On 9/12/2015 6:17 AM, dpb wrote:
On 09/12/2015 7:30 AM, trader_4 wrote:
....

One other thing that might be worth considering is that El Nino
is brewing in the Pacific at this very moment and it's a big one.
That will almost certainly put an end to the CA drought in the
next few months, so in the range of solutions, he might want
to factor that in. Or maybe secure the tanks so they don't slide
away with the mud....

Can only hope but while it's possible to replenish some of the surface water,
it'll take years rather than months for groundwater to recover and likely some
areas have been so depleted they never will; at least in practical time spans
of just a few years.

I can't understand the california mindset -- still watering lawns, etc.
I recall talking with a friend (from CA) decades ago in school wrt the
water issue, there (water had never been a problem in any of the places
I'd lived: "God waters the grass -- and, too often, at that!").

I recall her mentioning "yellow is mellow but brown goes down" as the
"manual conservation mechanism". Did this attitude change sometime in
the recent past? Or, are folks willing to reduce *flushes* but still
intent on lush greenscapes?

The areas in the Central Valley that have subsided (some places by feet, not
just inches) are now more compacted such that renewal will be limited even if
rains/snowmelts do return such that regeneration will be slower if not
permanently lost...it's not a pretty thought.

Yup. People tend to think all natural resources are infinite.
Then, when there's a shortage, it's "How did this happen??"

Some years ago, I read an article (that I have frequently sought in
the years since) that addressed "mineral" resources. The author
went through a list of estimated planet-wide quantities of each.
Then, tried to estimate the resources *remaining*.

The only item that stuck in my mind was copper. He claimed that
of all the copper there ever is and ever *will* be (until a new
planet is formed), 1/4 of it is in current use (in our homes,
cell phones, computers, power lines, etc.); another 1/4 of it
is buried in land fills (because we never thought it important
enough to "rescue", until recently); another 1/4 remains relatively
easily harvestable in the mantle; and the final 1/4 is too widely
distributed to make harvesting (mining) practical.

When you consider how the "in use" and "in land fills" resources
represent such a small, recent portion of human activity, you have
to wonder how long the remaining 1/4 will last!

Imagine what this must be like for some of the scarcer resources.

It'd been one thing to have had the drought in the area 1000 yr ago when it
wasn't populated; it's something else again now that it has been so thoroughly
pumped out of ground reservoirs to boot...

It's always easier to consume than it is to create!