Everything I thought I knew about water in California is wrong

grist.org

5 pointswooster2 comments

This article is awful. He ignores that Agriculture drills many wells and extracts water from rivers and streams - and that water is not metered and free. There was the recent article about Starbucks getting their bottled water for free from California wells. And when he praises the ability to buy/sell water he is praising the very system that allows farmers to take their free water and monetize it through bottled water sold throughout the USA. I could go on, but all you really need to do is drive through California and look at the miles and miles of rice fields - a full immersion crop. It is exported worldwide by the multi-billionaire "farmers".

There's also the subdivision of that pie graph. Crop types are badly optimized (alfalfa!) leading to lopsided water usage - "It takes $750 worth of retail water to grow $150 worth of wholesale cotton." Lloyd Carter (Feb. 2009)

Am I supposed to be empathetic toward protecting the Delta Smelt? This is water for humans. Other creatures get cleared out, that's the nature of our civilization. Start making the hard decisions (regulate the farms) and if the smelt go, too bad. Our population is not diminishing.

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