El Niño Won’t Solve the Drought – Saving Water Will
El Niño is upon us! Can’t you tell by the 3 extra days it rained this year?
El Niño? More like El Busto!
We’re in a drought. So it’s time all of us Southern Californians sucked it up and faced it: El Niño won’t solve the drought – saving water will. El Niño is a weather phenomenon which is caused by a warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean and causes massive rain showers across the west coast of North and South America. While rain and snowstorms did increase this year in California, it was nowhere near the realm of massive and it would have needed to rain 2.5-3 times as much to even begin ending the drought. Aquifers and rivers remain dry as farmers and residents continue to cope with various methods of saving water, and as Julian Emile-Geay, a paleoclimatologist at USC, said, El Niño was merely a “band-aid on a gaping wound.”
Now we must all face the facts and limit consumption if we ever want our children and grandchildren to see green grass again in California. Some call for desalination and various ways to recycle water, but money doesn’t grow on trees, people. And others are pointing fingers at farmers because about 40 percent of water consumption in California is used for agriculture. But for crying out loud: they’re farmers, what do you want them to do quit their jobs and stop feeding us? It’s time we all get the facts through our sun tanned faces and bleach-blonde hair – El Niño isn’t going to save the drought. El Niño may have brought us a few good waves over the year, but the less-than-spectacular rainfall means we’re going to have to suck it up and save. We have the best weather of any place in the country; I think we should all be able to be appreciative and give up some water here and there.