World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuab

[cronus]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 47527.html

World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource

Men like Edward Mooradian are saving California. Indeed, there would hardly be any water left without them. And without water California, now in the fourth year of an epic drought, would be nothing but desert. That's why it's such a cynical joke and, most of all, a tragic reality, that men like Mooradian are also destroying California. In fact, they are actually aggravating the emergency that they are trying to mitigate. The Americans call this a catch-22, a situation in which there are no good alternatives. Either way, the game is lost.

On a Sunday morning in July, Mooradian is standing between rows of orange and lemon trees near Fresno in the Central Valley, the stretch of land in the heart of California that supplies the United States, Canada and Europe with fruit, vegetables and nuts. It is shortly before 8 a.m., but the temperature is already high and there is no wind. Mooradian, tanned and muscular, wearing a helmet and sunglasses, switches on the drill mounted on his truck. It gurgles furiously for a moment and drives a long pipe into the earth.
Mooradian is drilling for groundwater. He has been doing this day and night, seven days a week, ever since California's rivers and lakes began drying up. His order book for the next few months is so full that he no longer answers the phone. Were he to answer, all he could do would be to put off the callers, and hearing the desperation in their voices depresses him. They all urgently need water, the farmers, who are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the drought, but also the families, the elderly and the sick, who have had to live for months or even years without a drop of running water, here in California, the vacation paradise that calls itself The Golden State.

"The last well we drilled went down to 1,200 feet," says Mooradian, wiping the sweat from his brow with his forearm. He points to the hole, which is spewing mud at the moment. "This here is only supposed to be 400 feet deep. We can do that in our sleep."

The only question is whether he will find water down there. If he does his customer, a local farmer, will be saved, at least for the time being. The mile-long rows of small, seemingly identical fruit trees would stay green, in contrast to the devastation in the surrounding area, with its cracked earth, yellow meadows and dead trees, their branches protruding admonishingly into the sky like dinosaur bones.

And if he doesn't? "We recently drilled an 880-foot hole nearby, and it was dry," says Mooradian. "Oh man, it really made me sick. Those poor people. They went into debt for that well."

California's rivers and lakes are running dry, but its deep aquifers are also rapidly disappearing. The majority of the 40 million Californians are already drawing on this last reserve of water, and they are doing so with such intensity and without restriction that sometimes the ground sinks beneath their feet. The underground reservoir collapses. This in turn destabilizes bridges and damages irrigation canals and roads.

(continued)

[JimC]

If every house had decent rainwater catchment tanks, if only for flushing the toilet and watering the garden, the pressure on supply would be a lot less.

[rainbow]

Water doesn't disappear.

They need to learn how to recycle water.

Are the Californicators too dumb to work this out?

[Svartalf]

Given the amounts they devote to their lawns in a semi desertic climate, do you really need an answer?

[laklak]

Those California people don't need water, they need U-Haul trailers. Move out of the fucking desert, you morons. We grow plenty of citrus in Florida, know why? We got WATER.

[Rum]

Alternatively move to Cumbria. Lots to go round here!

[mistermack]

Mile long rows of fruit trees in a hot and arid region? I can't see the problem.

It's a mystery.

[laklak]

I blame gay marriage.

[Seth]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 47527.html

World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource

Men like Edward Mooradian are saving California. Indeed, there would hardly be any water left without them. And without water California, now in the fourth year of an epic drought, would be nothing but desert.

You mean like it was before Anglos moved in and diverted every river for farming that desert? Wah. Cry me a river. I hope ever Californian dies of thirst staring dumbly at their empty swimming pools, brown lawns and dirty cars. Fuck 'em all, they are getting exactly what they deserve, in full measure.

[Rum]

Really?

[mistermack]

In a way, it's a good thing that California is struggling for water.
Good for the rest of the world.

Because, as the great and wise Seth says, if there is a market for something, private enterprise will invent ways to supply that market.

There's a huge market for fresh water in California. So maybe, big money will get spent, on researching solutions.

[rainbow]

In a way, it's a good thing that California is struggling for water.
Good for the rest of the world.

Because, as the great and wise Seth says, if there is a market for something, private enterprise will invent ways to supply that market.

There's a huge market for fresh water in California. So maybe, big money will get spent, on researching solutions.

No need. We already know what to do.

[mistermack]

I like the "seawater greenhouse" solution.
It's only commercially viable in certain locations at the moment, but it could easily get more viable as time goes on.
You pump seawater to your greenhouse, evaporate it using solar power, and then condense it and use the fresh condensed water for growing greenhouse vegetables.

Condensing it is the limiting factor. You need a place where cold ocean water upwells to condense it in reasonable quantities at present. But I've always thought that you could use the cold desert air at night to condense large quantities, if you scaled it up.

[Seth]

In a way, it's a good thing that California is struggling for water.
Good for the rest of the world.

Because, as the great and wise Seth says, if there is a market for something, private enterprise will invent ways to supply that market.

There's a huge market for fresh water in California. So maybe, big money will get spent, on researching solutions.

Well, there are already solutions, it's just that Californians are too fucking cheap to want to pay for them. They are socialists and think they are entitled to clean, potable, fresh water on demand, for next to nothing, and somebody else (like Colorado) should supply it to them even if Colorado owns the water and doesn't want to do so. And now the chickens have come home to roost and they are getting what they deserve.

[mistermack]

According to the news tonight, the latest El Nino might break the drought, and cause floods in central America.
I suppose they have records to go by, so it might happen.