https://weather.com/photos/news/2021-04-27-drought-emergency-california-photos

We are so fucked.

.... and this is new to you there ... how?

Ha, I've only been bitching about no rain for the last two years.
But as I have mentioned many times I don't keep up with the news.
I'm concerned about the water levels at this time of year, isn't even summer yet.

Will be a bad fire season.

I was just about to ask about the fire risks so far this year ...

Well there is a bright spot, so much has burned in the last two years there is little left to burn.

There is a name for that type of thinking but, meh.

Well, that's a plus ...
Until another part starts aflame ...

We had that happen in Florida a few years back ...
We thought that the most known place to have fires start already burned ...

Until the next fire started a mile from that, and then came back on that land to decimate the growth that started coming back ...

Nature is a cruel whore ...

This struck me as strange.
>>Southern California is not facing the same issues, as the water in the region is mostly supplied by federal and state water systems rather than reservoirs that depend on local precipitation.<<

Are they saying SoCal gets a Break? Federal and state water systems???

Because, where IN THE FUCK do they think that water comes from?

The more the south sucks, the more the north drys out.

This made me think of the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn this morning. Humans are walking a path towards extinction because we will continue to extract resources to the point of the failure of other species and the collapse of ecosystems.

Southern California should burn now. The population of humans far exceeds the carrying capacity of the region and sucking the rest of the west dry to support swimming pools, lawns, and gardens is obscene. It was already a semi-desert and is pretty likely to cross the definition to desert (<10 in rain per year) with climate change.

Also, fuck almond milk. California wastes so much water growing almonds then we obliterate them into almond milk. It's also terrible for bee populations. And to top it off, almond milk has basically no nutritional value (which is true of all of the milk substitutes aside from soy milk). All so a bunch of goddamned hippies can drink almond milk lattes and jerk themselves off about how they're vegan and saving the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yesyhQkYrQM&t=91s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAGNTWmVOAo

This made me think of the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn this morning. Humans are walking a path towards extinction because we will continue to extract resources to the point of the failure of other species and the collapse of ecosystems.

Southern California should burn now. The population of humans far exceeds the carrying capacity of the region and sucking the rest of the west dry to support swimming pools, lawns, and gardens is obscene. It was already a semi-desert and is pretty likely to cross the definition to desert (<10 in rain per year) with climate change.

Also, fuck almond milk. California wastes so much water growing almonds then we obliterate them into almond milk. It's also terrible for bee populations. And to top it off, almond milk has basically no nutritional value (which is true of all of the milk substitutes aside from soy milk). All so a bunch of goddamned hippies can drink almond milk lattes and jerk themselves off about how they're vegan and saving the world.

Hahahahaha ....
Ok, THAT one struck me ...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And to follow it up with "2525" ....
Hahahahahahahahaha ....

Thanks for that, man!
hahahahahahahahahaha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZYGsMHdRf8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anL8VqdnkxI

Damn ....

Yes taking in the situation this year almost makes me cry when thinking back on all the water we had when I was young. If the weather doesn't start to swing back within the next year or two, Ca. is pretty much finished. There isn't even a ground water supply in many areas now. That too has already been drained.

Also WH's video is 4 years old, the situation is much worse now.

Damn ....
No way to syphon and purify any other water sources?

Damn ....
No way to syphon and purify any other water sources?

The Ocean is the only viable source at this point but no billionaire or government agency is going to pay for that.

I suppose desalination isn't quite a thing yet ...

It's a thing, but it's really energy intensive and thus expensive. In the Middle East they have some solar-powered desalination plants but it's still expensive and they're funding everything off of the combination of oil revenues and slave labor.

Plus if you start building solar powered desalination plants everywhere, you run into a different issue: we will never come close to offsetting current fossil fuel use if we keep increasing electrical loads. I heard one scientist a while ago state that all of the gains in solar and wind in the past couple of decades haven't put a dent in anything; they've just offset new growth.

Desalination plants also usually produce 1 gallon of waste water that's super concentrated with salts for every 1 gallon of potable water. They usually just dump that water back into the ocean, so you accelerate the degradation of aquatic ecosystems.

Hmmmm ....

we will never come close to offsetting current fossil fuel use if we keep increasing electrical loads. I heard one scientist a while ago state that all of the gains in solar and wind in the past couple of decades haven't put a dent in anything; they've just offset new growth.

How many years will our oil supply last?
53 years
In order to project how much time we have left before the world runs out of oil, gas, and coal, one method is measuring the R/P ratios — that is the ratio of reserves to current rates of production. At the current rates of production, oil will run out in 53 years, natural gas in 54, and coal in 110.

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/0714/How-long-will-world-s-oil-reserves-last-53-years-says-BP

The world's remaining proved reserves of 1.73 trillion barrels can cover 50 years of current production rates, BP estimates. That's little changed from a decade ago and is 35% higher than in 1980, when the oil major began counting

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/how-long-fossil-fuels-last-43432/

WHY WE SHOULD WORRY
Our world economy is based on the capitalist system which assumes forever a positive Gross Domestic Product – GDP. At the same time 196 governments in December 2017 have signed onto the Paris agreement limiting global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees C by 2100 from the pre-industrial age. IPCC even go as far as stating that the world would benefit with a 1.5 degree C by 2100 giving us a sustainable and equitable development. However already extreme weather is showing devastation in terms of hurricanes, flooding, drought etc … in many parts of the world. Despite all this, governments have not altered their policies in pursuing a higher and higher growth rate [1]. Just a few days ago, we have been told that real GDP in the US increased 3.2 % in the first quarter of 2019 according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis [2]. In the fourth quarter of 2018, real GDP increased 2.2 percent. Obviously we continue ‘business as usual’ and are not concerned about using up our resources!

Energy consumption worldwide grew by 2.3% in 2018, nearly twice the average rate of growth since 2010, driven by the observed robust economy [3].  More than 40% of the growth in 2017.

Electricity continues to assert itself as the “fuel” of the future, with global electricity demand growing by 4% in 2018 to more than 23,000 TWh. This rapid growth is pushing electricity towards a 20% share in total final consumption of energy. Increasing power generation was responsible for a little more than half of the growth in primary energy demand.

What are the consequences of the higher GDP that we are pursuing?

Yes, we are rapidly depleting our resources. Unfortunately most of the demand for energy falls on the use of fossil energy, oil, gas and coal. With Global energy demand increasing by 2.1% in 2017, as 72% was in fossil fuel [1] [3], 25% in renewables and remainder by nuclear. Naturally this results in a rise in CO2 emission – by 1.7 % in 2017, reaching a historic high of 33.1 gigatons.

https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/fossil-fuels-run/

Yeah, that's the bind we're in.

~50 years of proven oil & natural gas reserves, so most things need to go to electric. But our electric infrastructure is not adequate to support additional loading - we need massive expansion to accommodate moving cars, all heating, dryers, ovens, etc. on to the grid. Something like at least 40% increased capacity, plus all of the grid upgrades & modernization the US has been avoiding. And that's just the infrastructure side. On the individual side: there are furnaces that have to be changed to heat pumps and water heaters/stoves/dryers/etc. that need to be replaced. That will require rewiring houses, upgrading services, etc.

Personally, I think we need massive nuclear projects starting yesterday to go with expanded wind and solar projects.

We will be pushing the envelope on air conditioning today, 107° right now.

Wish I had AC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfr82RB72U8

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/looming-climate-impacts-10-takeaways-from-draft-un-report

Sounds like the latest UN report is going to be a nightmare, at least until the politicians get their hands on it.

I'm not hopeful ...

Yeah I think their goal to hold temps to anything is just pie in the sky, personally I think it's to late. Especially since their chemtrails experiments failed. And yes, the government has now admitted that chemtrails were a real thing

It was always pie in the sky. When they signed the first agreements with no enforcement mechanisms, they guaranteed no one was going to do anything.

I think we will see a lot more geoengineering experiments in the next 10 years and large-scale projects by 2040 or 2050. Even if they don't work, they'll do it for the theater of "we're fighting climate change!"

And of course we're going to continue the trend towards authoritarianism. Insecure people will want strong leaders to make them feel better and probably will get population control...through killing refugees, starting proxy wars, etc.

Good news?

Monsoon rains could bust exceptional drought across the Southwest

(CNN)A surge of monsoonal moisture is bringing rounds of heavy rain and strong thunderstorms to areas of the Southwest that are currently suffering from extreme to exceptional drought conditions.

Nearly 10 million people are under flash flood watches across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

While expansive rain and thunderstorms will affect much of the Southwest this weekend, the highest rainfall totals are expected across the state of Arizona where some locations could tally upwards of 6 inches. This amount of rain in such a short period of time have prompted significant flash flooding concerns ........

I found this updated on the article just after I posted the last post ...



Hopefully it'll hit Cali in due time ...

Engineers develop a simple way to desalinate water using solar energy