lol. We could tell each other stories! After we kids all moved out, my parents went back to the Valley from Riverside. My dad, an entomologist, managed the Coachella Valley citrus pest control district. They abandoned suburbia and bought a 36x36 “house” on 5 acres of desert out in Happy Valley and dad trucked in a load of water from Indio every day after work, added it to the 300 gallon tank that supplied all their water. They loved it out there.
For awhile, my now-wife and I lived on one of those San Andreas oases, between Happy Valley and Palm Desert. I had a lazy man’s job maintaining the natural palm grove for the big development company that had bought a huge tract of desert - I guess from what you say it’s probably all built in, now. It was an idyllic year. We used to joke that if the “big one” came we would have to hurry across the broad, deep dry riverbed positioned right over the fault line (about 40 yards from our bedroom) to the east side. But on the other hand, we liked to imagine the beach front property we’d suddenly be enjoying.
TJ is an example, we have had shortages going on 3 years now where water supply is rationed during the hot summer months but they keep building condos and apartment buildings where single family homes once stood. No increase in water, drainage, electricity capacity or anything else. Short term greed beyond shortsighted…
I have installed two 450lt tanks on the roof as a gravity fed reserve but other than that and reducing usage, options are limited.
Already thinking we may have to move…
UC Davis predicting 10 billion in 2030. Recently China has stated it wants people to now have 3 children per family. Africa is also leading the statistics for births. All this while the background of extreme weather continues to decimate areas globally with increasing wildfires, heavy flooding, rising sea levels, atmospheric temperature increases, increased vulcanism, hurricanes and pandemics.
Those are stories we would surely enjoy. And you were brave to live on the fault! Last time I was there was 8 years ago. At that time it was very built up. From what I see now on the maps, areas that were quite remote to the main hub of the valley along the highway 111 corridor are now filling in the rest of the desert.
We live in Northern California and the contrast to the southern part now to where we are is other-worldly.
Totally agree with your opinion on politicians. The mere 3M$ paid for our precious water has been presented by our politicians as great achievement: “See! They pay for our water. They don’t take it for free”. Until you start comparing numbers… In Europe, the dues that companies pay for resources are much higher. Here? Ridiculous.
I see our species as bacteria. We are bacteria in a Petri dish (The planet earth: closed environment; finite resources). We won’t stop until we exhaust everything, in great pain.
We all say we must save the planet, but in fact we mean saving our civilization. Not worth it. Not at this price for the millions of other species that never asked to be destroyed at this scale. So, let it be. Let our species disappear (one day, may be), or at least be reduced to a harmless few thanks to lack of resources. An empty Petri dish this time. May be we will finally live in balance with the rest of the world.
I digress… back to water: if this crisis steers us in the right direction, then it is a good crisis.
So according to his video, the water level has dropped approximately 5ft in 2 weeks. So say 10ft a month. How many months to get below the dotted line in Chris’s graph?
Good video
Pulled this out of Chris’s video transcript
“So first we have to adjust our thinking around what are the important elevations for Lake Mead here we see it in 2020. This was its average elevation starting at about 1000 feet of elevation, progressing up to about thousand 90 and then coming down following a very same typical pattern here in 2021 like this. And then here’s 2022. This is just absolutely getting crushed right here, losing somewhere around point one feet per day now at this point in time. So it’s standing now at 1046. This is as of June 7th is probably lower than that today when you’re watching this. So what does that mean? What are the critical water levels? Well, the critical water levels for Lake Mead. First, here’s Lake Powell. I told you, there’s two of them. And here’s Lake Mead. The dead pool elevation for Lake Mead is 895 feet. The minimum pool elevation would be 1000 feet”
war won’t put a dent in the population. (unless it is nuclear)
the wef folks are nothing if not students of history.
over 200 million people died during the 20th century from state sponsored violence.
didn’t change a thing.
i can assure you 3/4 of the world will be destroyed by various means
meeting at the same point in time.
here’s a real kicker.
where i live all the municipal water for over 500k people comes from a lake. in the summer when it gets hot the water coming out of the taps is green. the water cannot be treated with chlorine because it reacts with the algae and forms all kinds of nasty stuff. cool huh?
Punjab
india is the poster child for the green revolution. green revolution = huge amounts of water, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides.
the population of india is 1.4 billion. it is just a little less than china at 1.45 billion.
the breadbasket of india is the punjab. it uses irrigation from an aquifer.(sound familiar?
16 years ago i read an article in the times of india which stated that the aquifer was being pumped at 140% of recharge rate. clearly that is unsustainable.
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-punjabs-groundwater-might-run-dry-by-2039-5794435/
according to the above article the aquifer will run dry in 2039. ruh roh.
in the u.s a big problem is with development as many have said . (most government bodies are populated with developers) . one of the biggest problems apart from water demand is runoff. we have paved paradise. water that would have percolated down to replenish groundwater now runs off into ditches (some of which are paved canals). i saw a presentatio a number of years ago by a guy from tucson. it was pretty amazing. before pavement and paved canals tucson was very green. the transformation was astounding. he was working on ways to capture runoff and feed it into the ground.
i have wondered how much of an effect all the development on the front range of the rockies has on the ogallala aquifer.
we are living in interesting times.
Ideas To Help The Situation
The farmers using water flow might want to consider switching to a permaculture method of farming their lands, as this will stop the land being a desert in the first place. See Geoff Lawton’s material for more information on a project they did near Bethlehem :-
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2009/12/11/greening-the-desert-ii-final/
N.B. if you check out his YouTube channel, there are updates on this project.
Also there is music that is designed to make it rain from ancient cultures. See this piece from the TM Movement (other variants available on YouTube, search for Rain melody or Rag Megh).:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVr0-G5z_zw
Just play in some room until it rains. As ancient Indian music, you might want to play in a room you are not in 
Self-inflicted Wounds
They have been warned for decades. They said the free market would maximize the utility of water and solve all the problems, so the government should just stay out! Then they cut sweetheart deals with the agricultural conglomerates and larges corporations to give them nearly free water. Farmers planted water-hungry crops in the desert. Las Vegas built fifty golf courses. Of course, all of this was enabled by public funds at a national level.
Now the party is over. The corporations, Las Vegas and the big farmers will whine and get their share of water while the poor (anyone not in the 1%) will get rationing. They will demand the government step in and Do Something (as long it means getting cheap and nearly unlimited water). They will burn coal or heavy fuel to desalinate the ocean, divert other rivers and melt whatever meager snow cover is left.
Good luck. It won’t work. But rest assured you are not alone. The rest of the world is burning and dying of thirst as well.
Water Civil Wars To Come?
...Touton said it’s critical to achieve the additional cutbacks and her agency is in talks with the seven states that depend on the river to develop a plan for the reductions in the next 60 days. She warned that the Bureau of Reclamation has the authority to “act unilaterally to protect the system, and we will protect the system.”
Though Touton didn’t spell out what that could entail, the Interior Department could impose cuts if the states fail to reach an agreement on their own. Touton said her agency is “working with the states and tribes in having this discussion.”...
...“We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating,” Entsminger told the senators.
Avoiding “potentially catastrophic conditions,” Entsminger said, will require reductions that many water managers previously considered unattainable.
Palm Springs Water Park!
At least we can rest assured of good water usage in Palm Springs/Palm Desert Ca.
They just approved reopening a water park in the DESERT!!
From: Wiki:
What happened to Water Park in Palm Springs?
Wet’n’Wild Palm Springs is a defunct water park located in Palm Springs, California. The park operated under Cedar Fair’s ownership as Knott’s Soak City until 2013 when CNL Lifestyle Properties acquired it. The park plans to reopen in 2022 after a complete renovation of the property.
Italy In Deep Doo Doo Too!
Water is so low in large stretches of Italy's largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and shipwrecks are resurfacing.
Authorities fear that if it doesn't rain soon, there'll be a serious shortage of water for drinking and irrigation for farmers and local populations across the whole of northern Italy.
Climas is a group out of UofA, they do some really great climate work and have a quarterly report for both AZ and NM that I follow. Here is a link to the Verde and Salt reservoir map, the Verde is down quite a bit. https://climas.arizona.edu/swco/southwest-climate-outlook-june-2022/arizona-reservoirs
You Can Add To The Issues Expected Power Shortages. See Industry Report
2022 summer electrical reliability forecast. https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_SRA_2022.pdf
It’s a little confusing because there are 4 different entities: 1) power generators, 2) Power distribution/transmission entities (big transmission lines), 3) local electricity providers (the provider on your electricity bill) 4) the interstate distribution networks that share power with each other. This report deals with #4. It turns out that there are two versions of #4 - Local networks - the first map and then the contractual distribution networks - this is what the individual pages show.
So to use this, go thru the individual pages and find the map
that covers your area. If it’s Blue, you’re not safe, but outages are not
probable. We should keep an eye out for the winter report, because more
electric heat in newer houses is causing a second winter peak.
If it’s Orange, get backup ready as unusual demand (100
degree temps for example) could cause problems. These areas can barely cover
the average use. If you’re in a Red area, they are PREDICTING summer outages,
even under average summer conditions. And if you’re in a heat wave things are
likely to get bad quickly. If you don’t have a generator that will run your
freezer and at least a fan, you might consider getting one.
The other thing they mention is that in CA now the power
company sometimes shuts off power when fire conditions are bad because they
started one of the big fires a while back. The report mentions this could
happen in all the red/orange areas under drought/high heat conditions. I guess
in any of the blue areas, it could happen if it gets really dry and fire hazard
gets high. If you have drought conditions and high fire hazards pay attention
to deliberate shut down.