The megadrought gripping the western states is only part of the problem. Alternative sources of water are also imperiled, and the nationâs food along with it.
Amazing article highly recommended
âThe western United States is, famously, in the grips of its worst megadrought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million Americans and supports food production for the rest of the country, is in imminent peril. The levels in the nationâs largest freshwater reservoir, Lake Mead, behind the Hoover Dam and a fulcrum of the Colorado River basin, have dropped to around 25% of capacity. The Bureau of Reclamation, which governs lakes Mead and Powell and water distribution for the southern end of the river, has issued an ultimatum: The seven states that draw from the Colorado must find ways to cut their consumption â by as much as 40% â or the federal government will do it for them. Last week those states failed to agree on new conservation measures by deadline. Meanwhile, next door, California, which draws from the Colorado, faces its own additional crises, with snowpack and water levels in both its reservoirs and aquifers all experiencing a steady, historic and climate-driven decline. Itâs a national emergency, but not a surprise, as scientists and leaders have been warning for a generation that warming plus overuse of water in a fast-growing West would lead those states to run out. â
The whole thing is basically an interview with Jay Famiglietti, a scientist who studies underground water âHe pioneered the use of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites to peer into the earthâs mass and measure changes in its underground water supplies. The Colorado River crisis is urgent, Famiglietti said, but the hidden, underground water crisis is even worse. We talked about what U.S. leaders either wonât acknowledge or donât understand and about how bad things are about to get. â
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Q: âRemind us how that happens. States and farmers cut back on the Colorado River, and California and Arizona just start pumping all the water out of their aquifers?
A: Yeah. This started with the drought contingency plan [the 2018 legal agreement among the states on the Colorado River]. Arizona had to cut nearly 20% of its Colorado River water. To placate the farmers, the deal was that they would have free access to the groundwater. In fact, something like $20 million was allocated to help them dig more wells. So, it was just a direct transfer from surface water to groundwater. Right away, you could see that the groundwater depletion was accelerating. With this latest round, Iâm afraid weâre just going to see more of that.
Q: Some of that groundwater actually gets used to grow feed for cattle in the Middle East or China, right? Thereâs Saudi-owned agriculture firms planting alfalfa, which uses more water than just about anything, and itâs not for American food supply. Do I have that right?
A: Thereâs been other buyers from other countries coming in, buying up that land, land grabbing and grabbing the water rights. Thatâs happening in Arizona.â
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Q: âBut could it [Californiaâs Groundwater Plan, SGMA] work?
A: I donât think weâre talking about sustainability. I think weâre talking about managed depletion. Because itâs impossible to keep growing the food that we grow in California. Itâs agriculture that uses most of the groundwater. The math just isnât there to have sustainable groundwater management. If you think of sustainability as input equals output â donât withdraw more than is being replenished on an annual basis â thatâs impossible in most of California.
Q: Will we run out of water? Are we talking about 10 years or 100 years?
A: Yes. We are on target to. Parts of the Central Valley have already run out of water. Before SGMA, there were places in the southern part of the valley where I would say within 40 to 50 years we would run out or the water is so saline or so deep that itâs just too expensive to extract. SGMA may slow that down â or it may not. I donât think the outlook is really good. Our own research is showing that groundwater depletion there has accelerated in the last three years.â
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Q:Â â What does that mean for the countryâs food supply?
A: This is the big question. I donât want to be flippant, but people donât understand the food-water nexus. Do we try to bring more water to the southern high plains, to Arizona, to California, because if the food systemâs optimized, maybe thatâs the cheapest thing to do? Or does agriculture move to where the water is? Does it migrate north and east? Itâs not just food production. What about the workers? Transportation? If we were to move all of our agriculture to northern California, into Idaho, into North Dakota over the next decade, thatâs a major upheaval for millions and millions of people who work in the ag industry.
Q: Itâs really interconnected, isnât it? The nation essentially expanded West beginning in the 19th century in order to build a food system that could support East Coast growth. The Homestead Act, the expansion of the railroads, was partially to put a system in place to bring stock back to the meat houses in Chicago and to expand farming to supply the urban growth in the East.
A: I donât think a lot of people really realize that, right? When I go to the grocery store in Saskatoon, my berries are coming from Watsonville, California. The lettuce is coming from Salinas, California.â
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Q:Â âWhen people think about water, they think of it as a Western problem, but thereâs water shortages across the High Plains and into the South, too.
A: I donât think most people understand that scarcity in many places is getting more pronounced. Nationally, letâs look at the positives: Itâs a big country, and within its boundaries, we have enough water to be water secure and to be food secure and to do it in an environmentally sustainable way. A lot of countries donât have that. Thatâs a positive, though we still have the same problems that everyone else has with increasing flooding and drought. What I really think we need is more attention to a national water policy and more attention to the food, water and energy nexus. Because those are things that are going to define how well we do as a country.
Q: What would a national water policy look like?
A: It recognizes where people live, and it recognizes where we have water, and then it decides how we want to deal with that. Maybe itâs more like a national water/food policy. Moving water over long distances is not really feasible right now â itâs incredibly expensive. Does the government want to subsidize that? These are the kind of things that need to be discussed, because weâre on a collision course with reality â and the reality is those places where we grow food, where a lot of people live, are running out of water, and there are other parts of the country that have a lot of water. So thatâs a national-level discussion that has to happen, because when you think about it, the food problem is a national problem. Itâs not a California problem. Itâs not a Southern, High Plains, Ogallala, Texas Panhandle problem. Itâs a national problem. It needs a national solution.â
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Q:Â â Globally, what do you want Americans to think about when they read this?
A: The United States is kind of a snapshot of whatâs happening in the rest of the world. Thereâs no place we can run to. Things are happening really, really fast and in a very large scale. We as a society, as a country or as a global society are not responding with the urgency, with the pace and the scale thatâs required. I am specifically talking about rapid changes that are happening with freshwater availability that most people donât know about. The problems are often larger than one country. A lot of it is transboundary. And weâre just not moving fast enough.
Q: News flash.
A: Around the world the water levels have just continued to drop. In the Middle East or India. In fact, theyâre getting faster. Itâs actually a steeper slope.â
This is Ruby Bridges. Ruby Bridges is still alive today. This is recent history, not ancient history. My mother is the same age as Ruby Bridges. This is the recent, lived history of our families. I cannot stress enough that people in our community RIGHT NOW lived through this and in some instances still relive similar experiences today that no child should go through.
For most of us, our families were just like Ruby OR they were like the cruel classmates hurling threats at other children like Ruby and then they did their best to raise another generation to hate.
Please support Ruby and her story which Scholastic announced will release September 6, 2022.
Scholastic is proud to announce the publication of "I Am Ruby Bridges," a new picture book by Civil Rights icon Ruby Bridges illustrated byÂ
A member of the Miami tribe.
The Miami people, are a Native American nation, originally speaking one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, it occupied territory, that is now identified as Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio.
By 1846, most of the Miami had been removed, to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians, in the United States. The Miami Nation of Indiana, is an unrecognized tribe.
Protecting people who are seen as worthless in society - drug addicts, sex workers, homeless people etc - is absolutely central to antifascism because their destruction is central to fascism
Come November, remember who gave us this court: Trump and the Republicans.
Who gave us a Roe overturn? Trump and the Republicans.
Who is likely to give us overturns on Griswold (access to birth control), Lawrence (sodomy laws), and Obergefell (same-sex marriage)? Trump and the Republicans.
If a Dem had been in the White House last term, we wouldnât have right wing radicals like Comey Barrett and Kavanaugh on the court.Â
Yes, Democrats often suck. You know who sucks more? Republicans.
Getting Republicans out of office is harm reduction. It wonât fix everything, but it will help.
Check below to see if you get to vote in one of these fuckersâ re-elections this fall:
I am amazed at the people who are handwringing and pearl clutching:Â âI donât know how this happened,â
Well, then, you have been sleeping. I agree that Democrats suck. But that is no reason to go hide your head.Â
Alito used language from the Witch Trials in his âleakedâ opinion. Let that sink in. If you didnât see this coming, not only have you not been paying attention for the last 50 years, you have never paid attention. Wake up.
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