The Worst Drought In California

This is the fourth year of the great drought and scientists say it will be the worst drought in 1,200 years. The negative effects of this drought is that fields will go fallow, forests will catch fire, and wells will come up dry. California is already having some of these effects (maybe). California has underwent a mandatory water rationing for cities in the state. Even though California is going through tough times right now, it won’t last forever. Rain and snow from the high Sierra will return sometime in the future. However, this drought will change California. Some people worry that this drought is the start of a megadrought caused by climate change. California has roughly one year of water supply left in its reservoirs. The grass in some
This isn’t the only reservoir suffering. Lake McClure’s reservoir is at 10 percent capacity. It’s hard to believe that the water in California is so low. It’s only been a little over a hundred years when the Los Angeles Aqueduct was opened in 1913. California is making plans to conserve water. “Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles wants to reduce the amount of water the city purchases by 50 percent in the next decade, cutting back through aggressive use of wastewater and conservation.” Farmers are losing their crops due to this drought. Farmers have lost more than 400,000 acres which made them lose 2 billion dollars last year. One way for California to lower their water shortage is to stop growing almonds. Farmers have nearly doubled almond trees since 2005 while people in cities is losing their lawns and having to take faster showers because of water shortage. The almond trees uses enough water to support 75 percent of California’s population. If almond growers stopped making so many almond trees then most of the population in California wouldn’t be on water shortages. Clearly something has to change or many lives will be in trouble soon in