Anyone who has watched the news lately knows that California is in the middle of a severe drought. Now before you say to yourself "I don't live in California, this doesn't affect me" - I implore you to continue reading as this does affect you. Anyway, I was born and raised in California, so drought is nothing new to me. Over my lifetime California has always been in and out of drought. That said, this one is by far the worst I've seen. I don't know if it's the scope, the severity, or the longevity of this drought, but over the last 2 years I have seen reservoirs drying up that have never dried up during previous droughts. Put simply, our available water is disappearing! That should alarm you.
Because of this, I am taking this matter very seriously. Everyone, especially us in California, needs to conserve water, and I fear most other people aren't taking it as seriously as they should. Either that or they don't know what or how to act. After all, Governor Jerry Brown mandates the state consume 25% less water, but I haven't seen a single tip, guideline, or rule on how to consume less water. So I wanted to blog a whole series about water usage and, more importantly, how to conserve water.
In this first post I wanted to talk about how and why this affects you, even if you don't live in California. Hopefully this will encourage you to save water where ever you are. I can think of 4 great reasons why everyone should conserve water.
1. Water is a resource, just like electricity, food, and oil. There is a finite amount of it, so anytime we frivolously waste it we're only hurting ourselves. Clean fresh water may be plentiful where you live today, but that may not always be the case. Large swaths of the USA are prone to droughts, so adopting water conservation now is in your best interest.
2. Cost - pure and simple. Clean fresh water costs money, usually in the form of a monthly water bill. But it could come in the form of an electric bill to operate a well, in which case there is also the hidden cost of digging deeper wells when the water table drops. If you conserve water you will save money, period.
3. California's drought affects everyone when you buy groceries. As someone who grew up in California's central valley, I know why the state is referred to as "the nation's bread basket." The vast majority of vegetables, fruits, and nuts are grown in California. Take for example almonds - California grows 99% of the almonds in the USA, and over 92% of the almonds in the whole world. The plains of the midwest primarily grow grains like wheat, corn, and
barley. But everything else primarily comes from California. So a drought here very much will affect your food prices regardless of where you live.
4. Most people who live west of the Rocky Mountains share the same water supply with California. California's water does not just come from California. Some water flows down from Oregon. But thanks to the Colorado river, rain/snow that falls as far away as Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico can end up in California. So the more we all conserve the more we all benefit.
Hopefully this first post at least encourages you to take this drought seriously. In the coming days and weeks I'll post more on what you can actually do to help conserve water.
Read the next post about water distribution.
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