You are now in San Diego County category.

As we see our rainy season come to a close the early signs for next year are getting more muted. Long range forecasting is always a challenge but past El Niño and La Niña events have helped nudge the forecast along. Warmer water in the middle of the Pacific indicate an El Niño event but while things are warm, it’s just not progressing much. This year was saw a few early signs that El Niño may be coming back and the projection was to see a weak to moderate event this Fall into Winter.

A parcel tax, if approved by voters sometime next year, would fund projects to capture more rain and percolate it underground so it can be used to augment drinking water supplies. Last winter was the second wettest winter in California history. But only a fraction of the rain that fell in Los Angeles County is captured to percolate into the ground and recharge aquifers. County Public Works projects capture enough rain water to serve the annual needs 1.5 million residents, but with the right projects, officials think they could double or triple that amount.

I’ve just returned from Ecuador, which is famous among environmentalists across the world because it has “rights of nature” enshrined in its national constitution. Ecuador is the only country in the world to have such a constitutional provision which allows for nature to be a “plaintiff” in a court of law. Further, Ecuadorian activists are very excited that the national parliament has passed a new law to allow citizens to sue the government and corporations for environmental harms.