Drought in California
The drought in California has seriously impacted California in a negative way and will continue to impact California negatively if it continues. Drought in California has always played a huge part in California’s geography and without action to help prevent the affects of long lasting droughts California will continue to suffer severe negative effects, which can lead to serious negative impact on the rest of the country as well.
Drought has been occurring in California even before it was named a state in 1850, but the current drought in California has people worried that it could become a “mega drought”. A mega drought is a prolonged drought lasting two decades or longer, and the last mega drought to occur started in 1140 and ended in 1320. Since then the longest droughts in the last hundred years were 1987 to 1992 and during the great depression in 1928 to 1934. The mega drought of 1140 to 1320 lasted 180 years and the longest mega drought recorded was a 240 years long drought from 850 to 1090.
The drought in California is to be blamed on what is being described as “A vast zone of high pressure in the atmosphere off the west coast.” (Rogers 2014) researchers have learned that the high pressure is preventing all kinds of storms from reaching California and instead are actually going up to Alaska and British Columbia and even the east coast. The wall of pressure has been hovering around California for more than a year and no one can say why it is happening(Rogers 2014).
The rainfall levels according to the San Francisco Chronicle are way down this year in California due to the drought, for example in San Francisco the rain level has been about 8.5 inches and the normal level of rainfall for this time of y...
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...ny foods have already gone up largely because of the drought. The prices of meat, eggs, fruits, and vegetables and a lot more foods have been shooting up. In 2012 the drought had prices rising which led to it costing the U.S. economy about $30 billion; the only severe weather disaster that has cost more of an impact was Hurricane Sandy.
The drought in California as it stands doesn’t seem likely for it to be going away anytime soon and with the chance that it could last so long that it could turn into a what is categorized as a mega drought the citizens of California are going to need to start taking steps to help lighten the blow of the drought. There are many ways to help prevent the drought from having as devastating of an impact on the state of California. Some of the really simple things the people of California can do to help preserve the water supply are to
Already scientists have observed that more than 75% of the recent economic losses are caused by natural hazards which can be attributed to wind storms, floods, droughts and other climate related hazards. In the year 2008, the U.S. state of Iowa was on the front pages of newspapers all around the world. Weeks of heavy rain in the Midwest caused rivers to swell and levees to break. Millions of acres of farmland are now underwater, their plantings most likely destroyed. By March, Iowa had tied its third-highest monthly snowfall in 121 years of record keeping, and then came the rain. April’s st...
The Dust Bowl occurred during the Great Depression, which made it even worse! The Dust Bowl forced farmers out of business. Prices for the crops the farmers grew took a major dip. The total assistance is estimated at $1 billion for the Dust Bowl, according to Dust Bowl effects. The 2012 drought also forced farmers to panic. Due to the drought, food prices went up and farm spending was reduced. The farmers were not bringing in the money as they once were, since people didn't want to buy their products. According to 2012 drought costs, the drought cost taxpayers a record $14 billion!
The California water drought has been declared a crisis by the governor of California. 2013 was the driest year on record, and California could be running out of water. Californians should be water wise, and their use, or no use, of water will have an enormous impact on this drought. They can use the techniques published in a recent Time article called, 5 Ways to Bust California’s Drought, to reduce their water use. Landscape techniques, alternate water sources, and the personal conservation of water can reduce the use of water, and can have a positive change on this water crisis.
The drought along with the dust storms as stated already made it impossible to plant crops, it also made it very difficult to provide food for the farmers and their families. If you could not plant anything, you did not have food for animals and you did not have food for families or children that needed it desperately. There was a sudden urgency of concern once farmers could not feed their family and members of those families started to starve.
...y. The water in Lake Oroville only reached 39 percent of capacity. That means that California is receiving less than half of their normal rainfall in just the northern region alone. Governor Jerry Brown finally decided to step in and declare the state of California, a drought. The dam isn’t being used nearly to its capacity, causing trouble for the rest of California (Chiocer).
On the heart (center) of California is a flat area with miles and miles of farms and up to 230 different crops. The central valley agriculture is essential to the United States; it not only delivers almost half of the produce but also helps the economy by also giving more job opportunities (California Department of food and agriculture, 2014). Many families depend on the central valley agriculture to survive economically in the United States. It is a well-known fact that rain and snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are a very important element in the central valley. No rain in the central valley can cause many devastating issues to occur quickly. Recently in the year of 2013 California received less rainfall than years before. The small amount of water the central valley is receiving is harming not only to the land but humans and animals as well. It’s destroying the habitats of animals with forest fires caused from the dry spells occurring. The central valley is going through a drought, so much that around this time of year the central valley usually accumulates enough rain for the necessities in the valley, agriculture for example. This year, however, has been different, the central valley hasn’t received enough water and this has caused a drought in the valley. Water is an important element in this world for not only human life, but for the environment in general, a shortage of water supply can bring issues to the environment and those living in it. The central valley holds the largest percent of class one soil, not only that, the valley grows a third of all the produce being grown in the United States, that’s more than 230 crops that are being grown in the central valley. However, this drought isn’t only affecting the resident...
...es the Yosemite Falls and the sequoia trees. One of the state’s problems is the appetite for water. The once fertile Owens valley is now dry and its waters tapped by Los Angeles. In the Imperial Valley, the eradication of water is controlled by the All-American Canal which gets its water from the Colorado River. In Central Valley the poor distribution is the water problem that is an imbalance lessened by the vast Central Valley project. California had cutbacks in federally funded water in the 1970sand 80s which led to California cities buying water from areas that had a surplus of water. But California failed to make a long-term to plan and the federal government stopped the funding of water to the state in 2003. But with all this being said and done, California remains to be a unique state with a lot of entertainment, history, agriculture and a productive economy.
For about five years California has experienced above average temperatures and a lack of rain. This lack of rain and snowfall has caused California to become increasingly dry, starting arguments over whose right to water is more important and who needs to be more mindful with their use of water. Farming in California truly began during the gold rush when water was redirected to land where food was grown for those looking for gold (Siegler, 2015). The farmers that have stayed on that land now have senior water rights (“Water wars”, 2015). Farmers that settled their land before 1914 are those with senior water rights (Terrell, 2015). Governor Jerry Brown has called for a cut in water use by one-quarter percent to people living
...the El Nino air pressure. The drought also has many impacts on economic, social and environmental. Manage drought comes from daily life and the government measure.
The California drought has been extremely harmful to the states’ air quality. Since 2012, California has seen the worst drought conditions in 1,200 years and it is severely affecting air quality (California’s drought, 2015). As of 2015, the cities of Hanford, Merced, Modesto, Fresno, Yuba City, Lancaster-Palmdale, Chico, Sacramento, and Bakersfield have been experiencing exceptional drought coverage (Pestano, 2015). California has a Mediterranean climate, which is a concentrated rainy period several months of the year and warm to hot temperatures the remaining of the year. For the past four years, California’s rainfall has been below average, which causes PM2.5 levels to go
California’s economy drops more and more every year, which causes there to be a rise in the homeless population. Homeless are impossible to avoid, especially in California, they have become people we see every day on the streets. Many factors increase the homeless population in California every year. Some of these factors include unemployment, mental illness/drug abuse, and prisoner release. With the homeless population rising there could be a huge health alert rising as well. As a community, we can decrease the population of homelessness.
However, the storms, floods, fire and drought that are already playing havoc with agriculture are likely to have a significant negative impact, along with the longer term flooding of coastal areas.
Onishi, N. & Wollan, M. (2014, January 17). Severe drought grows worse in california. The New York Times. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/as-californias-drought-deepens-a-sense-of-dread-grows.html?_r=0
As many of you may know, 2013 has set the record for the driest year in California history and this drought has continued into 2014.
(2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Drought - a fact sheet. Retrieved from: http://www.ifad.org/lrkm/factsheet/cc.pdf The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007).