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Biden Administration Declares California Drought Disaster. What Is Newsom Waiting For?

/in , /by /GV Wireby Bill McEwen

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack designated 50 California counties as natural disaster areas last month because of the drought. And, over the weekend, Fresno Congressman Jim Costa said on KSEE-24’s Sunday Morning Matters program that Gov. Newsom should declare a statewide emergency because of the dangerously dry conditions. Vilsack is a Democrat and former Iowa governor who served eight years as President Obama’s top farming official. Costa is a Democrat.

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Opinion: Drought Hits California — and Newsom

/in , /by /CALmattersby Dan Walters

By any standard, California is experiencing one of its periodic droughts after two successive years of below-normal precipitation.

“We are now facing the reality that it will be a second dry year for California and that is having a significant impact on our water supply,” state water resources director Karla Nemeth said in late March as the state reduced projected deliveries of water to 5% of requested demand.

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Western U.S. May Be Entering its Most Severe Drought in Modern History

/in , , /by /CBS Newsby Jeff Berardelli

Extreme drought across the Western U.S. has become as reliable as a summer afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. And news headlines about drought in the West can seem a bit like a broken record, with some scientists saying the region is on the precipice of permanent drought.

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White House Issues Infrastructure Report Cards for All 50 States

/in , /by /The Hillby Brett Samuels

The White House on Monday issued report cards for all 50 states in a bid to highlight why officials say a massive infrastructure bill is necessary. The Biden administration released fact sheets that break down how each state stacks up in 12 key areas of infrastructure that would be addressed under the American Jobs Plan, President Biden‘s $2.3 trillion proposal to invest in traditional infrastructure like roads and railways, as well as more progressive areas like the care economy and climate-friendly industries.

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Western U.S. May Be Entering its Most Severe Drought in Modern History

/in , , /by /CBS Newsby Jeff Berardelli

Extreme drought across the Western U.S. has become as reliable as a summer afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. And news headlines about drought in the West can seem a bit like a broken record, with some scientists saying the region is on the precipice of permanent drought. That’s because in 2000, the Western U.S. entered the beginning of what scientists call a megadrought — the second worst in 1,200 years — triggered by a combination of a natural dry cycle and human-caused climate change.

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Opinion: How to Save Beaches and Coastlines from Climate Change Disasters

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Michael W. Beck

The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020. With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms will increase dramatically.

At the same time, coastal habitats such as wetlands and reefs are being lost rapidly. Some 20% of the world’s mangroves were lost over the last four decades. More than half of the Great Barrier Reef was degraded by bleaching in 2020 alone. In California, we have lost more than 90% of our coastal marshes.

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In the West, Signs in the Snow Warn That a 20-Year Drought Will Persist and Intensify

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Bob Berwyn and Judy Fahys

Lack of monsoon rainfall last summer and spotty snowfall this winter combined to worsen the Western drought dramatically in the past year, and spring snowmelt won’t bring much relief. Critical April 1 measurements of snow accumulations from mountain ranges across the region show that most streams and rivers will once again flow well below average levels this year, stressing ecosystems and farms and depleting key reservoirs that are already at dangerously low levels.

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Drought Hitting Home in California, Arizona

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Todd Fitchette

As drought deepens in the West and the water used by farms and people alike dwindles, farmers in Arizona and California are bracing for cutbacks in the two major federal systems that supply irrigation and drinking water to millions of people.

Water storage is shrinking with no snowpack to replenish reservoirs managed by the Bureau of Reclamation in California and Arizona. Shasta Lake in northern California is about half full while lakes Mead and Powell, the two giant reservoirs designed to contain more than 50-million-acre feet of water behind Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, respectively, are precariously low with under 20-million-acre feet of total storage combined.

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Drought Conditions Worsen in California After Prolonged Warm, Dry Weather

/in , , /by /Ventura County Starby Cheri Carlson

Ventura County has moved into severe drought conditions as it wraps up what is typically the rainiest months of the year.

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Opinion: Silver Lining to Water Woes Could be Farmers Putting Their Lands to New Uses Besides Crops

/in , , /by /Fresno Beeby Emmy Cattani and Ann Hayden

The Central Valley has reached a critical juncture.

On one path, without proactive, collaborative planning, the Valley could become a haphazard patchwork of dusty fields infested with invasive weeds and pests, further impairing already poor air quality, devastating the agricultural economy and putting many farmworkers out of work.

On another path, the Valley can remain a thriving agricultural region amid a mosaic of new land uses, like vibrant habitat corridors for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox or wildlife-friendly groundwater recharge areas for migratory birds or outdoor recreational green spaces for families.

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