3 hours ago, dave2013 said:

but there simply isn't enough water and food in those areas to support such a huge population.

It should be noted that "Over a third of the country's vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts are grown in California." and "California is the largest ag exporting state in the nation, with more than 40% of its production going to foreign buyers."

By the way, thanks for the strawberries from Watsonville, California. They were delicious.

Edited July 25, 20223 yr by dmwalker

3 hours ago, birdguy said:

Instead of writing paragraphs and paragraphs about what should have been done in the past why not start thinking of solutions for the people who are already there?

I already did that in an earlier post on page 1 of this topic.

Of course I'm not suggesting that people be forced to move away.

The population increase didn't happen overnight.  Some people have seen this coming for decades.  It's just too easy to become complacent and kick the can down the road.

Like I said, aggressive conservation policies and development of new water sources.  It's going to cost a lot of money, and the good people of California, Arizona, and Nevada should pay for it, but I'm sure our money printers in DC will provide the funds.

Dave

On 7/24/2022 at 5:10 PM, dmwalker said:

Better late than never. Israel seems to have well developed technology for desalination as well as wastewater reclamation so what additional development would be needed?. Reverse osmosis seems to be the way to go since no chemicals are used in the process. What alternatives do we have?

I live in South Texas.  I am all in favor of whatever it takes to get water.  Here, even in good years, it is problematic.  I have lived in coastal areas with companies that developed floating desalinization plants, but could not get the permitting passed.  My point is that when you are up to your rear in alligators, it's too late to think about draining the swamp.  At this point, they have little option but to wait it out.

30 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Like I said, aggressive conservation policies and development of new water sources.

This starts with a proper market price for water. We've had the state(s) distorting the true cost of water for too long - let the market allocate what there is. People (residents, farmers) can decide whether their water needs make economic sense or not.

Cheers!

1 hour ago, jbcallender said:

At this point, they have little option but to wait it out.

At least there has to be a plan and preparation for the inevitable next drought so you won't be saying "well, now we're 15 years too late to do anything so let's wait it out" 

Was the resistance to floating desalination plants because of concern that the water may not be free from contamination by the oil rigs?

Edited July 26, 20223 yr by dmwalker

As far as I can tell  from the most valuable and interesting contributions to this fascinating topic, 
just as in many other places in the world, mankind has manipulated nature in order to facilitate
what mankind wants to do instead of what nature intended.
Now, nature is pushing back against the wanton destruction that inevitably follows such actions
and yet, some of us are surprised and wondering what can be done and even fretting about probably
the least of nature's concerns, how much the financial cost might be.
The far more significant cost may well be to both the quality and even the existence of life in these areas.

Attempts to mitigate the problems instead of mitigating the causes of the problems are most likely to simply
result in deepening the existing crisis and adding further crises to be solved by future generations, if indeed
nature is prepared to offer them the chance.

It is by no means a problem confined to the USA, here are three more of many man-made disasters,
engineered for much the same reasons:
Aral Sea - Wikipedia
Lake Urmia - Wikipedia
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest - Wikipedia
Utah's Great Salt Lake is running out of water - BBC News

In the interests of balance, over here in Northern Europe, we are also well down the same path.
We may not suffer the same water shortages yet but there is drought in many countries and water shortages
are not so far away.
We have emptied the seas of fish, decimated our wildlife populations by both taking over their habitats and
poisoning the remaining ones and poured unspeakably damaging chemicals over pretty much everywhere.
These things are only the tip of the iceberg that could well sink us all in due course.

Edited July 26, 20223 yr by Reader

14 hours ago, Reader said:

As far as I can tell  from the most valuable and interesting contributions to this fascinating topic, 
just as in many other places in the world, mankind has manipulated nature in order to facilitate
what mankind wants to do instead of what nature intended.

This is almost proof that mankind is not native to this planet and was put here as an experiment to see how long it would take us to destroy the planet.  Of course once we are gone the planet will heal itself, new species will evolve to fit ion with the habitat they find themselves in and whoever put us here in the first place will learn that it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Noel

On 7/25/2022 at 7:10 PM, dmwalker said:

At least there has to be a plan and preparation for the inevitable next drought so you won't be saying "well, now we're 15 years too late to do anything so let's wait it out" 

Was the resistance to floating desalination plants because of concern that the water may not be free from contamination by the oil rigs?

No, in fact the area was 1,000 miles form the nearest oil rig.  I think it was resistance to new ideas  couched in a fear of possible damage to wetlands and coastal areas.