News of the Warm

injinji

injinji

Well-Known Member
thumper60 said:
You otter see us Mainers when it hits triple digits like ice on hot pavement anything over 90 iam done!
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If the rain was late in coming, it hit 90 every day this past week. I do not know why I always do a second planting of green beans. It always gets too hot for them to fruit by the time they are old enough.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
injinji said:
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What this basically means is the end of most irrigated farming west of the Continental Divide until further notice. Farmers will scream but they're outnumbered by city dwellers 50 to one.

The way water rights have been structured, there is a disincentive to save water; if you don't use all of your allotted rights, you can lose them! Naturally, that has put a real crimp in efforts to promote water conservation. Farmers use 80% of the water drawn from the Colorado River (similar to most places), so they'll be the ones asked- told- to cut back.

There are some amazing water conservation technologies out there, from drip irrigation to semipermeable mulching systems, etc. Some way must be found to encourage the adoption of these approaches.

This is already the worst drought in 1200 years. It's not getting better so adaptation or death is the choice.
 
injinji

injinji

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
What this basically means is the end of most irrigated farming west of the Continental Divide until further notice. Farmers will scream but they're outnumbered by city dwellers 50 to one.

The way water rights have been structured, there is a disincentive to save water; if you don't use all of your allotted rights, you can lose them! Naturally, that has put a real crimp in efforts to promote water conservation. Farmers use 80% of the water drawn from the Colorado River (similar to most places), so they'll be the ones asked- told- to cut back.

There are some amazing water conservation technologies out there, from drip irrigation to semipermeable mulching systems, etc. Some way must be found to encourage the adoption of these approaches.

This is already the worst drought in 1200 years. It's not getting better so adaptation or death is the choice.
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There was a good PBS Nova on water rights a couple three years ago. It talked about how if you didn't use all your water, you lost the rights to it. For years I have been adding to the problem by eating a lot of almonds. I've cut way back on them. Weight loss weighed into it too though.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
injinji said:
There was a good PBS Nova on water rights a couple three years ago. It talked about how if you didn't use all your water, you lost the rights to it. For years I have been adding to the problem by eating a lot of almonds. I've cut way back on them. Weight loss weighed into it too though.
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We need to figure out how to incentivise the right behavior instead of the wrong behavior. Subsidising advanced low usage irrigation techniques would go a long way to solving this problem.

Drip irrigation, lithic mulching, agrivoltaic solar, there are lots of great options becoming available. We must help farmers make good choices; it's not like they don't want to. They aren't stupid, they're just stuck in the same system we are.
 
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