Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Snow study shows California faces historic drought

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Snow study shows California faces historic drought
  • Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:15:54 -0700


All too true. The earliest migrations and later Spanish only settled along
rivers and in fertile valleys with snowpack runoff where they could grow
food and pasture animals. We learn that the invention of the pumping
windmill was key to opening the Great Plains. Today the over allocated
Colorado is piped to Phoenix, and Vegas isn't getting the snowmelt it used
to, and Lake Mead is scheduled to dry up in a few decades at best. So long,
Sin City. In our part of eastern NM beanfields are history and alfalfa is
kept up with deep wells on center pivot sprinklers, depleting aquifers.
Closer to the TX border farms have gone out of business as the Ogallah
Aquifer shrinks. At least we aren't populated heavily at all but outside
companies now want to pipe our closed basin aquifers to population centers.
That's fossil water that doesn't get recharged by dwindling precip. There's
good agriculture along the southern Rio Grande but with all the drawdown it
no longer reaches the Gulf of Mexico. It dries up short of the Gulf.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 1/31/2009 at 11:27 AM bruce smith wrote:

>I always thought that California was a dry sort of place.. When you take a
>dry place and put to many buildings and people on and in it it will become
>drier..As will AZ NM etc.. they were never intended to support such a
>heavy
>population..IMO
>
>On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 1:56 PM, Don Bowen <don.bowen@earthlink.net>
wrote:
>
>> And yes California is going to have many more problems that they want to
>> admit to. Throw in global warming increased droughts with the inability
>to
>> manage its financial house and you will see a real mess. Any recovery
>> attempt will be stymied by peak oil induced price rises.
>>
>> The organic farmer that I am most familiar with has wells on his
>> properties.
>> Pumping costs are rising with electricity and fuel costs. The
>breadbasket
>> of the US and the initial point of that 1500 mile average trip your food
>> takes is in real danger. We feel we are entitled to whatever food we
>what
>> when we want it, that entitlement is coming to an end.
>>
>> Don Bowen KI6DIU
>> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>>





  • Re: [Livingontheland] Snow study shows California faces historic drought, TradingPostPaul, 02/01/2009

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page