NLBS #52: Stupid in California, or, How Excess and Environmentalists Caused The Drought.

In this episode of Next Level BS, we take a look at the latest “drought to end all droughts” in California. While many are quick to blame crops that require excessive irrigation, or environmental policies that divert billions of gallons of water because of a small fish, it’s not the whole story. There are dozens of rich communities, scattered throughout California, that consume more than four-times the water than the average US household outside of drought regions. One such community, with less than 20,000 people, uses nearly 8 million gallons of water each day! And that’s just residential use, it doesn’t factor in the four golf courses. The ultra-rich in California believe their rights to water are more important than everyone else’s. This is our final episode of our second season, and we’re taking a short break. Watch to the end for a big announcement.






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But but, almonds are nice

The rich people right to play in green golf course its so out of touch with reality, sometimes is hard for me to believe there are really such dumb people, if they are so dumb how do they get rich in the first place? the mysteries of life

a reply to: theNLBS

(In snobby french accent) But my lawn, it is le thirst...

Seems like desalinization is kept on the DL(TPTB?). Everyone is freaking out about the water tables around the globe, I suspect they might stabilize if more and more desalination plants were built to offset fresh water use from reservoirs, etc. (only an educated guess).

Excellent season finale. Have a good trip!

Yep stupid, overpopulation and wasteful use are some of the issues . I couldn't help but notice no one in the video blamed it on lack of rain ?

a reply to: theNLBS

Does this cover the California government and how they have caused drought there or just bash rich? We need to make sure all the blame goes where it's deserved - a lot seems to rest on politicians and I'd love to see a well researched video or thread about this.

Man Made Drought

originally posted by: Greathouse
I couldn't help but notice no one in the video blamed it on lack of rain ?

On the supply-side, it's more of a lack of snow.

But the main point is, if the state embraced desalination back when it was important to do so, there's be either no crisis today, or the crisis would be no where near extreme.

a reply to: theNLBS
Maybe its like this...................the more money you have the stupider you get.

originally posted by: Ameilia
a lot seems to rest on politicians...

And the video mentions two important issues that are the politician's fault.

originally posted by: Greathouse
Yep stupid, overpopulation and wasteful use are some of the issues . I couldn't help but notice no one in the video blamed it on lack of rain ?

or....there are rich people in other states that do the same thing

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

originally posted by: Greathouse
I couldn't help but notice no one in the video blamed it on lack of rain ?

On the supply-side, it's more of a lack of snow.

But the main point is, if the state embraced desalination back when it was important to do so, there's be either no crisis today, or the crisis would be no where near extreme.

Yeah I should've use the word precipitation. But I completely agree, that was why I did use the word stupid. As Joe said in his video this is their 12th major drought.( I assume since statehood ) It sure seems like somebody out there would have had the brains to do it before now .

a reply to: jimmyx


Everybody does it and I agree those that have the money do it more. But every time anyone washes their car they are contributing .

Lol. Most Californians wouldn't last a day here in Arizona.

a reply to: 6Taco6Smell6

In my area of Ca, we can drop to 7 degrees in winter and 115 in summer. One year it hit 121 here. We can have a 105 degree day and a drop to 45 degrees at night.

Why would I not make it in AZ?

a reply to: theNLBS

I have posted this in other threads, but will just throw this in here. I am confident when I say growers such the size of Scheid or Kendall-Jackson Vineyards (I am not stating those two specific growers but simply providing names for size relevance) often store their irrigation water in holding ponds. Larger vineyards can have 2 million gallon water holding ponds, while most have much smaller, say 40,000 gallon ponds. These are subject to evaporation. All from same aquifer.

86% of the San Francisco delta aquifer water GOES TO AGRICULTURE. The biggest chunk of that agriculture is wine grapes.

18% of water, statewide, goes for residential use. The rest is used for AG and then business/commerce.

Water over wine, I say.

I just drove through California, from LA, north through to Oregon. California is hot, extremely dry, and exactly what you would expect a desert to be. Because it is.

What is amazing, is the traffic, the towns and cities, the population, despite the depressed economy especially in the central valley... It's unbelievable seeing so many people, so much civilization in a desert.

Maybe that is where the stupidity is, ultimately.

a reply to: ausername

Next time, drive hwy 101 and then Hwy 1 north. No desert found. You drove I-5 ?

a reply to: Ultralight

Yep, I 5 all the way.

a reply to: UltralightSounds like Redding to me.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Redding, north through Shasta and Weed (funny name) is rather nice. Compared to the rest if the state. The lake near Shasta is low.

And I did notice along I 5 there are signs in the area that say: Using recycled water

Recycled water?

a reply to: ausername

That is enough to scare anyone away. Desolate area. The following suggestions will show you a stark difference than that of your travels. I am in the "God's country" of Ca. But we require a lot of water resource for AG and tourism.

Try Google cities/towns like Solvang, San Simeon, Morro Bay, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, Vandenberg Village, Monterey Bay, and a MUST...Ragged point.

That's waaaay different than that of the I-5 cooridor.

These areas also draw on those aquifers as they are farm/ranch/beach areas and grow wine grapes, citrus, avocados, row crops, etc.