California Drought

The drought in California is a maddening study in contradictions. The state is an epicenter for drought even as other parts of the United States are awash in rain. At the same time, many of the people of California are subject to strict very strict conditions on the use of water. However, not only are the restrictions rather harsh, they are not being applied in many cases to the people that use up to four fifths of the water in the state.

This does not make much sense to many people on a number of levels but yet the problems and uneven enforcement persist. While there must be better ways to address the drought in California, the application of these better methods seems to be uneven at best according to the work of Vice and its reporters. Analysis The clips at the very beginning of the video lay bare the rather silly restrictions that are in place when comparing them to how people not under the restrictions are acting.

Per the drone footage at the rice fields in Yolo County, it is clear that a lot of water is being literally wasted on 19th to 20th century technology in the flood-irrigated fields in that county. Indeed, the county is in this drought and it is in its fourth year of tenure. It has gotten so bad for many residents that people are literally painting their grass green because watering the grass into health is not allowed for under the law.

Something that makes the proverbial knife go deeper with the California water restrictions is that while agriculture is exempt from the cutbacks despite them using 80% of the state's water, the revenue from those agricultural efforts makes up only two percent of the state's economic dollar flow. In other words, the agricultural people are using eighty percent of the water yet they only account for two percent of the revenue. There is a factor of forty in between those two numbers (Vice, 2016).

Not only are the methods with which the water is used archaic, so too is how the people who use the water retain and wield those rights. Indeed, the Yolo water hogging stems from when the land was originally claimed, basically by people showing up first and putting up a sign. Beyond that, the people who retain those "senior" rights are compelled to use that water or they will lose those rights.

Basically, even if they outright waste the water, they retain the rights to use the water so long as the water is not left unused for anything, however wasteful it might be. On top of that, some crops are extremely water-hungry. As an example, almonds often take a gallon per plant. One of the farmers interviewed as part of the Vice video shows an argument that the drought only lasts forever and that agriculture is a long-term endeavor.

As such, restricting the nuts and their growth now over a four-year drought is seen as unreasonable by the farmers that are currently raising the ire of water advocates. It is noted by opponents of this assertion that rice and almonds are water-hungry no matter what the rain conditions and allowing for the growth of such crops in near-desert areas is just silly and wasteful (Vice, 2016).

Regardless of the perceived answer to this question, it is apparent that big money and big corporations are using their power and wealth to retain control of the land and water in the area. John Hancock is just one company involved when it comes to this. Many politicians in the area, both Republican and Democrat, are getting a lot of money from those same corporate interests.

Even with that, there has been some scrutiny placed on the land rights issue up to and including a law that was passed by the California legislature and the signing pen of Governor Jerry Brown. One big caveat to that is that the law will remain largely dormant until 2040, more than.