A recent story in the Los Angeles Times deserves repeating. Although the fourth consecutive dry year in California is serious and needs attention, there is no need for panic and we should all guard against over-reaction.
As the story provides: “The crisis has led many to wonder whether the state has lost its historic resilience. But the drama hides reality and for those who have studied California’s long relationship with its water, the drought is serious but hardly a disaster.”
“The sky is not falling,” said Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California.
“We shouldn’t be complacent, but we don’t need to be panicking,” said Jay Lund, director for the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. “Look at Mediterranean climates around the world — look at how many people they support, the economy they support, the agriculture they support — and you’ll see that California does better than anyone else. If people are just now understanding that California can be a dry place,” Lund said, “then we must have been doing something right in terms of urban water delivery.”
These are good words to live by in this dry year. The full story is available at: California drought: No Rain, but the ‘sky is not falling’.
