California’s Water Crisis
Posted in Government/Politics, Science on December 27th, 2009 by Chip Gibbons60 Minutes did a story tonight on the California water shortage and their decaying levee system. It is well worth watching and you can watch it here.
I think it’s interesting that although a huge increase in the state’s population is mentioned, nobody explicitly says in the story that relentless population growth is the root of the problem. California and the American southwest have been grabbing water from surrounding areas for decades and all that has done is promote more growth. People forget that most of California is a desert. It’s supposed to be dry. That’s what makes a desert a desert.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is called “the green governor,” thinks that spending $40 billion to build more dams, shore up the levees and move more water around is the solution. That sounds like a short-term solution to the current lack of jobs but isn’t it just making the same mistake they’ve made in the past? It can only lead to more growth which will ultimately lead to the need for more water.
On the subject of water wars and shortages, I also recommend Blue Gold: World Water Wars
