In this blog post, I would like to introduce a book called Dry. Dry is a book about a family living in a time when the western United States (specifically California) is going through a severe drought. People have to do everything they can to save water. But when the tap went dry, many people weren’t prepared for it even though it was clear the drought was going to escalate to catastrophic levels. The Marrow family had to go to Costco to restock their water supply, but it turns out that there is no bottled water either. Alyssa Marrow, the main character of the book finds large quantities of ice in the store and takes it home so it could melt and turn into drinking water. When they get home, they decide to dump their ice in their bathtub, but Alyssa’s brother Garret puts a canister of powdered bleach on the edge of the bathtub. It spills, and the water is poisoned. The Marrow family lost all of their drinking water.
The Marrows’ neighbors are also struggling to get water. Nobody found that Costco was storing ice for this occasion. Later in the book, the authors also say that the quiet suburban neighborhood “spirals into a warzone of desperation.” Families and neighborhoods turned against each other for water. Alyssa and Garret’s parents leave and they don’t return until the end of the book. Later in the story, Alyssa has to make “impossible choices if she’s going to survive.”
The book Dry reminds us of the extreme weather that California has been experiencing for the past few years. Today, California is going through a drought along with many devastating wildfires. There are several reasons why this might be. The first is due to global climate change. California’s temperatures have been elevating due to the excessive greenhouse gases that are trapping the heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere. According to Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis this leads to evaporation from reservoirs and elevates irrigation demands. The already low precipitation rates and the high rates of evaporation “fuels the crisis now being faced”.
According to Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis, California’s reliance on groundwater is another reason why California is experiencing extreme weather. One of California’s ways of coping with droughts in the past was by using groundwater which is unsustainable. Over the past 150 years, California’s extraction of groundwater has caused water table depths to decrease by 100 feet in some instances. Another source California gets its water from is the Colorado River which is fueled by precipitation from far-away sources in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. It is California’s largest single source of water, giving California 4.4 million acre-feet of water each year. The Colorado River is also experiencing extremely dry weather, however, so its water supply is also shrinking as the climate warms.
There are many ways that California can do to save its water supply. One way California can do this is by recycling its water. Every year, California uses millions of acre-feet of water each year, use it once, cleans it, and dumps it into the ocean. California can instead purify the water so its citizens can safely reuse it. Another way Califonia’s water supply can be saved is by protecting the natural environment. As I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons California is experiencing a severe drought is because of its temperatures are rising due to global climate change. If we can use sustainable energy and take other measures to protect the environment, we can save not only California’s water supply but our planet.
“Beyond the Perfect Drought: California's Real Water Crisis.” Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, February 8, 2023. https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/news/beyond-perfect-drought-californias-real-water-
crisis/#:~:text=Three%20factors%20%E2%80%93%20rising%20temperatures%2C%20groundwater,water%20shortages%20and%20must%20adapt.&text=The%20current%20drought%20afflicting%20California,of%20the%20low%20precipitation%20totals.
“FAQ: What Is the Greenhouse Effect?” NASA. NASA. Accessed February 26, 2023. https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/19/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect/#:~:text=The%20greenhouse%20effect%20is%20the,it%20would%20be%20without%20them.
“8 Affordable Water Solutions for California.” Planning and Conservation League. Accessed February 26, 2023. https://www.pcl.org/campaigns/water/8-affordable-water-solutions/.
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