254
Trump says all we need to do is turn on a "giant faucet" to solve California drought
(www.youtube.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
254 points (97.4% liked)
United States | News & Politics
1934 readers
218 users here now
Welcome to [email protected], where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.
If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.
Rules
Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.
Post anything related to the United States.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Meanwhile, farmers in the Central Valley, which would be a desert without irrigation, keep planting more almonds, alfalfa for export, and other cash crops that require substantially higher water inputs than crops primarily intended to feed people. All while complaining that they aren't being allowed to drain rivers to the point of irreversible damage, like salinization, and pointing the finger at residential users who pay much higher rates and consume a fraction of the water.
Pretty much all water shortages are caused by irresponsible water use for farming. And yet that never gets addressed.
Jon Oliver has a piece on that issue. IIRC Farmers have to use all the water they are allocated or they could lose the rights to it, so they have to plant crops that require a lot of water. It's a policy issue that the farmers had to adapt to
And who advocates for the policy to stay the way it currently is?
Climate Town did a video on this recently.