Global warming implies more evaporation of water and more rainfalls. And cooling generates droughts and expansion of deserts. This is well documented the cases of Sahara and Australia in prehistoric times. So the situation in the west of US should get better.
Jackula
2 years ago
We can do a lot of water treating and recycling. SoCal needs to get on it now.
Mr. Purple
2 years ago
Somewhere Edward Abbey is saying I told you so.
MntGoat
2 years ago
I have been hearing these dire warnings about water in the west for 35 yrs. It never comes to a head. Meanwhile Phoenix is booming and Maricopa County hits 4 million pop. Vegas booming hits 2 million pop. And yes that’s right MntGoat is back….the OG is back.
I guess time will tell. The water available to water consumed per capita is the number to find. I suspect some places will have to do some major conservation in 2021. The west has been the fastest growing part of the country for the better part of 200 years but that isn’t sustainable without water.
One-armed Economist
2 years ago
On the one hand you talk about green climate issues; then you pander to the other side about “green radicalism”. You’re trying to have your pandered stories, and eat the fruits of contrary opinion extremes on the other. IMHO.
RonJ
2 years ago
A story from 2014: “About 2.4 million Orange County residents get their water from a massive
underground aquifer, which, since 2008, has been steadily recharged
with billions of gallons of purified wastewater.”
“Meantime, the Orange County Water District has a $142 million (project) underway at the Fountain Valley reuse facility. By the end of 2015,
OCWD officials say the plant will be producing 100 million gallons of
potable water a day – at half the cost of imported water.”
Casual_Observer2020
2 years ago
I watched this on Netflix awhile back. The problem in some of the west is the soil has been dried out by mass production farming techniques which reduces the ability for the soil to take in carbon dioxide. The cycle continues and then eventually there are imbalances of C02 in the atmosphere that cause droughts.
Illinois has problems but water isn’t one of them.
paperboy
2 years ago
There is a line I learned when I moved to Utah, which requires permits for any water harvesting, including collecting rain water
“Here, they sell you the water and throw in the land for free”
(2nd driest state in country)
Webej
2 years ago
Won’t economic forces automatically increase supply in the face of demand, or invent alternatives?
njbr
2 years ago
A better way to look at it…food nutrition values by water usage…
The projected increase in the production and consumption of animal products is likely to put further pressure on the globe’s freshwater resources. The size and characteristics of the water footprint vary across animal types and production systems.
The water footprint of meat from beef cattle (15 400 m 3 /ton as a global average) is much larger than the footprints of meat from sheep (10 400 m 3 /ton), pig (6000 m 3 /ton), goat (5 500 m 3 /ton) or chicken (4 300 m 3 /ton). The global average water footprint of chicken egg is 3 300 m 3 /ton, while the water footprint of cow milk amounts to 1000 m 3 /ton.
Per ton of product, animal products generally have a larger water footprint than crop products. The same is true when we look at the water footprint per calorie. The average water footprint per calorie for beef is twenty times larger than for cereals and starchy roots. When we look at the water requirements for protein, it has been found that the water footprint per gram of protein for milk, eggs and chicken meat is about 1.5 times larger than for pulses. For beef, the water footprint per gram of protein is 6 times larger than for pulses. In the case of fat, butter has a relatively small water footprint per gram of fat, even lower than for oil crops. All other animal products, however, have larger water footprints per gram of fat when compared to oil crops. From a freshwater resource perspective, it is more efficient to obtain calories, protein and fat through crop products than animal products.
Because upstream catchments have more than enough now…right, huh?
…Emergency water releases from reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell are underway to preserve the nation’s second-largest reservoir’s ability to generate hydroelectric power.
The Bureau of Reclamation started releasing additional water Thursday from Flaming Gorge reservoir in Wyoming. Additional water releases from Blue Mesa reservoir in Colorado and Navajo reservoir in New Mexico are planned to commence later this year. Emergency releases could last until at least December, and could extend into 2022.
Lake Powell is projected to hit a record low in July. It’s situated on the Colorado River, a drinking and irrigation water source for more than 40 million people in the Southwest. Spring and early summer inflows to the massive reservoir were the third lowest on record in 2021. That followed a meager runoff in 2020.
The releases are meant to maintain some level of hydroelectric power at Lake Powell’s dam, which is under increasing threat due its low level. Glen Canyon Dam’s minimum hydropower level is at 3,490 feet above sea level. It’s currently at 3,557 feet, and is forecast to drop to 3,515 feet by the end of April 2022….
Meanwhile..what is the status of the other reservoirs?
From Flaming Gorge site….Inflows for WY 2021 are 46.22% of WY 2020. Flaming Gorge is down -5.18 feet from one year ago. Rivers feeding the reservoir are at 17.9 percent of average.
From Blue Mesa site….Blue Mesa is 59.96 feet below Full Pool (Elevation 7520.00 ) By content, Blue Mesa is 44.29% of Full Pool (829,500 af). Total inflows for water year 2021: 445,738 acre feet. This is 57.4% of the July 16th average of 776,501 acre feet
From Navajo site…Lake Navajo is 47.37 feet below Full Pool (Elevation 6085.00 ) By content, Lake Navajo is 64.12% of Full Pool (1,696,000 af). Total inflows for water year 2021: 413,020 acre feet. This is 53.43% of the July 16th average of 773,055 acre feet
Peter, meet Paul–he’s as broke as you.
ColoradoAccountant
2 years ago
Isn’t the book ‘Cadillac Desert’ written years ago about the problem with Federal subsidization of desert farming. Many of these foods could be grown in the Southeast US without irrigation, was part of their thesis.
oee
2 years ago
There is your Global Warming effects. High temps = Lack of rain which no replacement of the reservoir. There is no need for Hollywood disaster movie . Lack of water means no cities and no power means no neon lights for Las Vegas or other cities that depend on that water and electricity.
LM2022
2 years ago
Read a fascinating book on the subject a few years ago: Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. Long story short, we’ve always been living on borrowed time out here in the west. Unlimited growth in an area with limited resources is a disaster waiting to happen.
Yes. It is a fantastic book. PBS made a documentary about it which can be accessed here – link to youtube.com
Doug78
2 years ago
Westerners will become Fremen and the principle export will be Spice.
Six000mileyear
2 years ago
The northeast is flooding this summer. It would be nice if some of that water could be pumped to agriculture in another region. Even when the Mississippi floods, that water could be harvested to support agriculture through the summer.
njbr
2 years ago
Half of the irrigation water used in the western states is used for corn and forage crops (hay, etc). These crops can be better grown elsewhere.
Doug78
2 years ago
80% of the water in California is used by agriculture. For Arizona it’s 78% so the obvious response is to cut agriculture’s share and buy food from outside at least temporarily. Another interesting fact is that data centers gobble huge quantities of water for cooling so I question the wisdom of building them is hot deserts to begin with.
Most of the water (80%) is used for agriculture. If the Democrats are farmers and also the techies of Silicon Valley and the actors in Hollywood and LA, just what exactly are the Republicans doing then?! Just eating, web surfing and complaining?
I don’t know the break down but AG area’s are more republican than democrat in general. The liberal gov had about 35 billion to build new lakes and dams and spent it on illegals instead. A lot of the eastern parts of CA are more republican.
“Here’s a dirty little secret: Factory farmed beef accounts for almost half––yep, that’s right, 50%––of California’s total water consumption,(*) and yet all we hear about is the need for consumer action like shorter showers, no flushing, no glass of water in restaurants. This is ironic given that the water used for industrial-scale beef absolutely dwarfs what consumers could save…
We can’t fix big problems like the California drought or climate change without tackling factory farms. Asking individuals to cut their water use without putting serious restrictions on Big Ag misses the mark by a long shot.”
Politicians answer to their largest donors not to the average voter. California needs a strong third political party to challenge the two existing major parties but it probably won’t get one.
Thanks YOU! We love are vegies, but the food police are controlling the narrative. Its really about too many people want a piece of cake. Its too many people, and false narratives. My neighbor worked hard to get her water bill down to $40 a month, that’s one load of laundry a week, and only one shower.
Bam_Man
2 years ago
Living in AZ and NV during the summer with no or intermittent A/C will not be fun.
Nevada only uses about 3% they are allotted 4%. They also have put a drain in the deepest part of the lake so they will have water for a hundred years even if the damn stop flowing. The rest of the southern states will get nothing. CA is huge problem, but Vegas will be fine.
At our ranch in OK not a single animal has ever taken a single sip from a municipal water source. Every drop falls from the sky, and is recycled back to the earth. However, if we were to try to grow the crops you describe, we would have to use commercial water sources. Thought you should know.
Whirl been all over CA, the meat farms are few and far between compared to fruit and Veggie farms, it’s not even close. How many heads of lettuce for 15 gallons? 1? Stop believing the liberal BS. The veggie farms go for miles and miles all over the state, then you have Napa Valley with all the grape farms. Not even in the ball park. Take a ride and you will se the truth, we visit all over the good parts of CA all the time.
It is not the area occupied by the farms. It is the *amount* of water consumed. Factory farmed animals consume more water, almost by two orders of magnitude in many cases.
Greenmountain
2 years ago
Hopefully the emergency generates increased interest in more efficient water use. Some of the western states have implemented highly efficient systems but others lag behind. Obviously not whole solution but may buy some time.
whirlaway
2 years ago
Gee, I wish we had some corporate-funded studies about this, because as we “know”, global warming is a hoax perpetrated by government employees… </sarc>
“As [National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo] Dai emphasizes here, vast swaths of the subtropics and the midlatitude continents face a future with drier soils and less surface water as a result of reducing rainfall and increasing evaporation driven by a warming atmosphere. The term ‘global warming’ does not do justice to the climatic changes the world will experience in coming decades. Some of the worst disruptions we face will involve water, not just temperature.”
Did you read the study that shows that 2% of greenhouse gasses are produced via the farts of government bureaucrats whose job it is to distribute money to universities and think tanks to study climate change? Eliminating that would make a difference.
The ancestral puebloans had to face facts the hard way too they say, hundreds of years ago, when they moved on after a long, long drought.
Something’s going to have to give, and since few will do it voluntarily, the political battles will most likely get ugly, short of some unexpected solution or delay of reckoning like cheap desalination or a pipeline from the east. I didn’t see that pipeline in the great bipartisan infrastructure solution of 2021 though, lol.
Stay Informed
Subscribe to MishTalk
You will receive all messages from this feed and they will be delivered by email.
underground aquifer, which, since 2008, has been steadily recharged
with billions of gallons of purified wastewater.”
OCWD officials say the plant will be producing 100 million gallons of
potable water a day – at half the cost of imported water.”
The projected increase in the production and consumption of animal products is likely to put further pressure on the globe’s freshwater resources. The size and characteristics of the water footprint vary across animal types and production systems.
The water footprint of meat from beef cattle (15 400 m 3 /ton as a global average) is much larger than the footprints of meat from sheep (10 400 m 3 /ton), pig (6000 m 3 /ton), goat (5 500 m 3 /ton) or chicken (4 300 m 3 /ton). The global average water footprint of chicken egg is 3 300 m 3 /ton, while the water footprint of cow milk amounts to 1000 m 3 /ton.
Per ton of product, animal products generally have a larger water footprint than crop products. The same is true when we look at the water footprint per calorie. The average water footprint per calorie for beef is twenty times larger than for cereals and starchy roots. When we look at the water requirements for protein, it has been found that the water footprint per gram of protein for milk, eggs and chicken meat is about 1.5 times larger than for pulses. For beef, the water footprint per gram of protein is 6 times larger than for pulses. In the case of fat, butter has a relatively small water footprint per gram of fat, even lower than for oil crops. All other animal products, however, have larger water footprints per gram of fat when compared to oil crops. From a freshwater resource perspective, it is more efficient to obtain calories, protein and fat through crop products than animal products.
Because upstream catchments have more than enough now…right, huh?
The Bureau of Reclamation started releasing additional water Thursday from Flaming Gorge reservoir in Wyoming. Additional water releases from Blue Mesa reservoir in Colorado and Navajo reservoir in New Mexico are planned to commence later this year. Emergency releases could last until at least December, and could extend into 2022.
Lake Powell is projected to hit a record low in July. It’s situated on the Colorado River, a drinking and irrigation water source for more than 40 million people in the Southwest. Spring and early summer inflows to the massive reservoir were the third lowest on record in 2021. That followed a meager runoff in 2020.
The releases are meant to maintain some level of hydroelectric power at Lake Powell’s dam, which is under increasing threat due its low level. Glen Canyon Dam’s minimum hydropower level is at 3,490 feet above sea level. It’s currently at 3,557 feet, and is forecast to drop to 3,515 feet by the end of April 2022….
It is so high that the number is literally off the chart (“Note the scale discontinuity for animal feed”).
Lettuce — 15 gallons;
2. Not us
3. Not bad