Why the Western Drought Will Have Major Ripple Effects | WSJ 

The Bronze Age collapse is blamed largely on a 300 year drought in the eastern Mediterranean region. Hard to fathom a drought that long but it extinguished large powerful civilizations like the Hittites.

Desertification

READ YOUR BIBLES... SACRAMENTO RIVER THE SACRED RIVER

CA got 85,9 m acre foot, Coloumbia river dumps 191,3 m foot into The Pasific every year. Move 10% off this water. Make a 365m long tunnel to Red Bluff. NV, AZ, Mexico can then keep Colorado water.

@@baltichammer6162 can you prove it? Find some university that has some PaleoClimotology papers on the subject. I have 800,000 years of co2 records that might show otheriwse!

grass lawns make the least sense. And I make 100% of my income in growing grass. Horrible for soil, requires fertilizer, water, pesticides, weekly mowing. Just think how much could be saved and improved with a natural lawn

I could not have put it better myself!

Go after the golf and lawns first. Humans can't eat grass.

Lol... golf courses , and industrial.park lawns are still green and mowed every week in the desert...

Yep. It's crazier now than ever, but it always was crazy to waste water on this scale. Worse, now that climate change is really starting to kick in.

Environmental restoration efforts have successes and failures, but we must address the underlying issues of climate change and land conversion.

Bingo!

Sounds interesting! Do you have a link? Or the guy's name?

@@TheRainHarvester ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZSPkcpGmflE.html

can be done in three months

@@alstewart1186 man, I can see those Mediterranean type of crops such as grapes and olives but excessively thirsty crops like rice and almonds make absolutely no sense being grown in dry places. If never made sense to me, years ago, and the current drought out west only strengthens my belief.

because the water was sold to the farmers at very cheap rates

Disease and pest pressure are the reason. There is very little pest or disease in the desert. The climate is also very predictable. These factors make it extremely attractive to corporations that want to maximize profits, and have no connection to the land. Even if crops only fail 1 year in 20, that represents a 5% loss of revenue. What is 5% of a multi $billion industry? Big losses.

@@justin1730 I feel your breakdown and in one sense their reasons seems justifiable. The problem with their reasoning, however, is that it shows a short term way of seeing things. Their vision was blinded by profit because even with all of those advantages, the disadvantage when it comes to potential water issues is a huge one. At least pestilence and blight can be fought against. It's hard to conjure up water when there's little to none of it available. That arid location still doesn't make sense when you factor in the possibility of not having enough water. The fact that they had to channel in water from hundreds of miles strengthens the notion that planting excessively thirsty crops in that region isn't a smart move. I can see crops that naturally do well in arid and semiarid environments but something like rice, which practically lives in water, should've been a definite no-no.

Poor relationships with china

The mass extinction has started

...Thales is at last reincarnated. Actually, I agree, sarcasm notwithstanding.

No, lol, just no. there is plenty of water and it will always be there. those farmers ...they just use too much of water in a short time. They didn't plan ahead.

People already know that but no one cares until there is no more

China's developed the world's largest water diversion system, moving water from the south (where's it's way over-abundant) to the north (where it's dry like our west). The US army corps of engineers coulda done the same thing, but they advised against it, plus the US needed all its money for all the wars it felt compelled to fight.

yeah because you have lots of water. California is desert.

it also grows well in South Carolina

@@jennifertarin4707 and Missouri. Unfortunately I notice that mosquitoes seem to hang around rice fields as well.

@@gsxrsquid if California is a desert you shouldn't plant rice or almonds. Non-native produce and plants literally caused the draught in Cali.

@@Celiktaban I agree.

Farmers have had their water diverted to the cities. This is a purely political problem, not a climate thing.

The rest of the west is just fly-over country.

the natural storage of water is actually mostly in forest debris where it is soaked up then released over time in small streams. The wildfires have burned most of that stuff away and so now the drought will be a lasting drought and it will cause much of that land to be uninhabitable.

@@toomanyhobbies2011 "Their" water? Says who? They already get more than "their" share. Are the people in the cities and towns supposed to go without drinking water to keep crops alive where no crops were ever supposed to be? Not that the urban areas are guiltless. Last time I was in the LA region they were building thousands of track houses and condos with no thought as to where the water for all those homes would come from. Truly we are our own worst enemies.

SACRAMENTO RIVER THE SACRED RIVER... READ YOUR BIBLES

They also grow nuts....

Some areas of the west grow the highest quality alfalfa in the world. High protein.

B-but beef! It's literally communism not to waste tons of water to raise animals as the most inefficient source of food possible!

@@stephaniezimmerman7725 Exactly, and its the most water hungry crop there is.

@@stephaniezimmerman7725 agreed, but totally unsustainable

@Troy Kitchens No, it's a desert because it's high desert in the Central Valley. The dams don't change that, they're actually used to grow rice in the high desert or to send it south to grow oranges in the desert.

In order to grow rice you need large amounts of water. A desert does not have large amounts of water. The water they use comes from irrigation. That water comes from reservoirs like say Lake Mead. 70% of all water is used for agriculture, crops like rice, almonds, and everything else they grow in the desert. Therefore you have a water problem because of poor crop selection. Rice should not be grown in the desert.

@@jaredbasaraba8415 Rice can be grown as a dry crop. We planted it in water to control weeds. But it doesn't do best in water.

Cities around the world is farming building homes streets roads hyways they r not farming planting trees forever stop farming crops u know drought conditions is coming

So that proves what? They have been doing ir for decades, and it has never been like this.

Geographic possition is apples to rocks no comparison.

@@timpeterson2738 Political application of water management to a problem of water governance, infrastructure, management is actually apples to apples.

Netherlands is a good example for what other countries should be doing with farming. The netherlands has very modern and advanced farming techniques such as indoor hydro and aeroponic farms. The US doesn't do any of this and the ones that do exist are few and far between acting as experimental farms... These modern and more advanced farming techniques save 90% of the water used in agriculture and agriculture industries tend to use most of the water of a country, usually around 80% (this applies to countries that have not upgraded their farming systems) depending on how agricultural intensive the country is, the US being one of those intensive countries.

It's mostly political corruption and incompetence. The water issue is just one thing of many things the California government is failing at. Our Governor is a complete idiot, he's Nancy Pelosi's Nephew and got the job because of family ties not because of any actual substance. Democrats have completely mismanaged California. All the money that should be going to infrastructure goes to give illegals free healthcare, housing. Food, education and of course the Politicians skim some off the top. If we had competent leadership this wouldn't be an issue.

Unfortunately here “regulation” has become an evil word.

You can't grow almonds, pistachios and asparagus either .... Because Climate Change / mega drought...

Not just a drought...in a semi arid climate. The fact they can't farm without irrigation at all is a red flag.

Beef cattle consume dozens of times more water per calorie than rice or almonds. Greedy carnism is killing the planet

@@jegsh4299 hahahahaha no, it's not the diet, it's the corporate farmers. Thank bill gates.

@@jegsh4299 well for most cattle farmers that use pastures they can't grow grain due to soil conditions. cattle are better for the environment. (methane emissions from cattle are bloated)

Greedy? You work and consume as well, not really fair to blame the farmers for makings living

Cal rice tastes good though. Pls, Cali, keep that optimism --- from Canada

So, if/when Asia suffers from a rice shortage, what exactly would you suggest we feed US citizens? It always makes me laugh when people who are not almost or completley self sufficient comment on the US being self reliant.

I'm not disagreeing with you but you should know you can grow rice just fine without field flooding its just a common practice because it eliminated pests and grows faster

@@jeremypriest4062 Parts of Arkansas & Texas are growing rice too.

They've been doing it for many decades and it worked out fine. Might have something to do with the drought, dontcha think?

5:00 she said it herself XD

arrogance pure hubris

or agave, it's native to the desert. no special water needs at all, and they can make it into tequila. everyone wins las vegas is only one state over.

Well said.

California sucks resources (water) to grow things not native, they want a piece of every pie. But the inefficiency of it costs the taxpayers and the neighboring states a precious resource.

Rather should not exist period

So 90 percent is agriculture so they should follow Science and move to wet areas, right?

Use hydroponics

Yeah ca grows so many nuts and crops that use too much of our water.

@@lilbtyt7928 yes the do.... Tons of fruitcakes as well.. ....

These days it does. And golf courses

It would be a good idea if vegetation and sustainability was the goal instead of importing and wasting water. Look at the bellagio in Las Vegas. Literally blasting water into the air for a show.

Someone should tell Las Vegas about the risk of running out of water ... the fountains and golf courses ... oh my

California isnt a desert

They get preference in water rights

I'm Dutch and it's indeed unbelievably wasteful how farming is done in the US.

Don't tell that to the vegans. If they don't get their almond milk, they're going to lose their minds. Never mind that almonds are incredibly water demanding for what they offer.

@@Wordsalad69420 If almonds grow on trees it could take decades to grow new ones. Maybe they should be saved instead of hayfields.

@Rick Christopher ok maybe. I like nuts and walnut trees grow on my land naturally. I've never had to water them and I'd hate it if they died more than any other tree.

I live in north west GA. Pecans grow here like weeds. It takes years for a tree to mature but its not hard to spot where they belong.

@@johncrocker4209 When I lived in NC we had a huge pecan tree in the yard, it must have been 60 feet tall. We had more pecans than what we knew to do with. We also got enough rain in the year to support the trees and farms and community.

@@johncrocker4209 it's the same all over GA. I'm originally from southeast GA and my grandmother had 2 pecan trees in the yard and there was another one on the field next to her home. Technically, I've seen pecan trees all over the deep south. They're a dime a dozen in this region.

and then there is the greening of Las Vegas; a desert. How ridiculous.

@@5455jm I did a study about how water is used there. I was surprised, only 6 percent of the water leaving Lake Mead is used by vegas. The rest is used by California and Arizona and the biggest part of those two is for agriculture. Vegas is also huge in recycling water and cutting out grass and water heavy landscaping. flood irrigation is the biggest culprit of wasting water and many farmers are still doing it

@@firedog451 The water rights need to be fixed so people don't waste water just to keep getting the same amount next year. If you want to live or grow in the desert you need to carefully manage water use.

@@justinfowler2857 Exactly, That’s what they did in the middle east. They we’re running out and the farming industry changed. It’s not the average person, we can help a small fraction but that’s it. Agriculture uses the water.

It is also a story of water shortage, the snow or rainfall is greatly reduced.

@@Dee-cn1et So you’re furthering my point just like you should financially plan for shortfalls in a fiscal period* … the same goes for planning for extreme weather and climate change trends …hence it’s totally *water mismanagement* ||>> ______ *don’t spend your money recklessly if your career prospects are looking rough. Believe me … these regional politicians & other corrupt officials should be incarcerated.

@@Dee-cn1et the woman growing rice in the desert and snivelling needs to see a shrink. She’s nuts.

Nope. California foolishly wastes a lot of water. Here in Las Vegas, we’re taught to conserve our water yet California wastes a lot of water.

Even if they just broke up the evaporation plain by planting rows of trees they could still grow their crops.

How about drip irrigation instead of those obscene water sprinklers throwing water into the air? How about intensive mulching, enhanced by all the new charcoal from the burned forests? How about planting native trees throughout the planting area to help shade the ground, and machine harvest around them. How about smaller plots so expensive machinery doesn't lock us in to one kind of farming? Our farming techniques need to be modified, and our soils need to stop being raped.

Organic no till. Drip irrigation. End geoengineering.

Great idea. Except for the hundreds of millions of mouths to feed

The Boomers still have blinders on.

@@robthomas5827 This sort of thinking started long before "Boomers."

The whole country has. People here acting like Californians are frivolous farmers when the entire country’s farming infrastructure is teetering on the edge of disaster.

California has been measurably sinking for 100 years. Here's hoping the whole state sinks in the ocean soon.

@@deek0146 Bigot much? Let's hope the entire Oglalla Aquifer region collapses and takes Texas and the rest of them with it.

We need an Alaskan pipeline I’m going to build it

They are legally forbidden from using the words "climate change". Welcome to the U.S.

I feel awful for the kids. It’s going to be a scary future.

Such a kind response and to think people like you were all too happy to eat all the produce and products these farmers have grown all these years, perhaps now you will reap what you have just sown.

What do you mean, "they"m 40% of America's produce is grown in CA, that means you and every other American in these comments grew up eating CA produce.. it's all connected

…but someone will always come and paste this.

Blaming All humans? When it’s corporations and governments that are responsible...

Well, US paper money are still a cotton byproduct so it can still be processed into a barely edible product, in truth even the plastic of other country's money, could be processed to be edible and indeed processing plastic bottles into vanilla extracts is now being proposed. This is of course pedantic and not to counter your point but technically we could in fact eat money so far, the eventual digital money will of course be completely inedible.

But think of how much money that last tree could sell for. 🤑 💰 💵

@@johnwang9914 perfect response, we all cope in our own unique way so more power to ya

I agree with your neighbor. I didn’t lay out a ton of money for my home just to look at ugly desert landscape across the street. Xeriscape is hideous and makes a nice neighborhood look terrible. I live in an upscale neighborhood for a reason. Nice, well kept homes.

Agreed. South America is intimidating to tackle because it’s mired in political conflict and violence. But, that just makes the problem more urgent. As violence and corruption gets more embedded into society, destruction of natural resources will only escalate.

the main contributor to that deforestation is Western consumerism. whether it be Chocolate, Cattle, palm oil, you name the crop that they cut for over the last century and it links back to low cost food production in the 1st world. Palm oil is one of the biggest currently and its in EVERYTHING.

Can you explain how that works? Because I thought forests keep more water/moisture in themselves, instead of giving it to go to atmosphere

So, was that the case in 76 and 77? The west experienced the same conditions then. Don't think the rain forest was all cut down then. It's weather and that's just what it does from time to time.

@@ka-md8ue it varies depending on the agenda and the narrative yoi are pushing duh

And if she grows rice on 1100 acres in the traditional flooding method, then there is a huge waste of water.

Hes talking about how to manage how much ground water people are using. Going to try and put a meter on people’s wells.

Thanks for this comment ! Yep. True.

They do have some desalination plants in the works and the president needed to sign a bill to have a certain River just running in the ocean without use. Now Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico uses the Colorado River. Now I came up with a idea to create a small River or aqueduct from Mississippi River to Arizona. Now there's a little down size and more upside then anything. Create more farm land make new ecosystems. Plant thousands of trees. Help out with wild fire's and other things.

@@bradleypoole4809 so your solution is to destroy ecosystems in river deltas and pipe water to states that have proven they won't take steps to store or preserve water resources

@@antiheroes7972 they wouldn't need to store

Heh heh……I see what you did there.

Do American farmers actually practice flood irrigation? That seems very primitive -- don't we have more advanced systems in place like drip irrigation?

@@yusufhanif3704 no because they cause more and resources use to be plentiful so they just do the most basic method like sprinklers and flooding the field

@@julm7744 No wonder California has a freshwater crisis. Access to clean and plentiful water is a frighteningly underlooked issue in our society and survival as a country.

rice fields have to be flooded. That's the only way to cultivate this type of grass

@@yusufhanif3704 yeah you obviously don't know how rice is farmed. A flooded field for most crops in the US means a dead crop

The major problem is what they are farming in the west

@@skygge1006 Take a look at how much water Nestle is pumping and say that it's not a contributing factor. Especially when you look at other places Nestle is pumping water that **aren't** in the west that have undergone dramatic changes much too quickly to blame on nature.

Golf courses.

The fruits and nuts are down town if you are a cannibal.

This guy said cannibal I can't make this up

Golf courses

it’s ridiculous to even mention golf courses, The biggest culprit of wasting water is flooding irrigation. Allot farmers are still doing it

to make money

Name a better spot. Then, purchase that land and figure out how to make it run efficiently. My bet? You are not a farmer.

@@jeremypriest4062 No doubt. You're not a farmer. No doubt. You don't know schitt!

Dry land rice is a variety.

@@jeremypriest4062 Arkansas Louisiana and Mississippi along the Mississippi and Red rivers.

That water could be used to grow rice instead of drinking 🤔

@@jmatt98 or it could still be in the eco system.

Your lawn doesn't stock grocery stores. Farms need water more than spoiled middle class housing developments do. And what makes you think farmers aren't moving with the times? Do you think someone can wave an iphone at a field and have crops magically grow in it?

@Mike Hunt You got something you want to get off your chest ?

@@Wintersmith12 Or maybe we should stop growing crops that need tremendous amounts of water in drought areas, what a concept.

@@alexanderdvanbalderen9803 Drip irrigation is the cheapest, most water-conserving method of open farming. That, and deep mulch when applicable. Yes, Israel has turned desert into farms, and it is the driest place on earth. YT has videos on it.

@@yellowbird5411 Drip Irrigation is the most expensive form of irrigation

Maybe if california didn't dumped the water to the sea and engineered this drought all would be normal.

Most of the best farm land is covered by shopping malls and big box store parking lots now.

Cities around the world is farming building homes streets roads hyways they r not farming planting trees forever stop farming crops u know drought conditions is coming

@@robthomas5827 Proof?

Or at least, don't choose rice!

Doesn’t rice grow in water? Why would grow rice in states that naturally dry?

Theres over 20k species of rice. They dont all grow like every other. Stop paying for better rice and problem solved

Like its easy to just trade all your equipment at a loss and retool and refinance? When it rains you'll just buy all-new equipment again? Real easy when you're sitting at a desk a thousand miles away, right? Farming is so easy when you're not a farmer...

@@daviddavid5880 couldn’t they buy water in them big tubs for now, and look for more drought tolerant seeds to grow like beans. If they are true farmers they don’t play victims. They come with solution. Farmers are a suborn lots.

@@kirstencampbell2593 You being a farmer, you'd know best.

The flooded rice paddies you're picturing is grown like that for pest control reasons.

We had plenty of water, but this bastards dumped it to the sea, this is an engineered drought, better get your canned food and water, because this is going to be global,not just in california.

The northern part of the Sacramento Valley was swampland. They grow lots of rice there and usually there is plenty of water. This discussion is about the drought. Lots of people are going to have to adjust to global climate change, whether it is freezes (Hello Texas!) or hurricanes (Hello whole southeast) or tornadoes ( Hello tornado alley!) or sea level rise (Sorry Florida and Louisiana). Denying it doesn't mean you don't have to live with it. And you can't generalize about California. The southern end is at the latitude of Morocco and the northern end just north of the southern tip of Canada. Check it out.

@@shark2v I tend to agree, but the need to use water more as a precious resource is now more clear then ever. Well in the meantime we have floodings here in Germany, also bad for crops :/

@@danielcarroll3358 we have too many corrupt leaders in California,water was dumped to the sea, we had enough water for 5 years in 2019, now we're in a engineered drought and people are going to pay because of those bastards, and there's no climate change, if the government tells you that, they're lying,learn something from history.

2 words. Golf courses. 1 more: lawns.

There are varieties of rice that are not wetland plants. They also end up being lower in heavy metals due to being in oxygen-rich conditions rather than reducing (waterlogged) conditions you find in the wetland rice varieties.

At least in Asia, rice is often grown in patties that are flooded with water. However, rice doesn't actually need that much water. The reason the patties are flooded is that rice can withstand it but many weeds cannot so it increases yields by keeping weeds in check.

I’ve grown rice on the east coast on land that previously grew corn and soybean and there are small farmers from Florida to Maine doing the same. Rice grows very well on upland farms and doesn’t need to be submerged in water like you often see in Asian countries. Maybe learn about rice production before commenting next time?

This is different. The dust bowl lasted a few years and was mostly due to poor farming practices which sped up erosion. What's happening today is going to have decades and possibly centuries-long ramifications.

There was a dust storm that reached America in June of 2020 from Africa. There have been smaller ones since. I won't say these are the end times of the Earth. I will say it is time to end below poverty wages as even a thought. These "plagues" are a result of "slave" conditions for workforces-just as we read about in Exodus. Costs of living have been high in California for years, wages often times are not enough. Remember the locusts? The fires and tornadoes? Drought? Famine? Homelessness? All that is spoken in Exodus and has to do with the treatment of His people.

​@@mshindiwataji _Stephanie, when we observed reality, what did we see:_ _1. We've observed that greenhouse gases increase temperature._ Fill two 2-liter bottles halfway with water with a thermometer inside. Put greenhouse gases in one. Allow the two to sit outside in the sun and observe which heats faster. _The one with greenhouse gases does._ _2. We've observed that human activity is responsible for considerable increase to greenhouse gases._ CO2, methane from cows, there are a lot of specific sources for these gases that we're ultimately responsible for. _3. We've observed the freezing point of water._ _4. We've observed that this part of the world's water cycle depends on snow vs. rain in order to avoid droughts._ These are the real, actual, _observed_ reasons for what we're seeing. So it's _completely irresponsible_ for you to blame this on "slave conditions". We can both agree that it's awful when unregulated capitalism causes slave-like conditions _without having to outright lie_ and pretend that those conditions are what causes droughts. You're old enough to know better than that. It's also irresponsible to pretend that the "end times" of the Bible depicts things that weren't already happening throughout all of human history. The day those verses were written, those vague fear-mongering statements were already vaguely true (just as vaguely true as they are today). You're old enough to know this, and to know better than to take those verses seriously.

@@majmage NOT IRRESPONSIBLE AT ALL, merely speaking TRUTH. This has nothing to do with the "end times" as many predict. This has to do with the ongoing problem of America, particularly people in past leadership not accepting the fact that we occupy and tend a land that is Gods. We tend it for His plan and purpose. Yes, climate change is a problem and also needs to be addressed, but these particular issues are regarding the poverty taking place. We are not to fault the current administration, for Pres. Biden is moving forth in more effective ways to address the climate change, but as President Biden, Sen Sanders and countless others have addressed workforces do need to be tended as well. This is why we are seeing the SAME "plagues" again. Within one century. The same ones from last time. Republicans have played a major part in that, in votes in House and Senate. They need to change their perspective. And California leadership, needs to address what they can and see to it that their people and state are tended to. Thats is what the Lord is saying. God will send the needed rain. We all know He will. He will send enough rain to fill every lake and put out every fire. But He wants to see our leadership put "FAITH in Him, to work". President Biden and House and Senate Dems are doing JUST THAT. Where is state leadership?

With all the homeless, it would be a trash bowl

You eat rice year round, right? 🙄

Growing racing a desert would have been considered impossible a thousand years ago so actually yeah it is pretty smart. Do you know who the stupid people are? The ones that deny climate change in the first place causing the drought.

we do dry farming out of preference. it means you can control far more variables and not worry as much about fungus or even product drying post harvest.

At lot of US farming is not doing right. The aqueducts used in the Midwest could dry up.

Doesn't dry up in the Southeast.

@@horsefly1020 give it a few more years

Agreed. When a video starts with a map showing NM, AZ and NV in a state of serious drought they are clearly just trying to fear monger. Those 3 states in particular have been in a state of serious drought since before recorded history, part of being a desert.

@@thomasjohnson7990 Yeah since they eliminated the buffalo and the ecosystem with it.

backyard pools are a waste

She compares not having water enough for her farm on the same level as city dwellers not having enough drinking water? Talk about selfishness and greed!

Maybe olives, seems feasible. But rice!? C’mon lady, you’re clearly aware of the drought now, quit trying to grow that.... in a desert 👍🤣

Right, follow the Science and where the water is, one thing you can’t change is the amount of water on the planet.

@@jawstheproducer1593 Yup, rice grows ideally in marshy/wet soil, Colusa, California ain't that by any stretch of the imagination, what she showed now is the norm for what their soil is. Rice farming there involves flooding the fields and turning an arid area into a marshy area. Which is EXTREMELY water wasteful, you can't drip irrigate rice like you can the "row crops" that she mentioned, and the cattle? Oh boy, talk about things that need water... but that largely depends where they get their feed from, if it comes from other states it's the equivalent of importing water, so may not contribute much to the drought problem

@@firedog451 So all those Germans are stealing all the water?! (I know bad joke, I'm sorry)

@@Mike__B Ya, Utah stole some to

This went way over most people's heads sadly

Cities around the world is farming building homes streets roads hyways they r not farming planting trees forever stop farming crops u know drought conditions is coming

Is that the guy who bought the water tower?

Yep

Amen!

Everyday, I watch houses in every neighborhood wasting hundreds of gallons to water their lawn. It's so vastly innefficient too. The irrigation systems that came with these houses are poorly metered, and it's normal to see streams of excess lawn water running down the sides of the streets and right into the storm drains. Having lawn is over-rated anyways. People in CA need to take a page from the books of Nevada and Arizona residents. Instead of having useless grass, they have decorative cacti and other succlents in their yards, which can grow fruit in low-water conditions. Way better than having grass that never gets used.

Suburbs are a mistake

That must make the cities inside the suburbs an even worse mistake

And they spray in the hot sun? Do they want't to moisten or to cool the air?

a hundred million gallons of water is nothing.

Nestlé and the others are bottling drinking water for people. Drinking water is just a tiny fraction of water use. Most water goes to agriculture and industry. Of the water left for residential use, almost none goes to drinking. In Western US a terrifying amount goes to watering lawns.

Evaporation is a necessary part of the cycle, without it you could make the drought worse. They need to stop with the mismanagement of resources and allocate them to necessary parts of their infrastructure. If the drought becomes any worse the western US will be uninhabitable and that will then bring on the worst food shortage in history.

Since when is California a desert?

Could start by putting a lid on those aqueducts, to begin with.

But not many are doing it in India. Even the local govts are not interested because its for long term and people have short term memories.

Not sure if India can serve as a positive example of natural resource management. India is one of the most polluted and wasteful country in the world

Wonder if the prairie aquifers here in USA have been looking at those efforts in India. Hope so.

@@1Mhoram9 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8ZwBSjBgMXg.html Better be soon, only agra business can afford to stay in business.

Rice belong to South Asia. Let your greed finish you!!

@@jahneychriast2141 its not us, we tell them no, but money talks

Rice doesn't actually grow well in swamp. Do a little research to learn more about how little water rice actually uses. (That sounds snotty but it's actually just a suggestion.)

Or data centers that need water cooling

Greenhouse vertical farming if they really wanted to. Take your profits and invest in that. Switch crops that adjust to lack of water. Goodbye almonds

@@rustyshackleford2902 It is not like you throw the water away after using it in a data center.

plant pistachios and dates

So just thought I’d chime in to this comment but disclaimer I’m not an expert. From my botany studies, plants have circadian rhythms, and benefit from schedules, some even showing signs of being favored towards certain schedules, genetically (think mushroom night and sunflower day). On top of which the theme of many commentators in this video, is the trend in the capitalistic USA where capitalism reigns. The cost of water, the cost of labor, and the means to do (technology or knowledge etc) all factor in when deciding when to water your plants. A photo-sensitive timer system may require 10yrs worth of paying someone to just turn the water on at night, vs, just doing it at the normal business operations (and if you’re dependent on an outside entity for water control that could be your ONLY option). Ultimately what I am aiming to do by commenting all of this is increase awareness of the ever complicating nature of our growing world. I’d say the overarching theme to address from this video isn’t one of “grow rice in LA no in CA!” But rather that capitalism creates truly maniacal economic equations when left unregulated. If we let people set up rice farms in a desert because there was a market there and the resources consumed still produced a competitive product that was fighting vs. imported product; the outcome of this equation directly shows the capitalistic conditions of each location. This means we don’t want to unnecessarily regulate because is the problem really that they’re growing rice in the desert (if it’s more economic than shipping the imported -) or that there’s a market, for rice in a desert.??

@@arc6571 thanks a lot for your answer :) I found it really helpful and especially the last part about the American capitalism is really something important and very interesting to think about. So thanks again, not only for answering but for giving me something completely different to consider in my thinking.

They are moving to deep root watering or subsurface. When watering by sprinkler much of the water is lost immediately because the air is so dry, the old way of flood irrigation is almost gone, I rarely see it anymore. In my opinion California agriculture is racket. From the beginning they drained the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi, it was called Tulare Lake. This began the water rights debacle, that lead to reservoir and canal systems we have today and all at a cost to taxpayers, keep in mind that the agriculture being produced here is a globally traded/sold commodity for profit. The system (water rights and canals) that produces this business is payed for by taxpayers with no payback. They keep growing non indigenous crops and depleting the water table. So what once was wetland is now a desert scape with sprinklers.

Various reasons - labor to run irrigation and mold, virus issues with nighttime irrigation for some crops

When I lived in California we were told to only water our lawns at night for reasons you mentioned

There are so many places on earth with an abundance of water.. Grow them there instead.. Florida would seem like a good option. Rain like everyday and a warm climate. Its modern economics that make people take illogical decisions. Cause the only logic they follow is money.

If almonds can be grown in Florida, don't you think they would have been already? But then again, you probably think tomato fields are a good idea in Minneapolis in January

@@dmannevada5981 Get a clue. "Almond trees offer food to those who grow them. The almond tree, which grows well in warm areas, is suited to the Florida climate in general. ... North Florida does get a bit cooler, but all areas within the state will work as long as you plant at the proper time." www.hunker.com/13428776/how-to-grow-almond-trees-in-florida

Almonds aren't the only thing we don't need...

This goes double for meat, milk, eggs etc. Raising animals to eat their flesh, lactations, and ovum wastes more water than literally any kind of plant agriculture.

@@bspr9062 Commercial agriculture needs to change. It may have been hugely profitable to concentrate growing in California just for all the efficiencies it created, but it's too hard on the land. We need to go back to growing our food stuffs locally. Perhaps even go further and stop growing for export as well.

Look up Dane Wigington. Artificial drought.

@@AldousHuxley7 Oh BS.

@@antred11 Eyes to the skies.

Conversion to lush fertile land can be done easily, but not through conventional agriculture. Simple: create humus. might be interesting to you to watch kiss the Ground.

Of course it would. A drought is a period when the average amount of moisture decreases significantly. Now, would the drought be a problem if there weren't a bunch of people trying to pretend they don't live in a desert? Probably not as much.

Well what are desert folk supposed to eat? Sand?

No. Colusa is not a desert.

@@jonathanalea It is now.

Yes.

Yes. They are growing a water-intensive crop in an area that relies on water falling as snow on mountains far away. Climate change is seeing more water fall as rain rather than snow.....but the WSJ isn't allowed to say "climate change" because it's owned by the Murdochs.

Mother Nature is coming for them in her own special Way yah tah hay

This lady doesn’t understand the value of olives

Sea grass... They could use Pacific ocean.

You can live on Coke and Pepsi.

Ok, are you going to pay for the multimillon $ improvements necessary to change the process?

5:00 NAh she has a well

Not "USA." - California. Huge difference.

@@owljones3389 California independence! REVOLUTION OF OUR TIME!!!

Geoengineering bro. They spray y’all like vermin.. the heavy metals get into everything, the natural weather patterns are disrupted.. what happened to the bees.?

Maybe to set a limit im area of the lawn would be good enough, for example max 1000 square feet of the lawn for one propertie...

historically, green manicured lawn were commonly displayed by slave-owners.

Why make the common man suffer for the mistakes of the elites?

*their

and enough with apostrophes too

To bad for California.

I've gotten numb to hearing about disasters in California. Its always drying up, blowing away, burning up or crumbling as in earthquakes. Some commenters pointing out rice farming should be also commenting on California building houses where there should not be houses.

Because california is the hardest hit

@@soumilyarlagadda9764 says who? Washington, Oregon & Idaho, to name a few, haven't exactly been gently spanked by the drought & a lot of California's problems are self inflicted, the only one's to truly blame for a lot of issue's is the politicians & those who keep voting them in.