Why California is Running Out of Water

california is a state that is well known for a lot of things but one of the most infamous problems that it's been known for recently is a major one that's been getting a lot worse as time has gone on water the very lifeblood of everything is often a challenging resource to come by here everybody who's ever lived anywhere near to this state has been bombarded nearly their entire lives by the almost constant frightening news of drought water restrictions and scarcity and the terrible effects that all of these things have been having on the environment like record-breaking wildfires it isn't a little-known fact that california has a major problem with its water resources but this isn't exactly a new problem far to the contrary california's water problem is an ancient one that goes back thousands of years and a lot of both the problems and the solutions simply have to do with california's incredibly unique geographic circumstances to begin with it's really important to understand where all of california's demand for water is actually coming from there are nearly 40 million people who live here as of 2022 which naturally means that the human demand for water is pretty big but all things considered only around 10 of california's total water supply is actually consumed by people in the state's various towns and cities like los angeles san diego san francisco sacramento and all the others combined the much larger consumer of water in the state is california's massive 50 billion a year agricultural industry that consumes about another 40 percent of california's total water supply but there's a pretty good reason for this because california is one of the greatest bread baskets of the whole world blessed with an abundance of highly rich and fertile soil throughout the central valley and coupled with a warm mediterranean-style climate california produces roughly one-third of america's vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts the central valley alone produces more than eight percent of america's entire agricultural output by value and produces roughly a quarter of the nation's supply of food more than 250 different kinds of crops are grown by farmers in california but out of all of them the crop that always seems to get the most attention are almonds this is an industry that california absolutely dominates as around 80 percent of the entire worldwide supply of almonds are produced within the state and are worth around six billion dollars a year since 1995 california almond production has increased by more than eight-fold as demand for the nut has increased dramatically in far away places like india east asia and europe which means that today almonds alone account for about a quarter of california's entire agricultural exports but they're also an incredibly thirsty crop to produce consuming all on their own around 10 of california's entire amount of water that is used by humans a further 14 of the water used by humans in the state is used to grow alfalfa which is used to feed cattle and another 9 is used for livestock pasture all in all about 80 of the water used by humans in the state is committed entirely to this enormous agricultural industry that feeds tens of millions of people across not only the united states but the rest of the world as well so as america's most populous state and with america's largest agricultural sector droughts in california can have enormously outsized economic and environmental impacts when compared to elsewhere in the country the state of california ultimately receives most of its water in the form of rainfall and snow although this is highly variable across the state westerly winds bring in moisture to the state from the pacific ocean where they initially impact california's many high mountain ranges here the air blowing in from the pacific rises cools and forms precipitation meaning that some of the rainiest parts of the state are the various western facing sides of mountain slopes northwestern california in particular has a very temperate climate with average rainfall rates of 1300 millimeters a year more than double the average rainfall that london will see in a year storms bellowing into the state from the colder pacific northwest will bring abundant amounts of rainfall to the northernmost half of the central valley but they fail to penetrate much further into the southernmost edges of the valley where the conditions are significantly more desert-like as a result the towering mountains around the state like the sierra nevada the cascades and the klamath mountains each have mountain-style climates with thick snow in the winter that melts during the spring and summer months and fills california's many rivers tributaries and streams to the east of these mountains is the much drier rain shadow where the westerly winds carrying moisture in from the pacific fail to climb higher than the tall peaks of the mountains thus the areas to the east of these mountains in the state receive substantially less rainfall and snowfall than the rest of the state does and this is largely why the areas here are made up of the sonoran and mojave deserts overall california's mountainous geography directly adjacent to the pacific ocean naturally means that the vast majority of the rain and snowfall happens in the northern third of the state and this is probably the single most important fact to understand about california's water roughly 75 of the state's water supply comes from this northern third of the state above sacramento where only 20 percent of the state's population resides which means that conversely 80 percent of california's population lives in the lower two-thirds of the state where only a quarter of the state's water supply originates therefore almost inherently this means that massive volumes of water from the northern third of california are required to be transferred down to the south in order to meet their enormously larger demand and this makes the water management system within the state potentially the most controversial found anywhere in the world generally speaking around 200 million acre feet of water will fall upon california per year in the form of rain snow and imports from elsewhere half of that amount generally gets consumed by nature evaporates or falls back out into the pacific while the other half is consumed by humans divided roughly 80 20 between agriculture and everything else that's about a hundred million acre feet of water that humans use per year in the state on average but the big problem there is that that number is only an average and it fluctuates a ton depending on the kind of year it is depending on if it's currently a wet or a dry year the amount of water used by the humans of the state can fluctuate by about plus or minus 40 million acre feet or about 40 percent which for reference is about enough water to completely submerge the entire state of west virginia by a foot this is even further complicated by the fact that the vast majority of this rain and snowfall in california occurs only during the usually wetter winter months of the state between december and february when massive volumes of snow usually falls upon the high peaks of the sierra nevadas the cascades and the klamath mountains but this ends up meaning that a drier winter season than normal will have lasting consequences throughout the rest of the year or even beyond and the biggest difference this time in 2022 is that there's already been a couple of pretty bad years leading us up to this point it's all been part of a greater overall trend so far throughout the american southwest this century that some scientists have taken to calling a mega drought considered to have now begun around the year 2000 the 22-year time period ever since then has been the driest ever on record throughout the american southwest since at least the year 800 ce more than 1200 years ago long enough to have seen the coronation of charlemagne as the first emperor of the holy roman empire both 2002 and 2021 were drier than any of the previous 300 years before them had been and were respectively the 11th and 12th driest years seen any time since the year 800. rainfall and snowfall across california have been considerably less than average all of these past 22 years while temperatures have been higher and evaporation of existing water has been greater and this has been putting a monumental amount of stress on california's existing water system that largely shuffles water from the north of the state down to the south knowing that most of the waterfalls in the northern third of the state but that most of the population lived in the southern two-thirds the state of california across the early and mid 20th century decided to build an absurdly elaborate and complicated system of canals aqueducts and pipes that were designed to bring all of this water in the north down to the thirsty and growing cities of the south although there are many different reservoirs and systems aiding in this whole system the two most critical components are the central valley project and the california state water project each designed to move water southward either by distributing it for agricultural needs to the farmers of the central valley or for the large population centers in the southern part of the state like los angeles orange county the inland empire and san diego in total this extremely complex system is made up of dozens of dams reservoirs and thousands of miles of pipes and aqueducts serving tens of millions of people around the state of california in an effort to add on to this system even further there is also the los angeles aqueduct pulling water into the city from the owens river in the eastern sierra nevada mountains and the colorado river aqueduct that pulls in even further amounts of water from the colorado river that naturally flows hundreds of miles to the east along the california arizona border before entering into mexico all of these water systems combined have led some to label california as the most engineered state in the country and while they all sound great these engineering systems are only functional so long as the sources that they pull the water from are actually still providing that water for example in the case of the colorado river specifically and the many reservoirs along its stream they are all currently at cripplingly low historic water levels reservoirs on the river like lake powell in southern utah and lake mead the single largest water reservoir anywhere in the country inside of nevada are each approaching just 25 of their normal water capacities with some 40 million people who depend upon the colorado river and its various reservoirs not only for drinking water but power generation as well in the case of las vegas and much of southern california the ongoing mega drought and the depletion of water is causing an enormously stressful time across the american southwest and similarly in much of the rest of california the state's own major water reservoir such as lake shasta in northern california and lake oroville at the foothills of the sierra nevadas are both at historically low levels as well with each of these approaching just 50 percent of their total capacity with many years in a row of exceptionally low rainfall and the snowpack at record low levels as well the unrelenting drought-like conditions are taking their heavy toll on these and countless other important reservoirs across the state but in order to fill the reservoirs back up california actually needs some more precipitation which has been increasingly difficult to come by while typically snowfall within the state is at its deepest around april this past year it was only at around 10 inches in average height by that time to give you some context a normal amount of snowfall by this point is generally more like 26 inches which means that the snowmelt into california's rivers streams and reservoirs this year was just 38 of what it usually is and that's obviously not good but it's also been happening for each of the previous three years as well a lot of this recent lack in snow and rainfall across the state can be blamed on a meteorological event that takes place over the pacific ocean from time to time called la nina ever since the summer of 2020 the la nina event has brought with it cooler than usual northern pacific waters reducing the rates of evaporation and simultaneously nudging the polar jet stream further to the north across british columbia and washington state thereby dramatically reducing the winds and the moisture that ordinarily come to california from the pacific and bringing even worse drought-like conditions like less rainfall and higher temperatures to the state as a result in turn this has somewhat of a cascading effect as the atmospheric temperature increases it also tends to suck even more moisture out of the ground through a process known as evaporative stress quickly depleting soil moistures and leading to even hotter temperatures what ultimately remains is a pretty vicious cycle that is challenging to break short of the la nina event itself coming to its natural conclusion which can often take months or even years now with california's water usage already relatively high compared with the rest of the united states this summer is most likely going to be a difficult one for the state full of restrictions california water authorities are already calling for a 35 reduction in usage across the system and with so little water that's going to be available it's also expected that some farmland will most likely have to be entirely abandoned with some experts going as far to predict that up to 600 000 acres will be fallow by the end of the summer an area that's close to double the size of los angeles and with underground aquifers already over pumped and depleting their own reserves rapidly farmers in the state will only be left with limited options to turn to going forward unfortunately for california there aren't any easy solutions to this big problem whether it be mandatory cuts water recycling programs or greater and expensive investments into desalination technologies in plants along the salty california coast each come with their own drawbacks and huge associated costs becoming more efficient and using less water is going to become ever more important in the near future for the state and whatever the answer to that problem is california needs to be proactive today in order to avoid a complete water catastrophe in the future now a major reason that i was interested in making a video covering this topic is because i knew that i could get all kinds of spectacular footage of california's water systems and aqueducts from my stock footage provider story without any exaggeration since the very first real-life lore videos that i created more than five years ago now storyblocks has been the first place that i've always gone to to find footage they offer an unlimited subscription so that you can download and use as much as you need for an annual price that's lower than what many other providers charge for just a single clip beyond an unlimited subscription storyblocks also offers an entirely royalty-free library meaning that you can use anything from the library for any commercial or personal use and storybox offers far more than just footage and templates they also provide music images sound effects and more if you're already a creator or you're wanting to become one i can absolutely tell you from my more than five years of experience now as their customer that storyblocks is an absolutely critical resource for you to have i genuinely don't think that i know a single full-time creator who doesn't already have a subscription with them so if you're wanting to get started with them click the button that's here on screen right now or head over to storyblocks.com rll to sign up and by doing so you'll also be greatly supporting my channel while you're at it and as always thank you so much for watching

Channel: RealLifeLore

Views: 3,052,651

Keywords: real life lore, real life lore maps, real life lore geography, real life maps, world map, world map is wrong, world map with countries, world map real size, map of the world, world geography, geography, geography (field of study), facts you didn’t know

Id: jJVtLbg98Yk

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/fugeguy2point0]

Because it is a desert? And they have run out of other people's water to steal?

[u/tmo_slc]

How viable are desalinization plants for California?