Well, that's a depressing picture.
And for those few yahoos pointing and laughing at the dumb liberals in that zany state, remember that laughter when you wonder why the fruits, vegetables, and nuts in your grocery store are suddenly a hell of a lot more expensive.
Watch the drought take over the entire state of California
It started off bad, then it got worse. And then it got much, much worse.
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Well, at least the Delta Smelt is safe!
+Mark Means True. Though farms and lawns and recreational lakes can, in theory, recover (not easily, and not without pain). A species, once it goes extinct because someone wanted to irrigate a walnut grove, is gone forever.
(Delta smelt: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-usa-california-water-idUSBREA2C1MB20140313)
Imagine if climate change were real and not a liberal hoax.
From my understanding, it's a man made issue….not global warming.
http://naturalresources.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=5921
True as far as it goes, but climate change is certainly a factor. California had its lowest levels of precipitation last year. Lack of rain certainly affects droughts.
http://www.weatherwest.com/
Yeah … the link you provide, +Mark Means, basically indicates that the problems are all about the whole Delta smelt thing, which seems highly improbable. The drought map itself indicates drought conditions throughout the entire state, not just in the delta area. That the ruling in this case is not making life any easier for people who draw water from the delta may be so, but it's not the cause of the water shortages across the entire state (or even across the entire San Joaquin Valley).
Hmm. I've seen several westerns from the 40s and 50s about range wars over water rights. California may have to attack its neighbors soon.
+Scott Randel Things have nearly come to blows between the states in the past over Colorado River water (with the true losers the Mexicans downstream).
+Dave Hill
I'm sure diverting three million acre feet into the Pacific didn't help anything, though.
The House site indicated 1 million acre-feet being diverted in 2009 and 2010. I'll assume that was each year. I haven't seen anything to indicate that's gone up.
Per Wikipedia on the Delta, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento%E2%80%93San_Joaquin_River_Delta#Water_supply):
'About half the total river flow in the state passes through this region, from which water is exported to the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California and portions of the Bay area to supply some 1,130,000 acres (460,000 ha) of farmland and 23 million people in central and Southern California.[22] The Delta provides an estimated 7 million acre feet (8.6 km3) of water per year, of which about 100,000 acre feet (0.12 km3) are exported to the San Francisco Bay Area, 1.7 million acre feet (2.1 km3) are used locally, and over 5 million acre feet (6.2 km3) are exported to the San Joaquin Valley, coastal Central and Southern California.'
So 1 million per year is not trivial out of the total. But it's also not the core problem at hand.
The Reuters article I linked to indicated it's not just the Delta smelt that are involved, either, but that suits for other fish (including salmon and trout) were also pending, which would be using the same non-diverted water.