It looks as if Nestle’s illegal extraction of water from the San Bernardino National Forest in California isn’t the only water battle raging in the face of California’s water crisis. A Northern California water district legally charged a smaller competitor millions in extraction fees for drawing water from wells on its own property, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Many places on the planet have arid climates and harvest rainwater in order to stay irrigated even when the sun blazes hot. California scientists have taken a hint from those who take the rain when it comes in order to help the state survive one of the worst droughts in its history.
This is no new technology. China recently commemorated a 2000-year old irrigation system. Proper irrigation systems not only save water in times of drought, but also save entire cities from flooding when rivers and lakes overflow.
Bernie Sanders at the second Democratic debate. Because Debbie Wasserman Schultz scheduled this debate on a Saturday during the run-up to the college football playoffs, close to half of the previous Democratic debate audience missed this exchange.by Gaius PubliusThis is Bernie Sanders at the second Democratic debate:
Only a couple centuries ago California was mostly covered in lush naturally evolving ecosystems that surrounded and provided ecological habitat for relatively small settlements of Native Americans. Grizzly bears roamed and redwood forests towered. Now the heavily industrialized state is an over-populated ecologically collapsing mess. Natural ecosystems are surrounded by an endless sprawl of human filth, and the very climate is abruptly changing.
The metaphors are too ripe. California, symbol of limitless abundance, material wealth, possibilities for personal transformation. California, the impossibly over-endowed beauty, who wins all the contests, to the bitter envy or sycophantic admiration of the average Joes and Janes. California, the consummate global destination for the millions of who are desperate for reinvention: sexual, political, economic. California – thanks to the limitless marketability of human desire, which built its gargantuan industry of dreams – the world’s avatar for the whole USA.
In 2011 Geoff Dalglish gave up all his worldly possessions to walk more than 10,000 miles and spread a message of treading lightly on the Earth. Here, he talks about his latest quest: a three year long water conservation pilgrimage starting next month
The U.S. went a decade without any cases of the plague, but this summer the illness has made headlines after several people contracted the disease while visiting Yosemite National Park.
On August 18, California officials announced that they were looking into a case of plague in a Georgia resident who visited the park this month. The patient is presumed to have the plague, but the CDC has not yet confirmed the case. [1]
Last month, a Los Angeles county girl was also diagnosed with plague after visiting Yosemite. Health officials say she is recovering.
Might Monsanto play a role in California’s drought? If the company isn’t causing it directly, it at least plans to profit from it. To whit – the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), just lodged an appeal to South African Agriculture, Water Affairs, and Forestry Minister, Senzeni Zokwana, against the general release approval of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) maize, MON87460.
Water – its dearth or its abundance – is already a global problem. It manifests itself in poor countries, poor regions and poor neighborhoods first, but most assuredly will affect us all within the next generation. In 2015, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risk Reports rated “Water crises” as the most important risk facing the world.
