Hi Steve, Randall, and WeatherCat social observers,
That sounds like a frustrating situation. Didn't mean to pour salt on old wounds.
No worries, but it is important that people understand we have choices we can make in such matters. 200 years ago people moving to California had no idea what the climate was like. When a drought hit they suffered - not knowing better. Supposedly, we are now an enlightened people armed with education that should permit us to make wise decisions. What frightens me is that the public and government officials clearly engage in a kind of denial game. Situations like this should never happen, but Californians simply respond like grade-school children. We are a society that has committed itself to a future based on rational deliberations on how to best solve our problems. Then inexplicably when such situations arise, people don't do the work of reasoning out the best solution. It is their own future that is also on the line - yet, people don't seem to care. They most certainly will care when disasters strikes and the possible disasters multiply each day.
I don't under a stand why our government won't build desaltment plants along the ocean to have water pumped up In to storage in the mountain so that there is water or to the Colorado river systems
Yeah it cost billions but hell they waste that much each year
I don't know what is the best strategy. I still suspect we could be better off by vastly expanding the number of reservoirs. If we stored enough water during wet years, we should be able to last through dry ones. There is another obvious benefit that is overlooked in building reservoirs. Bodies of water are a kind of habitat that is extremely rare in arid areas and it provides an important place for recreation.
Still, I'm willing to allow for a rational assessment of the various options and a plan based on the best interest of the both the public and the environment. Such things are open questions and it should be possible to come up with reasonable answers. Probably some mix of technologies is the best strategy.
What really scares me is that people really hype up science but seem incapable to actually applying science where it seems appropriate. Here is one example that should leave you a bit shaken:
The Google corporation just received permission to construct new buildings at
Moffett Naval Airstation near San Jose, CA (the former base of the airship Macon.) Google taken an official corporate opinion that human-induced global warming is a real phenomena and has lobbied governments to act on this problem. However, Google is now planning to construct new buildings at a location that is at the edge of San Francisco Bay - thus, nearly at sea level. According to Google's own position on global warming, sea levels are likely to rise - especially considering the recent reports about ice melting in Antarctica.
Most people would agree that the managers of Google are among the "smartest" people on planet Earth. Yet, on the one hand they insist we are facing a disaster from global warming - including significant sea level rising. Yet, these same
"very smart" managers apparently have no concerns about creating new infrastructure that would be extremely vulnerable to the very sea level rises they claim are forthcoming. . . . . . .
Uh, who is kidding who around here? 
I get really scared when a top-flight company like Google can be so incapable of using rudamentary logic in a situation like this.
Oh well, . . . .
Edouard
