Who needs food anyway? We’ve always got pretzels.
The Drought Goes From Bad To Catastrophic
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/01/2014 21:00 -0400
As we previously commented, when scientists start using phrases such as “the worst drought” and “as bad as you can imagine” to describe what is going on in the western half of the country, you know that things are bad. However, in recent weeks the dreadful situation in California has gone from bad to catastrophic as the U.S. Drought Monitor reported that more than half of the state is now in experiencing ‘exceptional’ drought, the most severe category available. And most of the state – 81% – currently has one of the two most intense levels of drought.
h/t @TimOBrien
While California’s problems are particularly severe, that state is not alone in experiencing significant drought right now. There are wide swaths of moderate to severe drought stretching from Oregon to Texas, with problems impacting numerous states west of the Mississippi River.
Some of the most severe droughts outside of California are impacting large pockets in Oklahoma, Texas and, particularly, Nevada, where more than half of the state is currently experiencing one of the two most intense drought conditions:
* * *
Most people just assume that this drought will be temporary, but experts tell us that there have been “megadroughts” throughout history in the western half of the United States that have lasted for more than 100 years.
If we have entered one of those eras, it is going to fundamentally change life in America.
And the frightening thing is that much of the rest of the world is dealing with water scarcity issues right now as well. In fact, North America is actually in better shape than much of Africa and Asia. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “25 Shocking Facts About The Earth’s Dwindling Water Resources“.
Without plenty of fresh water, modern civilization is not possible.
And right now, the western United States and much of the rest of the world is starting to come to grips with the fact that we could be facing some very serious water shortages in the years ahead.
TBP,
I only had one semester of climatology, BUT I feel California is in for a wet winter due to El Nino.
I have never before seen a more humid summer, some days cloudy all day and the humidity in the 30/40% range with huge cloud banks over the Cascade Mountains.
This summer there is enough water storage that life is still good, but if we do not have a wet winter, the SHTF next summer. Farmers are in panic mood as wells are giving out and well companies are 90 days out of service calls and six months out for drilling. Northern California has 75% of the water, rest of California is sucking air, and with all the orchards need water 365 days of the year if no rain. For each almond on a tree takes one gallon of water to produce that nut, and Califordia grows 90% of the almonds world wide.
This summer many irrigation districts are handing out 35% water and next summer zero, it has cost California 22 billion in crop loss this years, god knows the cost of next summer if no rain.
Enjoy your summer salads while you still can.
The only concern I have is when those liberal bastards start to migrate out of Californication. Many have moved to Colorado and are destroying the culture of the State. Northern Counties want to join up Wyoming. Sad I tell you, very sad.
Re the Drought Monitor Map. See that blue, stringy thingy that starts in north central Colorado and winds its way down through the Southwest to the Gulf of California. That’s the Colorado River. Without it, Arizona, southern Nevada, and southern California are toast.
Now observe that the Colorado River headwaters are in a totally white (no drought) area. Why? Because the central and northern Colorado Rockies got bombed with a 120-160% snowpack ABOVE normal this past winter. So, there should be more water headed towards Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and Lake Havasu, right? That’s correct.
Except there won’t be more water to consume. Why? Stupid shit, that’s why. In May, millions of acre-feet of water were dumped into the lower Colorado to revive a 40-mile stretch of dry Colorado river bed in MEXICO that hasn’t seen a flow of any water for decades because of storage in the U.S.
Was it done for the Mexican farmers to return and raise crops to feed people and animals?
No, it was done to “revive and study an ecosystem” that hasn’t existed for years and years. A few ecologists, with the help of the USG, did this stupid shit just to fucking study something that will benefit absolutely NO ONE.
Millions of acre-feet of water!!!! Whoosh. Gone. During an extreme drought. A family of four uses about one acre-foot of water per year. Think about that and tell me this wasn’t stupid shit.
Meanwhile, Fairbanks had the highest rainfall June in recorded history, very nearly the wettest July (breaking many daily records) and enters August with heavy rain. My relatives in So Cal are welcome to some-I’ve had enough this year. At least watering the garden has been easy.
SSS , it wasn’t just stupid it was Damn stupid. Alot that going around these days.
SSS, I thought you were going to claim it was stupid shit like people trying to live large in the fucking desert areas of Las Vegas, Tucson and Phoenix.
IS – that was hiarious. Great point sarcastcally made.
“SSS, I thought you were going to claim it was stupid shit like people trying to live large in the fucking desert areas of Las Vegas, Tucson and Phoenix.”
—-I_S
Las Vegas, yes. Now for some homework for you. Study the Salt River Project for Phoenix and the underground aquifer that sits under Tucson and extends for a good fifty miles or more to the west of Tucson. Second largest in the U.S., and it’s full even though there are over 200 wells sunk into that aquifer. How does that happen? More homework. Look up the recharging ponds in Avra Valley. No state in the nation conserves water better than Arizona.
Now off you go. Get back with me after you’ve learned a thing or two.
“IS – that was hiarious. Great point sarcastcally made.”
—-Anonymous
Laugh’s on you, asshole. Read my reply to I_S. And either learn how to spell or start correcting your typos.
Sensetti,
I need to know where the Conservative Cocksucker enclave is. Far as I know, that’s the only way to escape the Liberal Bastards.
I’m also trying to avoid the Libertarian Loonies. Then there are all those Communist Cunts.
Not too many Nasty Nazis though, haven’t seen any for over 60 years.
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
==========================================
And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
SSS, instead of searching for for info on the items you suggested I searched on “does tucson or phoenix take water from the colorado river” and learned a little about the Central Arizona Project which was built to provide both Tucson and Phoenix with water. Beginning in 2016 Arrizona will be allowed to withdraw up 100,000 acre feet or 120,000,000 cubic meters of water from the Colorado River. Regardless of how well Arizona conserves water, the fact is that the state is living well beyond it’s means.
The Colorado has not found it’s way to the ocean as you put it, in decades, which has destroyed the 3000+ square mile wetlands of what was once the largest desert estuary on the North American continent. Besides destroying the river ecosystem this has also caused untold damage to the sea life ecosystem of the Sea of Cortez not to mention the complete losses suffered by humans that lived in that region.
I’m sure the golf courses of Arizona are infinitely more important that ecosystems and myriad life that has been permanently destroyed by sustaining the unsustainable for a few generations of retirees. If that doesn’t rank right up there with stupid shit, I don’t know what does.
As I’ve said before, humans are a plague on this planet.
“IndenturedServant says:
As I’ve said before, humans are a plague on this planet.
Thus endeth my reading on this site. A believer who won’t off hmself to save the planet.
DaveL said:
“A believer who won’t off hmself to save the planet.”
LOL! I’m striving to be the last human. I have a stirring soliloquy to deliver to the planet once everyone else is gone.
I_S
A bit of a pompous ass, aren’t we? Please explain the Long Lake Dam on the Spokane River which destroyed the salmon “ecosystem” along the river. Please explain how Canada could devastate the power grid and entire “ecosystem” of the Pacific Northwest if it decided to divert the majority of the water flowing in the Colombia River. The river originates in Alberta, heads over to British Colombia and then flows into the U.S. It’s a fucking Canadian river, I_S.
That would destroy the entire metro area of Spokane, wouldn’t it, I_S? Not to mention places like Portland. You live in a semi-arid desert, don’t you, I_S? You depend on the snowpack of the Canadian Rockies, don’t you, I_S? Just like WE depend on the snowpack of the Colorado Rockies.
That’s just the tip of a geographical shitstorm waiting for you. Get your head out of the galaxies and focus on your immediate surroundings. You’re just as vulnerable as I am.
Spokane is not importing water to live beyond it’s means. The water comes from an aquifer that is quite healthy if the annual reports to water customers are to be believed. Water so pure it need not be treated to drink.
All the rivers in the PNW still arrive at the ocean. Nice dry diverting the the discussion from your original comment and my response to it though.
What else ya got?
SSS said:
“That’s just the tip of a geographical shitstorm waiting for you.”
after saying:
” The river originates in Alberta, heads over to British Colombia”
Is ya sure? Get bogged down in yer own shitstorm much?
I am in a bit of a pompous mood lately. Life is good!
SSS, geography is one of my favorite subjects and I know the geography of my local area very well. Being an ardent amateur geologist I use all kinds of maps, guide books and satellite imagery to explore quite a bit of it.
I think if you brush up on your geography a bit you’ll find that Spokane does not depend on a single drop from the Columbia River. The Columbia flows quite some distance from Spokane. THe Spokane river splits Spokane north and south and would be a more logical choice than the Columbia but like I said, the water comes from an aquifer.
Portland could probably get all of its water from the Willamette River if they had to since it flows right through the middle of the city.
Portland could get all its water by residents holding cups out of windows 10 minutes a day.
I was thinking if this drought drags on much longer folks may start to ask a little more forcefully for Great Lakes water.
But then again, maybe not. Water wars, coming to a town near you.
“About 400,000 residents in and around Toledo, Ohio, were without drinking water Saturday after officials said tap water had become contaminated with toxin from algae blooms in nearby Lake Erie. Toledo sits on the Maumee River, which flows into Lake Erie. The affected area includes parts of extreme southeastern Michigan near the Ohio border. Toledo draws its drinking water from Lake Erie.
Drinking the contaminated water could result in abnormal liver function, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, numbness or dizziness, officials said.”
Anon,
I went to Beaverton to set up a store for the company that I worked for in the mid 1990’s. The first 8 days it was beautiful, sunny, warm and dry. I said to the new employees who lived there how nice the weather was around there. They looked at me and laughed. The next two days it rained a constant down poor. They proceeded to explain to me that that was much more like their normal weather. Little did I know. Nice people though.
Bob.
What a recipe for potential disaster in California. Welfare capital of the country, bloated government bureaucracy, massive population, etc. etc.
Driving through southern California especially it’s hard not to be struck with how vulnerable the state is to any sort of disruption.
Boston Bob, rarely does it downpour in Portland. Its mostly a drizzle for 9 months with plenty of times to ride the bike all year. Raincoats are popular, umbrella’s delineate who’s from the east coast and who lives here.
I.S.says. “LOL! I’m striving to be the last human. I have a stirring soliloquy to deliver to the planet once everyone else is gone.”
:If a tree hugger screams in the forest and there’s noody there to hear it, who gives a fuck>”
“… rarely does it downpour in Portland. Its mostly a drizzle for 9 months” —- HalfPint
That’s even WORSE!
“A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike”
———– Proverbs 27:15
“A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.”
———– Proverbs 19:13
How often does it rain in the Pacific Northwest?
Twice a year.
Six months at a time.
What’s the best sun block you have?
Here try this.
What is it?
Directions to Portland!
I’ll take drizzle over the cites of the east coast any day.
Lived twelve years in Boston area.
Snow, bad roads, humid summers, cars everywhere.
I’ll take Portland any day.
card802 says:
“I was thinking if this drought drags on much longer folks may start to ask a little more forcefully for Great Lakes water.
But then again, maybe not. Water wars, coming to a town near you.”
Actually there have been proposals to build a canal or pipeline to divert water from the Columbia river in OR/WA and take it to CA. I love how the greenies in CA won’t let you sneeze for fear of creating some environmental damage but they have no problem running the Colorado river completely dry and now they want to take water from the Columbia. I guess as long as you can’t see the damage from CA it’s ok.
My wife is not quarrelsome but the beautiful blonde makes up for that imbalance in spades. So, yeah, I would invert the lyrics of My Girl thusly, I’ve got drizzle on a sunny day…
No response from SSS? He must have stroked out after reading the geography beat down I put on his ass. I know we’ve sworn off of Google ’round these parts but there are other maps you can use to get the lay of the land SSS. Unfortunately none of them are going to support your argument that I’m just as vulnerable as you are living in the middle of a desert.
If I recall correctly, that fukstik DaveL is living large in the desert as well.
On the subject of food, there’s not much talk of corn, wheat and other grain trading at multiyear lows in spite of the drought in the west. Corn I think is about half the price of several years ago. looking forward to my wheaties coming down in price.
Meanwhile over here under the mighty Lake Erie our little village of Mantua suffered a problem at our filtration plant, leaving around 2,500 souls depending on FEMA for water for the weekend. To the surprise of many villagers I quote from the big city news article-‘FEMA is unable to provide any more water supplies at Buchert Memorial Park.’ Unable to provide. Nuff said. Keep prepping.
http://fox8.com/2014/08/03/mantua-water-to-be-fully-restored-sunday-afternoon/
“No response from SSS? He must have stroked out after reading the geography beat down I put on his ass.”
—-I_S
Hmmm. Spokane gets 16″ of precip a year, Tucson gets over 12″. BFD. One is a semi-arid continental climate, the other a semi-arid desert climate. The aquifer under Tucson is more than 4 times the size of the one, most of which is in Idaho, for Spokane.
As for the Columbia River, what is it about the map below you don’t understand? The river originates in Canada and is fed by the Canadian Rockies snowpack. Besides, I was talking about the immense hydroelectric power, not the water, that is the lifeblood of Washington and Oregon, not the water supply. If Canada decides to screw with that hydro flow, you’re toast. Address THAT, I_S.
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History lesson, I_S. Ever hear of “Fifty-four forty or fight?” I didn’t think so. Look at the following map and tell me if you see anything instructive. Try and locate the Columbia River.
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The Columbia does not originate in Alberta nor does it flow to Spokane. And no, we do not depend on the snowpack of the Canadian Rockies. Still wanna talk about geographical shitstorm waiting for me?
I do not believe either of us were talking about hydroelectric power since we were both talking aquifers which are not used to generate power but we can go there. Besides that we are talking about surviving in our respective environments and humans can live without electricity but they’re not going far without water to drink. With at least five hydroelectric dams on the Spokane River I doubt the city will go dark without the flow from the Columbia. The majority if not all of the power coming to Spokane from Grand Coulee Dam (Columbia) was specifically allocated to the Kaiser Aluminum which is now all but out of business. Kaiser still owns that generating power allotment but they now sell it to Seattle and Portland last I heard. I know for certain that CA is a major user of Columbia River Hydro power and other southwest states may be as well but I’d have to check.
Even if Canada decided to dam the Columbia this would not stop the flow of the river and you and I both know damn well that Canada is not about to do anything to interrupt the hydroelectric generating capacity of US dams.
I agree that flushing hundreds of millions of gallons of water downstream to study a long destroyed ecosystem is stupid shit especially during drought but building cities in locations like deserts is equally stupid when those cities have to build canals to bring in life giving water. It’s doubly stupid when it’s done at the expense of ecosystems and people downstream. Human arrogance knows no bounds.
Just take your beat down like the mangy cur you are.
Of course I’m familiar with 54-40 or fight. I’m also a student of local history. A friend of mine is Jack Nisbett, author of numerous books on PNW history. I’m also a member of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
The Columbia River headwaters are Columbia Lake just below and to the left of the word “divide” on your map.
From Wikipedia:
“The Columbia begins its 1,243-mile (2,000 km) journey in the southern Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia (BC). Columbia Lake – 2,690 feet (820 m) above sea level – and the adjoining Columbia Wetlands form the river’s headwaters.”
That would make the green line on your map coming out of Alberta a TRIBUTARY of the Columbia River but nice try. The green line on your map that you are going to try and incorrectly state is the origin of the Columbia actually denotes the path of what was known as the York Factory Express. (see attached picture) Ever heard of David Thompson? Again, nice try but it’s time to call it quits gramps!
Twist and turn all you want you mangy cur. It just makes you look like a worm on hot pavement!
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Oh yeah, Portland would probably still do ok on the flow coming through the Columbia River channel due to the flow of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers which join the Columbia just east of the Wallula Gap. That alone might be enough to run the turbines on the lower Columbia.
@Card802
I have to tell ya’, I’m sitting here with a HUGE smile on my face concerning the Toledo water situation.
From the day hub and I moved in together, he has mocked me, and dumped out my water and thrown out my containers.
“We live in a city,” he says.
“There will always be water, electricity or no,” he says.
I grew up rural, where if we lost power, we lost water. It was 2nd nature to have a dozen milk jugs filled with water under the house. I would dump and refill a minimum of twice a year.
When I moved to the city, I couldn’t lose the peace that those 12 gallons of water brought me, so I kept doing it.
In August of 2002 (I believe), many of us, from De’toilet to New York, had no power, Guess what? We had no water either, strangely, the city water plant needs the grid to operate. Weird, no?
Anyway, he still mocks me and still dumps out my water every chance he gets. This weekend reminded me to stock back up again, and when he returns from Canada I’ll be sure he sees all the news coverage of Toledo.
The saddest part is that the residents are literally a couple miles from a major river – the Maumee – and a Great Lake – Erie – yet they have no access to water.
I swear to gawd when/if the system goes down, people will die of thirst sitting on the shores of a river, and starve to death outside a field of wheat, or corn.
Our democracy is made up of a majority of people that struggle to survive when others do all the work for them.
This will end well…
*boom*
If folks out west want Great Lakes water, they can damn well move back to Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, and all the other cities that were wrecked and depopulated, AND taxed, to build the water infrastructure that makes it possible to maintain cities of 2M people or more on the high desert. All the cities of the Northeast and Midwest were plundered to build the humongous Colorado and Columbia River plumbing systems, which also take huge amounts of fossil fuels to maintain. Keep your goddam mitts off our water. The nine Great Lakes states and Canadian Great Lakes provinces have long ago formed a very tightly-worded water protection pact that prevents our water from being exported even to outstate IL outside a clearly defined watershed, let alone to places like Arizona and Wyoming.
Oh, by the way, these systems were only possible by means of GOVERNMENT programs. There is no farkin’ way that private entities could or would have built the hundreds of mega-dams and thousands of other dams, aquaducts, and other water infrastructure that made the settlement of the west possible to begin with. That stuff was built in advance of the massive migration of the population from east of the Mississippi, to the far west, and made it possible.
In other words, were it not for the power of the federal government to tax and to embark on huge building programs over decades, the west as we know it would not exist. People used to recognize that, which is why, in ancient times, ranchers would have signs thanking God and the Bureau of Reclamation for their prosperity.. .and which is why I chortle with amusement and disgust alike when I hear of some rancher out there who leases his ranch from BLM and hasn’t paid rent on it in 20 years talk about his “property rights”.
Let’s stop playing pretend, and start living within our means. If you live in the desert, you will have to lead a desert lifestyle, just as if you live in the northeast or Midwest, you have a heat bill to worry about. We’re getting past the point where we continue to turn night into day and turn a house lot in Rancho Mirage into a mini-rainforest.
Can add that California agriculture, which provides many types of products produced nowhere else, would be having a much easier time if only about 20 million or so CA residents would move back east.
There would be other benefits. Maybe the remaining first time home buyers would be able to score a 4-room, 800 ft, 1940-vintage stucco shack for less than $700K.
Before it’s all over, water will be the new oil, John
I think it will be the new gold, too, John.
Nothing else matters if you can’t get to fresh water.
“Nothing else matters if you can’t get to fresh water”.
That’s the truth and that’s one of the thousand reasons or so that I stay in the “shitty” of Chicago. If services break down, I can just trot over to the lake, which is close to my place, and pull a couple of gallons out to treat with my Berkey. There are many ways to treat fresh water to make it safe, but there’s no way to survive if you can’t get any.
That’s why I predict that ALL of the cities of the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley areas will experience stunning revivals in the next 40 years. Forget about the destruction that has transpired in them in the past 60 years. The trends of the post WW2 era are about to reverse sharply as we go down the other side of the slope from Peak Resources. It isn’t just oil and water that will be increasingly in short supply, but also fertile farmland. The Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley states have both. The Pacific Northwest, also, will become increasingly in demand,too.
TE,
I sat watching my sprinklers this weekend and wondered why I am watering grass when so many are doing without good water.
We keep 50+ gals of fresh water in six gallon containers rotated at all times. I have a well head with a old fashioned hand pump to attach if long term water is needed, we have good water at 20 feet.
I feel sorry for your hubs and so many like him, if the grid goes down or there is some type of water emergency they will be dead in a week because they can’t cope without the necessities they’ve come to expect.
Water will be the next gold.
Ah Card, ye’ old ‘murkin lawns.
I’ve often wondered why we don’t make large expanses of mowed grass illegal. It contributes to global warming – unless you believe the millions of miles of mowed expanses next to this nation’s highways are mowed by greenie unicorns, it removes more plant life that would combat global warming, it is a compete waste of our limited resources. However, it is a simply stunning use of public union employees and city council graft.
I refuse to water any established lawn. I plant primarily drought-tolerant, or native, landscaping plants and once past the first year of establishment I don’t often water them. The only plant life that gets my precious water is my garden. The rest is nothing but “zen landscaping.” If it survives, then it was meant to be. If it dies, then bad choices on my part do not equate to misusing natural resources.
Not to mention the savings I have of not mowing the yard most late July’s/August’s. Lovin’ it!
@TE – I grew up rural, but stupid. We never kept containers of freshwater around, so when the power went out I ended up doing backbreaking labor.
We had a damned good well, and our pump at the well location had quick disconnects on it. These would connect with a large poly tank we used to use for hauling water to cattle. Then, I would manually pump the water into the big poly tank, and use it to refill the cistern that was normally filled by the pump.
The stupid part is that it never occurred to us to use a 12V pump (car battery/jumper pack) or gas powered pump. I guess it was to keep cost down, I only ever had to pump with the crank a handful of times because our cistern up by the house held a lot of water, so often we would make it through the power outage without actually having ran out of water.
But still….that damned crank. Not bad by itself, but piled on top of all the other issues that came with a power outage and I quickly grew to hate it.
PE: Can you wire the electric pump to run off a 12v jumper pack or car batt as a backup?
I’m beginning to think that everyone who can manage it ought to arrange for an alternative power source for emergencies. I am looking into the possibilities for multi-famiy dwellings with separate meters for each unit. There is a batt that you can attach to your meter, that stores power as it comes into the house and switches on automatically in the event of a power failure.
Trouble is, all these “backups” are only good until the battery runs down, or you run out of fuel for the thing. Then all bets are off.
In a real, prolonged emergency, we are all just screwed.. So it’s best to have a manual tech you can rely on in a real squeeze.