Is California’s Drought Part of a Global Water Crisis?

The unfolding catastrophe of California’s now four year-old drought and the depletion of its aquifers is not just a crisis for the state and the region surrounding it; it's part of a global pattern of groundwater loss that NASA has been tracking for years. Jay Famiglietti, Senior Water Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and author of a now-famous Los Angeles Times op-ed on the drought, has seen this global groundwater deficit firsthand. Through a pair of satellites called GRACE, Famiglietti has measured the draining of the world's aquifers in places like India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and California. As climate change persists and the planet's arid and semi-arid regions become even drier, we can expect this global phenomenon to become even more acute, with a whole host of perilous consequences: violent conflict, seismic activity, stream depletion, sinking land surfaces, and the monopolization of water by those with financial means.

[jeffbrower]

Why not filter salt out of the ocean like so many are doing for crops, and set up green houses with refractory mirrors to facilitate different ideal climate and growing seasons for all kinds of fruits/vegetables and foods, and not only the a Middle East and China but Africa and everywhere else ?

[EileenTheCrw]

Or maybe it's because California hasn't historically been that great of a farmland and it was the government that encouraged them to move there with subsidized land, dam projects and water.

Or that California hasn't capitalized on desalination plants or renewable energy because environmentalist have shut down many of those attempts because of ridiculous short sighted fears. Or that they've mandated many areas may flush their stored water to somehow dilute the oceans pollution. Or diverted rivers and made them off limits because of small animals habitats might be effects (meanwhile millions of animals die because of draught)

[christophergrey]

I wonder if California will begin to show signs of unrest that's similar to other places, in the world, with the same types of water shortages.

[blackisblack]

Earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, it's the aztecan curse. You shall return those lands to legit owners.