Thursday, May 07, 2015

"... let there be drought."



9 comments:

Esteve said...

Folks are bailing out right and left from California and umbrellas only work as parachutes in the cartoons. And then there's the drought.

gadfly said...

Rain Follows the Plow

Suppose now that a new army of frontier farmers-- as many as could occupy another belt of 50 miles, in width, from Manitoba to Texas, could, acting in concert, turn over the prairie sod, and after deep plowing and receiving the rain and moisture, present a new surface of green growing crops instead of dry, hard baked earth covered with sparse buffalo grass. No one can question or doubt the inevitable effect of this cooling condensing surface upon the moisture in the atmosphere as it moves over by the Western winds. A reduction of temperature must at once occur, accompanied by the usual phenomena of showers. The chief agency in this transformation is agriculture. To be more concise. Rain follows the plow.
--Charles Dana Wilber, 1881, in
The Great Valleys of Nebraska

Anonymous said...

Yep, that was the "settled Science" then...
Of course halting all reservoir building for 40 years while the states population went from under 10 to over 40 Million and continuing to drain the few existing reservoirs to benefit a minnow at the expense of agriculture is criminal.
RAK

Anonymous said...

As a Californian I am amused by the reactions of people from other states to the progressive mess that California has become. Any state that dumps half its captured water supply during a drought to save 8 Delta Smelt has some serious problems with common sense and logical thinking, not to mention the morality of valuing animals over humans. But CA is just the fruition of many trends present in the entire country. We seen to go through a long term cycle in which common sense hard working people build something of value that attracts a great number of people who feel that is it time to squander that wealth. Those are many of the people who then leave when problems become overwhelming. Where do the people enjoying our mess think those people are going when they leave? Luigi

Anonymous said...

..something of value that attracts a great number of people who feel that is it time to squander...

In ancient times, those were called plagues of locusts.
Now, it's plagues of Progressives. They take productive areas, beautiful areas, screw them all up with their statist politics, then flee to find more locales to plunder.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

Anonymous said...

I know right, Luigi.

After all, who is John Galt?

thoR!

Rodger the Real King of France said...

OMFG! Luigi didn't make that up!

In drought-stricken California, court rules smelt fish get water

Anonymous said...

Yes Roger it is hard to believe. There are now about six delta smelt left. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2015/03/19/last-six-delta-smelt/

And they really are dumping 50% of the water collected into the ocean.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416918/no-farmers-dont-use-80-percent-californias-water-devin-nunes

Devin Nunes is the California Representative for the 22nd congressional district (San Joaquin Valley).
Luigi

Anonymous said...

I should have said the delta smelt were almost extinct. Six is how many they netted in the annual survey.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150403-smelt-california-bay-delta-extinction-endangered-species-drought-fish/
Luigi

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