Is the Planet Headed Towards Irreversible Water Shortages?

[GoLeft TV]

The state of California is still suffering from years of drought – and the corporate media is completely silent on this issue. And now this water shortage is spreading throughout the United States to states like Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins talks about the growing problems of water shortages in the United States with attorney Michael Burg.

[ffr]

1. It's a story that keeps coming back more and more frequently.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6999231

15 years before shortages of fresh water? The U.N. says 15 years now? Last year they said 30!!

[handmade34]

2. damn straight...

we should be in the streets protesting... I am working in the West (California) right now and the seemingly lack of concern (and/or people blaming D politicians) scares me

fortunately my home in Vermont has LOTS of water but we are all in this together

[jwirr]

3. I am in MN and we have plenty of water at the moment but after watching the Chris Hayes series

of the CA drought I am encouraging my children to start conserving water in many ways. Water barrels to catch the rain, drip or soak water of our gardens, full load laundry, etc.

I don't know if these conservation methods would have saved CA or not but it is worth a try.

[Peacetrain]

4. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It is the most important issue of our time... how we are destroying our eco system.. everything else falls behind it..Good for you.. We do and did the same thing..

[panfluteman]

5. Bravo! Very Well Done!

The height of ecological insanity is when fracking companies commandeer the water supply in drought stricken states like Texas to pump it full of toxic crud and ruin it forever! When ill gotten oil takes precedence over desperately needed drinking water, we have lost all semblance of political and ecological sanity and common sense. Or, as the commentators say, it will all boil down to a situation in which those who can afford $5+ bottles of drinking water will survive, while the vast majority, who cannot, will die.

Yep, you can't really control the water cycle, and both extremes, flood and drought, are totally damning to our survival as a species. Water is only useful when it is available, and in normal, manageable amounts, so we can store and conserve it to use wisely.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. So true. To permit fracking and the immense, irreparable...

...environmental damage that goes with it to continue is WAY beyond stupid -- INSANITY is the right word.

[tclambert]

7. I get to give good climate news for a change.

Usually I post about how we're decades too late to stop the ice sheets from melting and global warming to reach catastrophically high temperatures. But this time I have a morsel of positive news: a really strong El Niño started brewing in the Pacific and that usually means wetter weather for California.

Okay, maybe the news isn't entirely good. A super El Niño means 2015 will probably crush the record for warmest year on record. And the increased rainfall may not be enough to break California's drought.

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/27/why-a-super-el-nino-could-still-be-a-bust-for-california-drought-relief/ :

In general, El Niño’s tend to have a wet influence on the southern tier of the United States, including Southern California. But when it really gets cranking, like in the record-setting El Niño years of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998, the abnormally wet conditions can spread far north through much of the state. . . .

But El Niño isn’t the only weather game in town, and there’s one major difference between this year and the strongest El Niño on record — a vast pool of much warmer than average water in the northeast Pacific Ocean, which some have dubbed “the blob.” . . .

Rogers says if El Niño ends up being weaker than predicted, “then the warm pool could influence bigger Alaska ridges like the last two winters,” which would mean another painfully dry rainy season for California.