Calif. drought tests history of endless growth
By Adam Nagourney, Jack Healy and Nelson D. Schwartz, New York Times
LOS ANGELES — For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards.
But now a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state’s driving engine has run against the limits of nature.
The 25 percent cut in water consumption ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown raises fundamental questions about what life in California will be like in the years ahead, and even whether this state faces the prospect of people leaving for wetter climates — assuming, as Mr. Brown and other state leaders do, that this marks a permanent change in the climate, rather than a particularly severe cyclical drought.
This state has survived many a catastrophe before — and defied the doomsayers who have regularly proclaimed the death of the California dream — as it emerged, often stronger, from the challenges of earthquakes, an energy crisis and, most recently, a budgetary collapse that forced years of devastating cuts in spending. These days, the economy is thriving, the population is growing, the state budget is in surplus, and development is exploding from Silicon Valley to San Diego; the evidence of it can be seen in the construction cranes dotting the skylines of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
But even California’s biggest advocates are wondering if the severity of this drought, now in its fourth year, is going to force a change in the way the state does business.
Another article that doesn’t dedicate at least one sentence to the huge difference in precipitation and storage of water between the north and the south of California. All the articles I’ve seen like this are not claiming to be from northern Cal, hmmm…..
Mr Obray, you continually post comments to the effect that Northern California is not in a dire situation as it pertains to four years of drought compared to Southern California. Yet the fact is that most Northern California reservoirs are far below their average, such as Shasta which is at 50% and dropping daily, not to mention the fact that the entire Northwest, as in Oregon and Washington, are seeing the same conditions as the whole of California. And you do realize, do you not, that much of the water provided to Southern California comes via the Colorado River whose sources in Utah and Colorado have seen far less than average precipitation as well, with Lake Mead at its lowest point since it was turned into a reservoir. My question to you is what point are you trying to make? Are you suggesting those in Northern California just disregard the drought condition and carry on with business as usual when it comes to water usage?
“Mr Obray, you continually post comments to the effect that Northern California is not in a dire situation”
Where did I state that?
“My question to you is what point are you trying to make?”
My point is, significantly, media that doesn’t originate out of no. Cal is very biased and doesn’t give the bigger picture. Seems the Sacramento Bee is the only publication giving more facts / the only facts on the diversity of California weather and the difference in water storage levels between the north and the south.
“Are you suggesting those in Northern California just disregard the drought condition and carry on with business as usual when it comes to water usage?”
I’m suggesting we should not ruin our lives to live like people in So. Cal need to live. I’ve probably cut back my water usage over 50%.