While water conservation has been a growing topic in California over the past months as we stare down our second major drought in less than a decade, it is important to note that water resource management is not a California specific issue. Large areas across the American West and Worldwide are facing similar, if not worse, conditions than we are. Here are a few articles to get you up to speed on the drying climate across the state, the country, and the world:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How Unprepared is California for 2021’s drought?<\/a><\/strong> – CalMatters (20 May 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n From 2013 to 2017, California experienced a major drought.\u00a0 Sierra snowpack was limited and the seasonal rains never came.\u00a0 We had a full on water crisis with limited supply and major restrictions on residential water use.\u00a0 As surface water dried up, Californians turned to pumping groundwater at rates higher than ever before. After an extremely dry winter, California is staring down a major drought once again just a few short years later.\u00a0 Once again, California is woefully unprepared to handle another major drought.\u00a0 Surface reservoirs are at historic lows, and there are still no significant controls on groundwater pumping.\u00a0 As California continues to dry out as we head into fire season, a number of questions remain about how the state will handle this coming disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Declining Lake Powell Levels Prompt Colorado River States to Form New Plan<\/a> – KUNC (20 May 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Water supply issues are not a problem exclusive to California.\u00a0 The Colorado River Basin supplies water to states across the Western United States including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.\u00a0 Some of the water from the Colorado River is even allocated across our southern border to Mexico.\u00a0 Since the 1922 Colorado River Compact, water deliveries from the Colorado River have been a controversial subject, with few states ever receiving their full allocation.\u00a0 The Colorado River\u2019s Lake Powell reservoir is currently forecast to be at only 29% of its capacity, the lowest level since it began filling in 1963.\u00a0 As the American Southwest faces its driest year on record, states in the upper basin are scrambling to enact drought contingency plans before there is a major water shortage.\u00a0 If this record dry period continues, there could be significant issues for many of the communities that have come to rely on water from the Colorado River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extreme Droughts May Hit Twice as Many People by Century\u2019s End<\/a> – World Economic Forum (20 Jan 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Climate change in the coming decades will have numerous impacts on the global population, but one of the largest concern is the increase in areas that will be affected by droughts.\u00a0 By the end of the 21st century, the global land area facing extreme droughts could more than double from just 3% to more than 7%.\u00a0 With this significant increase in area impacted, the number of people that will be affected will also double.\u00a0 Currently, the areas that have the highest likelihood of extreme drought are primarily in the southern hemisphere, and this trend is likely to continue into the end of the 21st century.\u00a0 The World Economic forum has called for commitments to improve water resource management in order to avoid potentially catastrophic water shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While water conservation has been a growing topic in California over the past months as we stare down our second major drought in less than a decade, it is important to note that water resource management is not a California specific issue. Large areas across the American West and Worldwide are facing similar, if not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,18,15],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-california","tag-drought","tag-water-conservation"],"gutentor_comment":16,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"jrzepczynski","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/envs95spring2021\/author\/jrzepczynski\/"},"qubely_comment":16,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"While water conservation has been a growing topic in California over the past months as we stare down our second major drought in less than a decade, it is important to note that water resource management is not a California specific issue. 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