What a mega-drought would look (and taste) like in California

[KamaAina]

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/what-mega-drought-would-look-and-taste-california

California has been dreaming—at least when it comes to water. The state has built a massive system of dams, canals, and pumping stations to store and transfer water, all based on the assumption that the wet conditions of the past 150 years are the norm. Oops.

The severe dry spell gripping the state for the last three years is nothing new. Geological records and tree-ring data reveal that over the past few thousand years, California experienced two droughts lasting between 120 and 200 years. As dire as the current situation is (taps at hundreds of households have run dry), it hasn’t reached mega-drought proportions yet; it’d have to persist for at least a decade to attain that ominous status.

To see how the state would fare under chronically parched conditions, Jay Lund, an environmental engineer at the University of California, Davis, and colleagues modeled a 72-year drought. Their computer simulation projected that the agriculture industry, wetlands, and fish would bear the brunt, with the Central Valley getting hit the hardest. “If we manage the situation well,” says Lund, “the whole state will be in pain, but the impacts will be devastating for only some local areas.”

The state, and its economy, doesn’t have to shrivel up and die, so long as humans step up and change their wasteful ways. Here are five lifestyle tweaks Californians can expect if the dry spell progresses to a mega-drought.

[Warpy]

1. Those are all things I had to get used to here in NM

even before our big drought hit. Xeriscaping can be incredibly beautiful although the picture that accompanied the article was not.

The people who most need to be talked into using artificial turf are the golf courses. Here a lot of them are using it on the fairways. They're saving a fortune in watering and mowing.

The point about the smaller and more flavorful fruits and vegetables is a great one. Maybe the term "California cardboard" applied to tomatoes and strawberries will fade from memory.

[msongs]

2. my CA grandparents had huge cisterns at their homes to catch rain runoff. kept the gardens watered

until well into the summer. alas few have them now and in some places such things may well be illegal now

[babylonsister]

3. Check this out...

[petronius]

4. Interesting! We lose our fish, wetlands, skiing, rafting, and a chunk of our

hiking opportunities, but we console ourselves with better wine. I'm gonna have to ponder a bit on whether that's a win or a tie...

Here's a link to the full 2010 study: https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/files/biblio/HarouWRR2010.pdf

[NYC_SKP]

5. We've overbuilt. Places like San Diego never had the water to reach it's present size.

It all depended on imported water. Now they're building a big desalination plant in Carlsbad, next to the Natural Gas power plant.

Good thing, it's gonna suck up a LOT of electrical power.

[KamaAina]

6. Well, hell, they can always build another nuke plant

right on top of the nearest fault.