When the first forty-niners began to trickle into California in search of gold, the Central Valley was a fertile expanse of grasslands and marshes home to thousands of deer, tule elk, and grizzly bears — an American Serengeti. Within a century, the region radically transformed into a cornucopia of industrial agriculture to feed the state’s […]
Tag: drought
California’s Drought: Reviewing the Past, Critiquing the Present, and Preparing for the Future
Written November 21, 2016. As Governor Jerry Brown trekked on a dry, brown meadow nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, something was wrong. The date, April 1st, 2015, seemed appropriate: it was almost like a joke gone wrong; where there had once been a copious amount of snow covering the ground, there was not one […]
(R-CA): Is It Possible? A Republican’s Quest To Reclaim California’s Senate Seat
What is the cost of being a Republican – much less a conservative – in the state of California? Contrary to popular belief, it is not completely condemning. After all, this is the state that produced Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the latter whom is arguably the father of modern American conservatism. But in […]
El Niño’s Implications For The Future Of California’s Water
The issue of water is more important now than ever before in California. For the past several years, the state has been in a severe drought, with water reservoir levels dropping to historical lows. Recently, with the advent of the El Niño storm, there has been a massive surge in the amount of rainfall the […]
California’s Drought: A Trickling Time Bomb
In early March senior NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory water scientist Jay Famiglietti reported that the state of California has approximately a single year’s supply of water in its reservoirs, with backup groundwater supply having rapidly decrease. His LA Times editorial urges an immediate call to action following its startling announcement. “California has about one year of […]
The Fuss About Fracking
If you enjoy drinking clean water and breathing clean air, you should know about fracking. Fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, is the process of pumping water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to break open reservoir rock and allow the oil and natural gas within to escape. Toxic waste, air pollution, public health issues, increased […]