Wildfire Watch/ Drought Watch
brianlux
Posts: 42,023
For those of us in California, fire and drought are big news. On the way home from a brief trip to the coast I spotted this event in the distance as it just started taking place:
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/25/6583474/wildland-fire-burning-in-el-dorado.html
The unsettling thing is they say fire season has just begun and this years is going to be brutal. The fire in the article above rages about 18 south of us and much closer to a few friend's places.
The latest on the drought:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/07/25/research-californias-drought-situation-more-dire-than-we-realize/
Gonna be a long summer.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/25/6583474/wildland-fire-burning-in-el-dorado.html
The unsettling thing is they say fire season has just begun and this years is going to be brutal. The fire in the article above rages about 18 south of us and much closer to a few friend's places.
The latest on the drought:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/07/25/research-californias-drought-situation-more-dire-than-we-realize/
Gonna be a long summer.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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July 27, 2014 at 12:22 PM
Report of a new vegetation fire, approximately 10 miles east from the Sand Fire. Diverting some aircraft to it.
Not what we wanted to hear. :-(
It's heartbreaking to see such a precious resource going to waste like this.
(and, almost an hour since it started and DWP has yet to get their asses on site)
What really gets me is seeing water wasted unnecessarily. On our way back from the coast a couple of days ago we traveled through the central valley and spotted several farms running sprinklers- not drip- on crops during the hottest part of the afternoon with temps in the low 100's- not a wise watering plan. I also spotted at least two orchards that were flooded with standing (i.e. evaporating) water and a few farms with overspill water doing nothing but watering dirt and weeds. Crazy.
From everything I've read and seen on this issue, all those places that get most of their water from Lake Mead or other major non-local reservoirs are INEVITABLY going to be basically unlivable (and certainly unable to sustain any agriculture) because of a lack of water. And they are using up all the groundwater too, at a rate that is the exact opposite of sustainable. This may happen in our lifetimes. This drought is bring more attention to it, but even if the drought ever ends, they're still going to be fucked. So then what????
Are people already leaving? Isn't the real estate market in these places completely crashing, since only a crazy person would move there at this point? Or are people just keeping their heads stuck in the sand and waiting to be forced to find another place to live and work? Wtf is LA going to do? Las Vegas? Etc? :-? I've heard of some desalinization project for several cities in Southern California.... is that really feasible for the whole area I wonder? For the whole southwest? If so, will that destroy the ocean's ecosystem while they're at it?
Good questions, PJ Soul...I don't have answers, but a couple of suggestions. Maybe some - or parts of - the prized golf courses in California could be sacrificed while this is happening? It doesn't matter how expensive the club dues are; they won't make water magically appear.
And maybe our state (I'm looking at you, Gov. Brown) could use some of the funds earmarked for, say, the rail projects. Stash those projects for now, since our "need" for them isn't dire. Put that money toward replacing the old-ass pipes underneath our city.
By the way, seems the real estate prices out here - in my general area - have been on the rise. Go figure!
http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/230876/obama-visits-calfornia-drought-area-golfs-at-water-sucking-desert-courses
they should be ashamed of themselves. as the saying goes, 'heads are buried in the sand'
but as long as the country clubs & other golf courses are green in the desert it's all good.
by the way, country club members should be beat w/ golf cart bumpers & thrown on top of cactus & rock
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
That green can be found and created by so many other means, even the cactus (cacti?) you mention. Really, what's more important, clean available water, or something aesthetically pleasing to a few?
Our younger cat George has a fixation with water. He'll sit on the bathroom counter meowing for us to turn on the faucet like his life depends on it (truth be told, pretty fucking cute). He's now limited to 15 seconds of slurping.
2010 WATCH IT GO TO FIRE!!
This is part of why we chose to have no kids
2010 WATCH IT GO TO FIRE!!
My co-worker/buddy did a 35-mile two day hike on Mt. Baldy this weekend. In the rain! Definitely could use it - we got some down here Saturday evening and Sunday morning - but damn, the damage it did up there.
That's dedication to hiking!
Almost said, "Good to hear you're getting a little precip. as well" but when it causes havoc, maybe not such good timing. Erosion, I'm guessing?
Yeah, this dude also did a weekend hike through the Grand Canyon recently. Oh to be thirty again
Where we are (lovely flatlands of West Hollywood), it was really nice to get, though muggy as hell. But the mudslides in the mountains were caused by this fucking drought! Nothing to anchor all that water.
There's another side effect of the drought in California that many people
haven't yet considered: Removing all that ground water is causing
*earthquakes* as the ground caves in due to unprecedented water extraction:
Originally published August 18 2014 How California's extreme drought will
lead to a wave of earthquakesby Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) With about 60 percent of the state now limping through the
worst categorical level of drought on record, California faces an
unprecedented water crisis that, besides triggering shortages, stands to
greatly influence the availability of fresh produce nationwide. And as far
as its own residents and the residents of nearby states are concerned,
there is an additional threat also waiting in the wings: the increased
likelihood of earthquakes.
A new study published in the journal *Nature* raises some serious questions
about the stability of California now that underground aquifers are
plunging to record lows. All throughout the Central Valley, which grows
most of the nation's lettuce, almonds and other produce, more water is
being pumped out of the ground than is being put back in, a phenomenon that
researchers say is causing the ground to shift.
According to a team of geologists led by Colin B. Amos from Western
Washington University, the subterranean landscape beneath the earth, also
known as the lithosphere, is literally separating from the land on top
throughout California. The California Coast Ranges, the Tehachapi
Mountains, and the southern Sierra Nevada, says *TakePart*'s Chris Clarke,
are rising by as much as three millimeters per year, or roughly an inch
every 10 years.
A series of 500 GPS recorders carefully placed throughout the Central
Valley and its surrounding mountains revealed that the water table
throughout the area is rapidly dwindling. This means that the 176
billion-ton water load that
normally holds down the lithosphere is becoming increasingly lighter,
resulting in a land separation that, historically speaking, has made the
ground more prone to seismic activity.
"Groundwater pumping unburdens the lithosphere," said William Hammond, a
geologist at the University of Nevada and co-author of the study, as quoted
by *TakePart*. "When you pump that much groundwater, the load gets taken
away and the landscape essentially bounces up. The Sierra Nevada is rising
more quickly as a result of groundwater pumping in the Great Valley."
2011 earthquake in Spain caused by water overdrafts, say scientists Back in
2011, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked Lorca, Spain, killing 10
people and causing extensive infrastructure damage, was found to have been
caused by the overdraft of water from local aquifers. A cohort of
researchers determined that, based on the fault slip pattern and movement
of land at the surface, changes in aquifer volumes were the most likely
cause of the quake.
"The area of fault slip correlates well with the pattern of positive
Coulomb stress change that we calculate to result from the extraction of
groundwater in a nearby basin aquifer," wrote the authors of a study
published in the journal *Nature Geoscience*. "Our results imply that
anthropogenic activities could influence how and when earthquakes
occur."
In the Central Valley, a similar phenomenon has been documented in relation
to when the most water is drawn from underground aquifers to nourish crops.
In the late summer and early fall, according to geologists, the Parkfield
section of the infamous San Andreas Fault system typically experiences
increased seismic activity exceeding 1.25 magnitude or higher, which is
also the time when the most water is drawn.
"That seasonal change means loading and unloading on the lithosphere,"
added Hammond. "The earth flexes up and down, and small earthquakes seem to
respond to that."
*Sources for this article include:*
http://www.takepart.com
http://www.nature.com
http://www.bbc.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
you're welcome
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce