Following the cataclysm of the Clown Apocalypse, researchers discovered there had been similar plagues throughout the ages. One of the worst outbreaks in history was the Great Buffoon Drive of ’47. Many thought it started with an especially bad o…
Continue readingTag: California
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Solar All Over California
On our Amtrak trip through southern and central California, I watched the dry and irrigated fields fly by me at 133km/h. We stopped for the night in Bakersfield (the most conservative city in America, some figures show), and it was 41 degrees even with the sun down. The cement around
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’s Call It "Differential Migration"
If you want to see what climate change looks like, venture no further than the beaches of southern California. There you’ll find hundreds of starving and dead seal and sea lion pups, victims of what I call “differential climate migration.” Breeding adults still go to the rookeries where their species
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: They Get It. We Don’t.
California has set an ambitious target for greenhouse gas emissions. Their target is to cut emissions 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. That’s an ambitious target but, let’s face it, 2050 is a long way off in the world of politics which means there’s lots of time to duck any
Continue readingLeft Over: A California Cautionary Tale…Served Dry
Drought-ravaged L.A. looking to ‘sponge up’ every bit of rainwater New storm drains built to let rainwater ‘piddle out’ into soil, $1B emergency plan to add more By Kim Brunhuber, CBC News Posted: Mar 20, 2015 4:39 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 20, 2015 10:20 PM ET Having grown up
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: California Down to Its Last Year of Water
A report in the LA Times claims that California has freshwater reserves for but one more year. As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Will British Columbia be the Last Pacific Jurisdiction to Legalize Pot?
Washington took recreational marijuana off the state criminal books two years ago. Last night voters in Alaska and Oregon followed suit. California is expected to do the same in 2016. Imagine. British Columbia, the province once known for “B.C. Bud”, could be the last jurisdiction on the Pacific Coast to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Look at This Landscaping Called Xeriscaping
California is suffering a huge drought due to horrible water use policies and climate change. For some reason people love to have lawns where they naturally shouldn’t exist, this itself leads to massive water wastage and arguably microclimate issues. Thankfully, perhaps people are beginning to understand that their landscaping is
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Called "Virtual Water"
Water-stressed Israel realized this year ago when it recognized that its exports of Jaffa oranges were really exporting “virtual water.” It took scarce water to grow the orange and when it left the country for overseas markets it was full of water. Fast forward to 2014 and drought-stricken California. The
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Floods Come and Go But Drought Likes to Climb Onto Your Back and Stay There
We hear lots about California and it’s three-year-running drought that has left the State in severe water stress. Wells are running dry, emergency bottled water has to be brought in to help the poor survive, orchards are being bulldozed as the trees die off, Nestle keeps plundering the state to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: This Is What Happens When You Run Out of Water.
Could you get by for three weeks with 12-gallons of water? That’s a smidge over 45-litres which works out to about 2 litres per day. In Porterville, California, the county Office of Emergency Services, has delivered bottled water to 182 households where wells have now run dry. 12-gallons of water
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Mystery of California’s Vanishing Groundwater
You may have already heard about it. California, the Golden State, is reeling from three years of continuous, severe drought. Of course you’ve heard about it. The California drought is in the news almost daily. The problem with an event like this is putting it in perspective. Here’s a new
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Climate Change Adaptation
As the effects of climate change become more pronounced, adaptive measures will need to taken alongside of measures ameliorating the rate of change (if that is in fact still even possible). One such step has been undertaken in California, a state that has been especially hard hit by drought. Orange
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: San Diego, Newport, Santa Monica
Saturday morning at 3:50 was wakeup time to be at the airport on time for the first flight to Calgary. Everything went smoothly and we were in San Diego by lunch time. In and Out burger for supper. Sunday rented car and went to Santa Monica via PCH part of
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Published elsewhere: Ontario is no California when it comes to debt
The Toronto Star just published an article I wrote in response to claims made by the Fraser Institute and the Toronto Sun that Ontario has a runaway debt problem worse than California’s. The short version: I call BS. The slightly longer version: California has constraints, such as limits on the
Continue readingPostArctica: The Accidental Sea
Interesting film on California’s abandoned Salton Sea.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Range Wars, 21st Century-Style
It’s a classic theme of the ‘wild west’ – range wars where free-range cattle ranchers clashed with farmers whose fenced fields blocked their way. Today it’s a struggle between farmers and frackers and this time the struggle is over water, more specifically who gets it and who goes without. This
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Relief of California
Desperately needed rain may be enroute to northern California. With any luck some agricultural production may be saved. There’s hope that an El Nino believed to be building in the Pacific will indulge California with a good drenching next winter.
Continue readingLeDaro: Drought is getting worse in California
Now that California’s Water Board is turning off the tap to certain distributors, and reservoirs are running dry, the cost of water is slated to rise and the impact on the state’s harvest could be devastating to many farmers. The videos below show the dire situation California is in. This
Continue readingLeDaro: California: Instead of rain or snow the state is getting wildfires in the dead of winter
California has a serious drought, it did not get such a weather in over a century. Drought is causing serious problems for farming besides other uses of water. Drought is affecting other states as well, but California is the worst hit. Drought is causing out of control wildfires and the
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