California Farmers actually are willing to give up 25% of their water though due to the fact that they want to be guaranteed that the government won't take away the 75% if the drought gets worse. Right now thats a real possibility, so they felt the need to make a deal with the government to save their water. According to the San Jose Mercury news, Water officials will start cutting the water that the senior rights holders get. This would be the first cut of senior rights holders since the 1970's to put a perspective on how bad it has been.
For more information on how much our city will have to conserve Gov. Jerry Brown's mandate to lessen water consumption by 25% view this New York Times Article
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_28159541/california-farmers-volunteer-give-up-some-water-rights
This is interesting to think about Ankith. I know people are being told to consume less water however in reality, as you talked about, Agriculture uses up the majority of our California. Even if everybody cut back on water usage, it still wouldn't have that big of an effect on the drought, simply because residential only applies for about 10% of the total water usage at the moment. Although, it wouldn't hurt to try and conserve water anyways.
ReplyDeleteAnkith, thanks for this post! I didn't know that the state was trying to reduce water consumption by neighborhood, I thought it was by individual person. Something that I think is really interesting concerning the drought is that almonds are oftentimes blamed for the majority of the drought. I totally believed this to be true, until I read an npr article that said otherwise. This article said that the statistic that its a gallon of water to produce a single almond simply isn't true. The article also made the issue with almonds more personal, by focusing on a specific family that grows almonds, therefore making it harder to blame almond growers for the entirety of the drought. The article wasn't able to provide a specific statistic on how much water almonds consume, if anyone could find on that would be great!
ReplyDeleteHere's the article I found: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/16/399958203/how-almonds-became-a-scapegoat-for-californias-drought
Great post! It is surprising to see that California has not officially cut agriculture water use. Agriculture is over 80% of California's water usage, however it only generates about 50 million dollars a year. This may seem like a lot, however California has a 2 trillion dollar economy. Agriculture may be important but why is California giving so much water to something that is only 2 percent of its economy?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It is surprising to see that California has not officially cut agriculture water use. Agriculture is over 80% of California's water usage, however it only generates about 50 million dollars a year. This may seem like a lot, however California has a 2 trillion dollar economy. Agriculture may be important but why is California giving so much water to something that is only 2 percent of its economy?
ReplyDeleteThat is quite intriguing Ankith, I had only believed that the city wanted a cut-back of 25% water use for all people in California. Though a question does come to mind here; how does the city government define neighbors? Do they have a blocking system where all household along one block qualify as neighbors, or is it all households in Los Altos, or possibly something else? Also to add to the point that Jenny mentioned, which foods will have to be cut back if the drought continues to next year. I have read that the farmers will be allowed to grow heavy water consuming plants, till the yield is finished, but which plants will be qualified as such? Better yet will this apply to livestock as well, as they have very considerable water consumption as well? I found this: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-the-news/california-drought-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that California compares you to your neighbor's water usage. I found another article that talks about how the east bay area is trying to help by sending individual water "report cards" that compares your water use to that of households in the same area. This seems like a good strategy to make this into a competition for who can use the least water, playing on our human desires to fit in, to win, or just to not be embarrassed by being labeled as a water-waster. Instead of just encouraging people to save water, I think bringing in a competitive aspect could be effective, just like how when we do fundraisers, the class that brings in the most money gets donuts or a pizza party or something. http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/03/science/la-sci-sn-behavioral-water-efficiency-20140303
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that California compares you to your neighbor's water usage. I found another article that talks about how the east bay area is trying to help by sending individual water "report cards" that compares your water use to that of households in the same area. This seems like a good strategy to make this into a competition for who can use the least water, playing on our human desires to fit in, to win, or just to not be embarrassed by being labeled as a water-waster. Instead of just encouraging people to save water, I think bringing in a competitive aspect could be effective, just like how when we do fundraisers, the class that brings in the most money gets donuts or a pizza party or something. http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/03/science/la-sci-sn-behavioral-water-efficiency-20140303
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you guys but my family is taking the recent water conservation use quite seriously. We're literally taking buckets to catch every drop of water that could be used for other purposes. I had an earlier post about the recent oil spill and that catastrophe compounded with our water problem is probably a real headache for California's environmental agencies.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post! While I totally understand that agriculture is the biggest use of our water, that doesn't mean we can't each help out as individuals! Here are some basic ways to cut down on water usage: 1. Fix leaks!!! This may seem like common sense, but a lot of people still let their faucets or other fixtures leak a little, which can waste about 20 gallons per day. 2. Replace appliances to make them more green, if possible. There are a bunch of new showerheads that are on the market that can save a lot of water. If you're in the market for a new washing machine or something similar, try to find the one that uses the least amount of water. 3. Use a (fully loaded) dishwasher. My parents used to insist that we hand-washed all of our dishes, which was a) totally ridiculous, and b) a huge waste of water. Dishwashers use way less water than it takes to wash dishes by hand. Always make sure your dishwasher is fully loaded, though, so you won't have to run it as many times, which will save water as well.
ReplyDeleteI remember that there was a good daily show episode on California's water usage. John Stewart talked about how consumer usage of water only accounts for four percent of California's water usage, and that a huge portion of the water goes towards agriculture, specifically beef and almonds, both of which need water year round.(obviously beef). It seems useless to cut a small portion of the water usage in half when you could restrict agricultural usage by a little bit and make a larger difference.
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