Posts Tagged: drought
Opinion
OPINION – Unless a new bill to grow California’s essential water supply, SB 366 (Caballero), is signed into law, our only progress on water supply this year – as this summer’s record temperatures foreshadow potential droughts to come – will be another, dubious conservation mandate, which is a multi-billion-dollar effort for a miniscule volume of water.
Opinion
OPINION – After a big year of action in 2022, our state had some monumental wins in 2023 but also undercut this progress with actions and policies that move us in the opposite direction on environmental protection and climate leadership. In 2023, California’ took two steps forward and one step back.
Opinion
OPINION – People need to be convinced that a future in which their cars, houses, stoves, and garden equipment run on electricity – and that they will need to live sustainably – will not mean a decline in their quality of life. That’s why California should mandate climate change education in grades K-12 right now.
Experts Expound
The California insurance market is in flux. We asked our Experts to rate, on a scale of one to 10, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s handling of this situation so far.
Opinion
OPINION: The California storms that kicked off 2023, bringing flooding and record high snowpack, might seem enough to end a prolonged dry spell. But if history is our guide, we know that wet winters doesn’t always end a mega-drought.
News
Planted in spring, farmers drain their fields in August, and they drive big, loud harvesters into them in September, gently separating the rice stalks from the grain, and blowing the harvest into bankout wagons that they tow beside them. On average, each acre produces 8,000 pounds of rice, which is a greater yield than most of the world’s rice growing regions. But this September, 300,000 of California’s 550,000 acres of rice lay barren—over half the state’s rice crop.
News
More than 60% of California’s groundwater wells are operating at below-normal levels, endangering much of the Golden State’s population that relies on the precious resource. Although relatively unknown to many Californians, who see water supply in terms of rivers, streams and reservoirs, groundwater is a hugely vital source that is largely invisible.
News
The final curtain fell early Thursday on a legislative session that coursed through a pandemic, bolstered reproductive rights, saw a speaker nearly dispatched by his own caucus and drew the national spotlight to a governor who had survived an effort to recall him from office.
Opinion
OPINION: With climate change, our boom and bust cycle of rainy vs dry years will mean fewer rainy years and longer, more frequent dry years. We’ve all been doing our part to conserve water during this drought, but according to figures provided by state water regulators, it’s not enough.
News
As a native of the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs where it hardly ever rains, Joaquin Esquivel has always known that water is precious. His uncle often took him to the Salton Sea, and he had family served by a well. He carries that respect for the resource as chair of California’s State Water Resources Control Board. “Growing up in the desert, you are very aware of water,” he said.
The California Aqueduct Located in the Desert City Palmdale. Image by Brandon Boucher
