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DESCRIPTION:California Drought: Natural Causes and an Insane System\nPresentation & 
 Discussion\nTuesday May 19 at 7pm\n\nThis is a natural crisis, brought on 
 in its immediate sense by changes in weather patterns, bringing a drastic 
 lack of precipitation. But this is also a crisis amplified by record high 
 temperatures causing evaporation and drying of soil, connected to 
 human-caused global warming.\n\nMore deeply, this is an unnatural crisis 
 that is rooted in and intensified by relentless capitalist economic 
 development and growth over decades that has had no regard for the limits 
 of natural resources, (water in this case) and the dependence of humans and 
 nature on water. This growth has also taken place with no appreciation of, 
 or even attempt to take into account, the long term climate history of 
 California or the Southwest and what this would really mean for a society 
 and economy built in this region.\n\nFor years this crisis has been looming 
 and the state has done little to address it. But now things are cracking 
 open. Millions of people and natural ecosystems are being impacted. The 
 effects of the drought will be widespread and long-lasting.\n\nThis year 
 the drought has intensified, with more of the state entering more extreme 
 drought. Even more troubling-the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains 
 this year, which large sections of the state rely on for a release of 
 melting water into reservoirs, rivers and aqueducts in the late spring and 
 summer months-is only 6 percent of normal. So this summer the situation 
 will very likely worsen. Last year the Association of California Water 
 Agencies said that another year of drought would cause "disastrous 
 consequences". According to Jay Famiglietti, a water scientist for NASA and 
 professor at University of California, Irvine, the three main water sources 
 for California-snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada, local groundwater, and 
 imported water from the Colorado river-are all declining.\n\nIn April, 
 California governor Jerry Brown instituted mandatory water restrictions 
 aimed at cutting water usage for residential users by 25 percent. These 
 measures are tiered so that communities that have already cut water usage 
 aren't required to cut as drastically as others. Across the state there is 
 a crazy and complex patchwork-where certain cities and peoples have been 
 innovatively seeking to conserve water in all kinds of ways, while many 
 other areas continue to mindlessly use water in frivolous ways-watering 
 golf courses and lawns in the middle of the desert, etc. Some of this will 
 be curtailed with the restrictions. But so far at least, these restrictions 
 don't even address the heart of the matter. 80 percent of water in 
 California goes to agriculture and much of this water use comes from 
 completely unsustainable gobbling up of groundwater reserves. While 
 agriculture is only 2 percent of the economy in California, it has been 
 built up to be a keystone of food production for the U.S. and exports 
 worldwide. California produces 50 percent of the country's nuts, fruits and 
 vegetables. Farmers have been driven to plant large areas with almond trees 
 to try to cash in on the high price of almonds on the world market. But 
 these trees require large amounts of water and are vulnerable because, once 
 planted, they need to be watered just to keep them alive. And increasingly 
 there is a drastic lack of water. State regulations cannot deal rationally 
 with transforming these kinds of contradictions-which lie deep in the 
 anarchic workings of the capitalist system. Decisions are made based on 
 short-term profitability-not on the needs of the masses of people, the 
 health of the environment, or on the actual limits of availability of water 
 and long-term climate trends.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/05/15/18772354.php
SUMMARY:California Drought: Natural Causes and an Insane System
LOCATION:Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/05/15/18772354.php
DTSTART:20150520T020000Z
DTEND:20150520T040000Z
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