks.

For one thing, most Americans no longer live in them. For another, we have plenty of water.

 

[Diuretic]

True enough. I can go through the mistakes we made here but I don't need to. Jared Diamond in "Collapse" has done it much better.

 

[strollingbones]

drought hit north carolina hard for the past two years...water shortages will only increase across the south ...california has long robbed its neigbhors of water..that will end...and now the fact that california is the food basket will bite us in the ass..allowing large corps like amf to take over farms will prove to be a big mistake..local farming will have to be brought back

 

[editec]

drought hit north carolina hard for the past two years...water shortages will only increase across the south ...california has long robbed its neigbhors of water..that will end...and now the fact that california is the food basket will bite us in the ass..allowing large corps like amf to take over farms will prove to be a big mistake..local farming will have to be brought back

I have my Mantis ready for the hard times if it comes to that.

I'm a survivalist...a lazy one, I'll admit, but I do plan ahead

 

[Chris]

drought hit north carolina hard for the past two years...water shortages will only increase across the south ...california has long robbed its neigbhors of water..that will end...and now the fact that california is the food basket will bite us in the ass..allowing large corps like amf to take over farms will prove to be a big mistake..local farming will have to be brought back

I have my Mantis ready for the hard times if it comes to that.

I'm a survivalist...a lazy one, I'll admit, but I do plan ahead

Buy a lot of sweet potatoes.

They are a lot more nutrious than white potatoes, and you can store them for a long time.