SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday defended his order requiring
Californians statewide to cut back on their water use in a historic mandate
that spares those who consume the most — farmers.
As California endures a fourth year of drought, Brown's
order this week requires towns and cities statewide to draw down water use by
25 percent compared with 2013 levels. While past reductions were voluntary,
Brown said he is using his emergency powers to make the cuts mandatory.
Martha Raddatz, host of ABC's "This Week" public
affairs program, asked Brown why the order doesn't extend to California
farmers, who consume 80 percent of the state's water supply but make up less
than 2 percent of the state's economy. Brown said farmers aren't using water
frivolously on their lawns or taking long showers.
"They're providing most of the fruits and vegetables of
America to a significant part of the world," he said.
Brown said that before the cutbacks, some California farmers
had already been denied irrigation water from federal surface supplies, forcing
them to leave hundreds of thousands of acres unplanted. Many vulnerable farm
laborers are without work, he said. Farmers who don't have access to surface
water have increased the amount of water pumped from limited groundwater
supplies.
Brown announced the mandate on April 1 standing in the
Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack measures at 5 percent of historical average,
the lowest in 65 years of record-keeping.
Addressing agriculture, Brown said on the broadcast that
farmers asserting century-old water rights deeply rooted in state law that
allows them access to more water than others "are probably going to be
examined."
The long and severe drought in the U.S. Southwest pales in
comparison with what’s coming: a “megadrought” that will grip that region and
the central Plains later this century and probably stay there for decades, a
new study says.
Thirty-five years from now, if the current pace of climate
change continues unabated, those areas of the country will experience a weather
shift that will linger for as long as three decades, according to the study,
released Thursday.
Researchers from NASA and Cornell and Columbia universities
warned of major water shortages and conditions that dry out vegetation, which can
lead to monster wildfires in southern Arizona and parts of California.
After declaring a drought emergency in January 2014, Brown
urged Californians to voluntarily cut their water use by 20 percent from the
previous year. That resulted in great variations among communities and an
overall reduction of about 10 percent statewide. Brown did the same as governor
in 1977, during another severe drought, asking for a voluntary reduction of 25
percent.
The mandatory order will also require campuses, golf
courses, cemeteries and other large landscapes to curb their water use.
"It is a wakeup call," Brown said. "It's
requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to
the Mexican border. It affects lawns. It affects people's — how long they stay
in the shower, how businesses use water."
Well, these people have brought this on to themselves. Reckless and wasteful use of the water they
stole from other states. Now, there is
not enough of it to go around and their population still grows
exponentially. If the NASA warning holds
true, then major disaster will hit this great state.
They still have enough water to go around. It is just they are wasting so much of
it. We do not feel sorry for them at
all.
“We really need to start thinking in longer-term horizons
about how we’re going to manage it,” said Toby R. Ault, an assistant professor
in the department of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell, one of the
co-authors. “This is a slow-moving natural hazard that humans are used to
dealing with and used to managing.”
Megadroughts are sustained periods of sparse precipitation
and significant loss of soil moisture that span generations, about 10 times as
long as a normal three-year drought.
Tucson had less than 80 percent of its normal rainfall for
long stretches in the 1990s. If that were to last for two decades, “that’s a
megadrought,” Ault said.
Based on climate models the researchers used for the study,
there is an 80 percent chance that such an extended drought will strike between
2050 and 2099, unless world governments act aggressively to mitigate impacts
from climate change, the researchers said.
North America’s last megadroughts happened in medieval
times, during the 12th and 13th centuries. They were caused by natural changes
in weather that give megadroughts a 10 percent chance of forming at any time.
But climate change driven by human activity dramatically
increases those chances. “With climate change, the likelihood of a megadrought
goes up considerably,” Ault said.
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CALIFORNIA POPULATION 2014
At the last official United States census carried out in
2010, the population of California was declared at 37,253,956 which made the
state the most populous in the country by some distance.
However, the vast area that California encompasses means
that in terms of population density, with 242 people for every square mile it
ranks only 11th in the nation. However, since 20 percent of the state is deserts, the effective density is around 300 people per square mile.
California Population 2014
Based on the recent estimates and growth rate, the 2013
population in California is somehwere around 38,441,387. It is the 19th fastest
growing state with a yearly growth rate of 1.09%.
California Population Growth
The population of California in 2012 is growing at an
impressive rate and an estimate carried out in June 2011 suggests that there
has been an increase from those 2010 Census figures to numbers in the region of
37,691,912.
In 1850 there were just 92,597 people living here but the
gold rush of the mid 19th century was primarily responsible for a rise of over
300% to 379,994. The population of California continued to grow at a steadier
rate but increases in excess of 50% between ten year censuses were not
uncommon.
After the Second World War, the California Population in
1950 was declared at 10,586,223 and it has been growing exponentially ever since.
Ten years later in 1960 it was 15,717,204 and in 1970 that had grown to
19,953,134. From there, the numbers have been increasing at similar rates.
Influences of California Population
California has a healthy natural growth rate and the gap
between the birth rate and death rate is quite significant. Between 2000 and
2009, 5,058,440 births and 2,179,958 deaths resulted in a natural growth of
3,090,016.
Another significant factor is immigration: California had
huge appeal in the days of the Gold Rush and that fact holds true today.
Between those years of 2000 and 2009 the state enjoyed a net migration gain of
306,925 people. It’s also estimated that up to 7.3% of California’s population
is made up of illegal aliens.
Putting population in perspective
The end result when taking all these figures into account is
a population that is simply huge. Based on current estimates, California is
larger than all but 34 countries in the world. It is also the second most
populous national sub-entity, behind Sao Paulo of Brazil.
California Demographics
Increasing immigration has led to a diverse set of ethnic
groups within California itself and at the 2010 Census, 57.6% of the population
claimed to be white, while 40.1% were non-Hispanic white. 13% were Asian and
6.2% Black. The remaining ethnic groups consisted of Native American, Hispanic,
Latino and others.
Population of California Projections
California is still growing and although it is difficult to
track down any predictions, there is no reason to suggest that this growth will
slow down. As such, could the population of California continue the trend and explode
beyond the 40 million mark by the time of the next Census in 2020?
http://worldpopulationreview.com
