The Great Thirst: Looking ahead to a post-global warming life in California

[pinto]

Written from a 2062 perspective, this well-sourced, fascinating article provides a primer of sorts on where Californians get our water today and the possible scenario of a boom and bust future for water supply in the West.

The Great Thirst
Looking ahead to a post-global warming life in California, 60 years hence

Glen Martin
Sunday, January 7, 2007

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/07/CMG9HMMTIT12.DTL&type=printable

<author's introduction>

<snip>

It is a sign of the flexibility of the human spirit that a certain nostalgia has begun to pervade our memories of the Great Thirst. With it immured safely 30 years in the past, we can afford such revisionism. Today, in 2062, we delight in recalling the heroic incidents it kindled, the ingenious responses to catastrophe, the shared privations. Now that we have squeezed through the bottleneck with our institutions more or less intact, we can savor the simple and glorious fact that we endured.
But as we bask in the alpenglow of our memories, we must acknowledge that the forces that almost destroyed California are still in play globally; that other people are still grappling with the crises we have weathered. They still have to get though the bottleneck.

True, we Californians have established the standard for societal response to catastrophic water shortages and supply disruption. But we had an essential advantage: We were Californians. Our state was -- and is -- one of the world's great repositories of wealth, technology and talent. We had everything going for us, and we still barely squeaked through.

Nor can we claim that we emerged unscathed. Our society has changed, and not necessarily for the better. Our lives are tightly regulated now, in ways our antecedents would not have tolerated. Key components of the old economy have disappeared. The environmental disruption of the past five decades has been extreme, and much of the damage is irreparable. There are far more of us living on much less. Basic services and resources that were once considered an unalienable birthright are now privileges: Only the very wealthy have swimming pools or lawns.

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/07/CMG9HMMTIT12.DTL&type=printable

[Double T]

1. The world (including California) will be a VERY different place.............

still with NO REAL solution to the problems that created global warming. Continued overpopulation with dwindling resources creates the insurmountable dilemma.

[Newsjock]

2. K&R

This outstanding (and very scary) article is languishing here. It deserves your attention.

[WhiteTara]

3. Santa Rosa CA paper front page says 35% more

water is needed next year. I live over the lake that feeds Sonoma county and the pump works 18 hours a day as it is. I wonder how they will figure out a way to increase the water supply 35%...maybe stop some of the vinyards? nah.