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NASA: California will run out of water in 12 months

Mar 16, 2015#1

GasBandit

http://dailyoftheday.com/according-to-nasa-official-california-has-one-year-of-water-left/

You hear that, @Dei? Tell all the Coloradoans west of the divide to flush twice, California needs the water.

Mar 16, 2015#2

sixpackshaker

California has all the people living in all the wrong places. L.A. and the surrounding area needs to have half the population move out. The desert is no place to house 10 million people.

Mar 16, 2015#3

PatrThom

I saw that in the news yesterday.
Fortunately I'll be out of CA by June, so there's plenty for me for now!

--Patrick

Mar 16, 2015#4

Tress

Farming continues to eat up most of our water. I would complain, but the Central Valley is one of the main food suppliers for the country as a whole. I don't know how to tell farmers to stop growing crops without wrecking the economy. Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington have more water than they need. We should build a giant canal and buy water from those two states.

If anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

Mar 16, 2015#5

PatrThom

A while back, someone floated the idea of towing giant plastic bags full of Great Lakes water through Chicago and into the Mississippi river for all the parched southwestern states.

It didn't go so well.

--Patrick

Mar 16, 2015#6

Necronic

No one really lives where they are supposed to.

LA - Desert

Houston - Swamp

New York - Island

Dallas - Dallas

New Orleans - Below Sea Level

Mar 16, 2015#7

GasBandit

Tress said:
Farming continues to eat up most of our water. I would complain, but the Central Valley is one of the main food suppliers for the country as a whole. I don't know how to tell farmers to stop growing crops without wrecking the economy. Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington have more water than they need. We should build a giant canal and buy water from those two states.

If anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

As I was scanning frequencies at lunch today, I heard that Rush Limbaugh was actually talking about this. He said that California grows pretty much all our fruits and vegetables (like 90% of our broccoli or something), and his suggestion was to build a pipeline from Canada or possibly Alaska. Melt snow and ice there, and have it run down the pipe to california's reservoirs. And so what if the pipeline leaks? It's water.

Of course, my initial worry was, what happens when the pipeline freezes.[DOUBLEPOST=1426544551,1426544455][/DOUBLEPOST]

Necronic said:
No one really lives where they are supposed to.

LA - Desert

Houston - Swamp

New York - Island

Dallas - Dallas

New Orleans - Below Sea Level

If I'd been drinking when you said "Dallas - Dallas" it'd have come out my nose.

But another example - the Mississippi flood plane. Doesn't that shit flood and wipe everything out like once every 10 years, and we always pony up to rebuild in the exact same place?

See also - Florida - Hurricane central

Mar 16, 2015#8

Ravenpoe

GasBandit said:
See also - Florida - Hurricane central

There are much worse things here than hurricanes. Like Floridians.

Mar 16, 2015#9

bhamv3

Is 12 months enough to build a working pipeline from wherever it needs to come from?

Mar 16, 2015#10

GasBandit

bhamv3 said:
Is 12 months enough to build a working pipeline from wherever it needs to come from?

I honestly have no idea... but it's water, not a nuclear bomb. If the pipeline isn't done in 12 months, it's not like California falls into the ocean.

Mar 16, 2015#11

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
If the pipeline isn't done in 12 months, it's not like California falls into the ocean.

Well, they'd have plenty of water.

--Patrick

Mar 16, 2015#12

GasBandit

PatrThom said:
Well, they'd have plenty of water.

--Patrick

Technically, the already have plenty of THAT water. It's not quite suitable for agriculture, however. You know, water, water everywhere, but not a drop to ~~drink~~ irrigate.

Mar 16, 2015#13

MindDetective

Tress said:
Farming continues to eat up most of our water. I would complain, but the Central Valley is one of the main food suppliers for the country as a whole. I don't know how to tell farmers to stop growing crops without wrecking the economy. Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington have more water than they need. We should build a giant canal and buy water from those two states.

If anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

It might be a bit dry here in Southern OR

Mar 17, 2015#14

Eriol

GasBandit said:
Technically, the already have plenty of THAT water. It's not quite suitable for agriculture, however. You know, water, water everywhere, but not a drop to ~~drink~~ irrigate.

IMO that's the better solution, but it's energy-intensive. When somebody figures out a cheap way that's NOT energy-intensive to desalinate water, they'll be richer than anybody else, anywhere. Well the corp that steals the idea then sues the original inventor into oblivion will be that, but you know what I mean.

The other alternative is to just build a bunch of nuclear reactors and desalinate directly from those. Don't use it for power, just for the heat to desalinate with. And if you're worried about danger, then dump billions into Thorium research. That'll pay dividends the fastest, and should work just fine for the water problem too.

You may or may not be surprised how many problems aren't really problems with near-limitless cheap energy.

Mar 17, 2015#15

ThatNickGuy

If California wants, they can take all the snow that the Maritimes has been getting. Melt it, do whatever you need to make it usable. JUST TAKE IT. Please?

Mar 17, 2015#16

Tress

ThatNickGuy said:
If California wants, they can take all the snow that the Maritimes has been getting. Melt it, do whatever you need to make it usable. JUST TAKE IT. Please?

Seriously, we would if we could. It is horribly dry out here these days. Technically the drought is in year 3, but before having a rainy winter 4 years ago we had another drought that lasted a few years. Really, this is one looooong drought that had a short break in the middle.

Mar 17, 2015#17

PatrThom

Eriol said:
You may or may not be surprised how many problems aren't really problems with near-limitless cheap energy.

Yes, I read that book, too.

--Patrick

Mar 17, 2015#18

Eriol

PatrThom said:
Yes, I read that book, too.

OK, what's really funny/creep about that is that I've seen the movie, but not read it, so unless the quote is in the movie, I didn't know it, and even then it was unintentional.

Mar 17, 2015#19

PatrThom

Eriol said:
OK, what's really funny/creep about that is that I've seen the movie, but not read it, so unless the quote is in the movie, I didn't know it, and even then it was unintentional.

I've read the graphic novel but haven't seen the movie (big surprise), and they make a point of explaining that the current status of relatively "clean" energy was only possible due to Dr. Manhattan's ability to transmute large enough quantities of lithium so that every car could be powered by lithium batteries.

--Patrick

Mar 17, 2015#20

drawn_inward

Will there be a reverse Grapes of Wrath in the future? My cousins in Sacramento are trying to get out. One left for TX last year.

Mar 17, 2015#21

GasBandit

drawn_inward said:
Will there be a reverse Grapes of Wrath in the future? My cousins in Sacramento are trying to get out. One left for TX last year.

Well heck, 2008 saw a huge number of people leave California and an increase in new Texas residents already, just because that's where the jobs were.

Mar 17, 2015#22

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
Well heck, 2008 saw a huge number of people leave California and an increase in new Texas residents already, just because that's where the jobs were.

The jobs and the lower real estate prices. Uf.

--Patrick

Mar 17, 2015#23

Necronic

GasBandit said:
Well heck, 2008 saw a huge number of people leave California and an increase in new Texas residents already, just because that's where the jobs were.

And a HUGE THANKS to all the people from CA for our new standard of housing prices.....we REALLY LOVE you bringing your completely unsustainable housing market down to Texas.

Mar 19, 2015#24

ThatNickGuy

GasBandit said:
Well heck, 2008 saw a huge number of people leave California and an increase in new Texas residents already, just because that's where the jobs were.

THAT'S why Texas is (gradually) becoming more open to gay marriage and such. It wasn't the Texans changing their minds. It was those damn hippie Californians moving in and ruining everything!

Mar 19, 2015#25

Tress

ThatNickGuy said:
It was those damn hippie Californians moving in and ruining everything!

You're welcome.

Mar 19, 2015#26

GasBandit

ThatNickGuy said:
THAT'S why Texas is (gradually) becoming more open to gay marriage and such. It wasn't the Texans changing their minds. It was those damn hippie Californians moving in and ruining everything!

It's been my experience that it's unusual for anybody to change their minds about anything (big), once they're of an age (and I don't mean elderly).

Somebody around here has it in their signature, I think... what did it say, something to the effect of "nobody ever accepts new theories, it's just those adhering to the old theories die out while young people grow up having never known anything other than the new theories?"

Mar 19, 2015#27

AshburnerX

This is what happens when you give people massive tax subsidies to farm in the middle of the fucking desert.

Mar 19, 2015#28

Thread Necromancer

Tress said:
Farming continues to eat up most of our water. I would complain, but the Central Valley is one of the main food suppliers for the country as a whole. I don't know how to tell farmers to stop growing crops without wrecking the economy. Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington have more water than they need. We should build a giant canal and buy water from those two states.

If anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

I can not agree with this more. California has been buying water rights from nevada for decades (at least if what i was told while growing up holds true) and washington is a much better option. And the US wants a pipeline, give them this one. Nevada has its own drought to worry about.

Necronic said:
No one really lives where they are supposed to.

Dallas - Dallas

Heh, this too i agree with

Mar 19, 2015#29

Zappit

They may be expensive, but might desalination plants be a possible solution to this? I mean, it is a coastal state, after all.

Mar 19, 2015#30

PatrThom

Zappit said:
They may be expensive, but might desalination plants be a possible solution to this? I mean, it is a coastal state, after all.

Funny you should bring this up.

Developed areas in Calif. could support enough solar to power the state and leave enough left over to power desalination plants.

--Patrick

Mar 19, 2015#31

GasBandit

Zappit said:
They may be expensive, but might desalination plants be a possible solution to this? I mean, it is a coastal state, after all.

As I understand it, most of the farming happens in the San Joaquin Valley, which for the most part has a mountain range between it and the coast, except possibly around the San Francisco area. In any case, I'm thinking that if it was THAT cheap and easy, they'd have done it already.

Mar 20, 2015#32

Tress

AshburnerX said:
This is what happens when you give people massive tax subsidies to farm in the middle of the fucking desert.

The Central Valley is not a desert. I don't really know what you're talking about.

Mar 20, 2015#33

sixpackshaker

Any large, flat roofed building in the sun belt should have a solar farm on the roof. Imagine all the Targets and Wal-Marts powering the cities. Not to mention schools and hospitals.

Mar 20, 2015#34

Dei

I feel like every house in Colorado should be required to have solar paneled roofs. Though there are HoAs that frown on them for being ugly. Which is dumb, and they can't actually bar you from having them.

Mar 20, 2015#35

Bubble181

There was a huge push to install solar panels here a while ago, with ridiculous tax incentives and subsidies for installing them. Turns out these things pretty much pay for themselves, so the subsidies were a bit exaggerated - people were making a profit from selling back power after 2 years, and they were promised subsidies for 20 years. The power companies were furious as well since having distributed power supply like that meant much more expensive maintenance and having to put in counters that could run both ways and whatnot, but they were legally barred from charging for the extra costs.
Now the government is trying to roll back the subsidies, but they're being challenged in court for reneging on a contract. Lovely. So the power companies have hiked up all prices for everybody, forcing those who couldn't (afford to) put in solar panels to pay for those who could/did.
Once the subsidies were lowered, the solar panel installation companies have started complaining -their business imploded, about 85% less work

Ahhh, lovely political decisions by people with no business sense.

Still, solar panels are a great investment in sun-drenched regions.

Mar 20, 2015#36

PatrThom

Dei said:
I feel like every house in Colorado should be required to have solar paneled roofs. Though there are HoAs that frown on them for being ugly. Which is dumb, and they can't actually bar you from having them.

There really are some pretty stupid residential property rules out there.
http://webmeadow.com/blog/archives/200802/cage-match-solar-panels-vs-sequoias
To be fair, once it practically becomes a requirement to put solar panels on your residence, these will all get straightened out.

--Patrick

Mar 20, 2015#37

Eriol

sixpackshaker said:
Any large, flat roofed building in the sun belt should have a solar farm on the roof. Imagine all the Targets and Wal-Marts powering the cities. Not to mention schools and hospitals.

It wouldn't power itself, let alone more. It would offset sure, but if it was "worth it" from a power perspective, they'd already be doing it. It isn't, so they aren't. Subsidies are needed.

Or just a better centralized (or de-centralized) power source: Thorium. I honestly believe that if even a fraction of the money dumped into the so-called "green" technologies (which usually require some pretty non-green manufacturing to work) was dumped into Thorium research, it'd already be done.

Mar 20, 2015#38

Dei

So for example, some HoAs try to say that you can't put solar panels on any part of your roof that faces the street. But that is clearly in violation of a provision stating that HoAs cannot force you to place solar panels in a position that drastically increase their effectiveness. We have a south facing house, so if/when we get them, we're going to want to put them on the south slope. This may or may not lead to a fight with our HoA, which will have us be in the right ultimately, but will be a hassle and a half. Then again, it might not because our HoA has never really done *anything* to enforce things.

http://www.cohoalaw.com/covenant-enforcement-solar-panels-what-hoas-need-to-know.html[DOUBLEPOST=1426869053,1426868727][/DOUBLEPOST]

Eriol said:
It wouldn't power itself, let alone more. It would offset sure, but if it was "worth it" from a power perspective, they'd already be doing it. It isn't, so they aren't. Subsidies are needed.

Or just a better centralized (or de-centralized) power source: Thorium. I honestly believe that if even a fraction of the money dumped into the so-called "green" technologies (which usually require some pretty non-green manufacturing to work) was dumped into Thorium research, it'd already be done.

I think about that everytime I see the giant wind turbines out here. The non-green manufacturing part I mean.

Mar 20, 2015#39

GasBandit

My grandfather, when he lived in Colorado Springs back in the 80s, installed a giant solar panel on the south side of the house he owned. It was 30 years ago so naturally it was older tech, but still heated the house's water pretty effectively!

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