In April, Governor Jerry Brown lifted California’s historic emergency drought declaration, signaling the official end – in all but four counties – to the state’s nearly six-year drought.
The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which runs astride California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley for roughly 400 miles, is nearly 200% above average. At this time last year, more than 90% of the state was struggling through some level of drought, most of it serious. Today, more than three-quarters of California is completely drought-free.
The theme at this year’s World Water Week is Sustainable Growth, and I’m here, along with thousands of global water experts, to talk policy action for addressing the world’s most critical water problems -- problems that threaten the livelihoods of communities as well as contribute to business and investment risk. As the lead for the California policy program at Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization, I work collaboratively with companies, institutional investors, policymakers and other NGOs to accelerate
A buoy run aground at Huntington Lake reservoir in Fresno County, part of Southern California Edison’s Big Creek hydroelectric system. Efforts to support drought relief are showcased in SCE’s newly-published annual Corporate Responsibility Report, a wide-ranging recap of the utility’s recent societal and environmental accomplishments.
This week on Sea Change Radio we are talking about the California drought – getting an update on weather-related aspects, and finding out about an innovation designed to help. First we talk to Anthony Artusa, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center. He gives us a sense of what to expect from the current El Niño year and what it may or may not mean to California long-term.
National Geographic Channel has greenlighted a new documentary miniseries from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney examining the world's dwindling water supply and the actions we can take toward greater water conservation. Parched will premiere globally on Nat Geo channels in 171 countries and will receive a limited theatrical release.
Lower reservoir levels mean relying on more natural gas, renewable resources for power generation.
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Usually by this time of year, California's Huntington Lake is full, awaiting the arrival of eager boaters and vacationers seeking refuge from the daily grind. But this year, because the winter snowpack in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountain range was only a tiny fraction of what was expected, Huntington is at less than half its normal level.
133 billion gallons: that’s the amount of water used by large U.S. hospitals in 2007, the last year for which such a figure is available. That‘s about 145,000 gallons per bed, equal to the annual consumption of a four-person household. To underline the obvious, hospitals are a water-intensive business.
