Robert Glennon: California's Drought: Water Demand, Population Growth, and Sensible Solutions

Drought has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency. Water agencies are preparing to impose mandatory water rationing. We're all hoping that melting snow in the Sierra will save the state's farmers and city dwellers from hardship. But once rain starts to fall - and it eventually will - California's farmers expect to irrigate their fields and residents expect to water their lawns. Drought, in other words, does not require a fundamental change in behavior, only a temporary halt to customary water use. And that's very important. We love to blame Mother Nature for every natural catastrophe, but a close look at recent droughts, in California this year and Georgia last year, shows that these droughts are not more severe than previous ones. Why, then, is there such a crisis? Because Californians this year and Georgians last year have outgrown their states' water supplies. The margin for weathering a drought has shrunk. The rain and the drought are ... (link)