California Drought Essay

Human depletion of the Earth’s ozone has contributed to the flow of pollution. (Rowlands, 1991). Many materials used by humans and factories can be naturally transported by either air or water. Oftentimes the materials that should be naturally transported can begin to degrade chemically in the physical environment (Rowlands, 1991). As materials left behind as a result of the population waste deteriorate, it can then begin to affect the crops from agriculture, contaminate the drinking water, and reduce the growth of plants and trees. Degradation of materials can also cause people to migrate to new areas, in search of food and land. The Earth is surrounded by a thin layer of ozone. In this layer, it absorbs almost all of the incoming UV rays

The droughts are due to loss of snowpack, reduced precipitation and high temperatures. The California drought has created favorable circumstances for dangerous infectious diseases such as the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus and Valley Fever. California drought also worsened and increased health issues for people with asthma and allergies, because of the smog and air pollution; heat related illnesses caused people to die from extreme high temperatures. (National Resource Defense Council, 2015). The extreme dry conditions caused by the California drought contributes to wildfires that became out-of-control, and by late century, wildfires are expected to increase by 55%. The high temperatures takes the moisture out of the air and the soil and it causes the vegetation to burn quickly and causes fires to get larger, “In past years on average between January 1 and April 18, there would be 492 fires burning 1,300 acres. During the same time period in 2014, it was 862 fires burning 2,417 acres, and in 2015, 838 fires scorching 3,534 acres.” (National Broadcast Communications, 2015). Chinook salmon is also at risk of becoming extinct due to the warm temperatures of the water. In California, it is the primary catch for ocean fisheries and it supports thousands of jobs. Flooding is also a problem during the drought. Monsoons cause flash floods in the summer, although brief, it’s extremely tense; artic storms occur in the winter and cover Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains with snow; and atmospheric river storms is a sequence of either rain or snow that lasts for days or weeks and can produce inches to feet of rain or snow. Health impacts include contaminated water and increased population of disease-carrying insects and rodents during