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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Jun 17, 2014 - 01:27pm PT
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What's really ridiculous, considering the drought, is all the alfalfa being shipped from California to China!
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-feeding-china-hay-20140609-story.html
Exporters are learning something alfalfa shippers have known for years: It costs little to freight goods on the back haul to China. That's because the U.S. runs a persistently high trade deficit with China that hit a record $318 billion last year. Containers from Asia arrive full but often return empty.
"It is cheaper to ship a load of alfalfa from the Imperial Valley to China than it is to ship the same load to Tulare County," said Michael Marsh, president of the Western United Dairymen, which represents 60% of California's dairy producers.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jun 17, 2014 - 02:16pm PT
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It's ridiculous that they are looking to desalinization as a cure to the drought when they haven't even made any tough choices regarding use of the water already available.
I went to Stoney Point on Sunday morning. Uniformly brown as usual, but you get a sense of the natural terrain and fauna for the area. Driving home, we made a detour off the freeway to get a cup of coffee, and the first thing I notice after all that brown are the avenues of green lawns on those big SF Valley lots. Why are we still pretending to live in a lush environment when we live in a semi-arid area? One half of LA water use goes to residential lawns! When is someone going to decide to do what cities like Tucson already do and require waterless lawns?
I think it's absolute folly to be growing alfalfa in the desert, but suburban lawns aren't that far removed.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jun 17, 2014 - 02:57pm PT
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Mowing lawns, watering lawns, fertilizing lawns = idolizing lawns, a useless endeavor.
And let's get real about freakin' cemeteries and golf!
I say, "Sod 'em!"
And "Piss on 'em, too!"
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Paul Martzen
Trad climber
Fresno
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Jun 18, 2014 - 07:21pm PT
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John Sutter, a reporter for CNN, flew out from Atlanta to explore and paddle down the San Joaquin River. He is trying to find out why it was labeled, "The Most Endangered River". His tweets and photos of people and places along the way are fascinating, I think. It is very interesting to me to see his reactions to the weird water and land issues in this area. Looks like he is in the Firebaugh area today.
http://cnnuslive.cnn.com/Event/My_trip_down_the_most_endangered_river_in_America
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jun 25, 2014 - 10:07am PT
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That whole Slate series is EXCELLENT!
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jun 28, 2014 - 05:18pm PT
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Three hungry bucks 7:00 yesterday morning while walking my dog. All the grasses should be about the same color as where the bucks are. The same three (probably) were hiding in the shade of some trees next to my driveway Thursday noon. It's very unusual for them to be so close to us during the day.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jun 28, 2014 - 05:57pm PT
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Unfortunately out of season!
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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It came down pretty good for a while here in East Redlands today.
The goat-dish rain-gauge is showing almost a half-inch.
Looks like summer's our new rainy season, like I've been predicting all year.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 11, 2014 - 05:11pm PT
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This is too good.
The State seeks to ban, among other things, using water to wash sidewalks.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-water-outdoor-20140709-story.html
But up in San Francisco, washing down the sidewalk is how you "flush", because pissing and shitting on the sidewalk is a tradition as old as The City itself.
Now, San Francisco is in a quandary.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-to-water-agency-We-need-to-spray-away-our-5616104.php
San Francisco has volunteered numerous ways for other people to cut back on water, such as telling farmers which crops they should grow, or criticizing those who grow grass in their suburban yards. To be enforced by law, if they get their way.
Now, out-of-towners are giving advice to San Francisco, and like anybody else, they're not real happy about it.
We'll see if they're really serious about conservation.
If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, keep it around.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 11, 2014 - 06:11pm PT
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Did you read that link ( second one ) I posted, Mr Kay?
"...the city counted 16,164 reports of streets and sidewalks in need of cleaning in the past year, the bulk of which concerned human waste"
"flusher trucks"
Last year, when the train escalators quit working, it was because they were fouled with human excrement.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-waste-shuts-down-BART-escalators-3735981.php
I don't know about the rain in the Sierras, but last summer, the San Gorgonio range caught more of the desert monsoons than usual, and got enough rain to keep all the usual backcountry water sources flowing, including the ones that dry up in dry years.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 11, 2014 - 07:20pm PT
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L.A. never cleans theirs. They tried to once, but the homeless lawyered up and sued to stop the cleaning.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 11, 2014 - 08:02pm PT
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"All employees must use the Hand Sanitizer after using the restroom and before returning to work."
Remember Iced Pirates? It was perhaps the defining film of the eighties.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
It's not this bad yet, Patrick.
This drought is like the movie..."Let's see where this goes, not that it's real enjoyable. But what if..."
What if everyone tried this?
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couchmaster
climber
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Jul 16, 2014 - 07:54am PT
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California is reporting that for May, despite Gov Browns call to reduce useage 20%, water use in California actually rose this year over last.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 16, 2014 - 08:02am PT
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That's because there's a drought, Couchmaster.
During rainy years, we use less water.
Of course, this surprises guys like Governor Brown.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jul 16, 2014 - 08:45am PT
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Californians as a whole have failed to conserve water during the worst drought in a generation, according to data reviewed by the board at its meeting Tuesday in Sacramento.
that's a terrible article-- i've read three different pieces on that meeting, and they've all been equally bad.
the Leg and Gov are just flailing. Water is too explosive, so it's en endless round of ceremonial public displays.
it's no accident than all of the Norcal-Delta region legislators have been cut out of the House-Senate water bill reconciliation talks. same thing happened with the SWP-- it's almost certainly the prelude to So SJ and MWD screwing the Delta.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jul 16, 2014 - 09:46am PT
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In terms of the OP, the drought is getting worse.
There are communities that are now trucking in water.
In the cities, like LA, single family dwellings account for most of the water use, and half of that is used on landscaping/outdoors.
Like most, I don't have a problem with people using water for vital functions. But I have a big problem with people wasting it.
They say that if you want to send people a message, send it on the back of a check....and that's what we are getting to, now.
You can talk about building infrastructure....tunnels, dams, desal, recycling...but those take at least a decade to make happen. It'll have NO effect on what's going on now.
The ONLY thing that will affect current usage levels is cutting the usage.
Can most cut 20%? easily. It would be MUCH harder to cut gasoline by 20%.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 16, 2014 - 09:49am PT
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Does anybody foresee the day when the discussion begins vis a vis-à-vis unlimited growth?
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jul 16, 2014 - 10:13am PT
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again 75% of all water used in cali is used by agriculture.
most of that water is taxpayer-subsidized and delivered at below market rates.
most of the rest is getting pumped, unmonitored and unregulated, out of common aquifers in ways that directly damage public infrastructure that is then repaired by taxpayers.
the vast majority of taxpayers are urbanites. the vast majority of cali taxes are raised in urban areas.
the constant handwringing in this thread about toilets is a bad sideshow. we have indeed built in water-poor areas and continue to do so-- but urban areas, with obvious exceptions like sacramento, have dramatically reduced per capita water use since 1990. there are particular locales where urban conservation is important but it isn't important statewide
again, we use 75% of the water to produce 3-5% of our economy, and we use taxpayer susbsidies to do it.
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