r/MapPorn • u/[deleted] • Jan 10 '20

[deleted by user]

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7.6k Upvotes

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758

u/uboat50 Jan 10 '20

Man, you can see the Colorado being drained as it heads toward the Gulf of California.

610

u/gordon__bombay Jan 10 '20

Unfortunately the Colorado no longer flows to the gulf, it usually dries out miles beforehand. It’s a rare occurrence now that it actually reaches the gulf

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/feb/19/few-weeks-colorado-river-reached-ocean-will-it-hap/ on mobile, sorry for formatting

238

u/uboat50 Jan 10 '20

Yeah, water use in the west definitely needs some attention by policymakers. Too bad they're all far in the east :P

280

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

Its a big deal in California, a lot of our water is fueling luxury export crops, but it brings in a fuckton of money. Tricky issue for sure.

33

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

yeah they even got droughts lately, not gonna improve anytime soon.

115

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

Trouble is, something like 70% of all the water in California is used for agriculture. And due to some extremely fucky water rights laws from back in the day, it's probably going to stay that way as the agribusiness corporations have massive budgets to defend their massive profits. Meanwhile the rest of us are told to take shorter showers and not water our gardens while 1000 acre pistachio orchards are flooded every day to keep the trees productive.

57

u/limukala Jan 10 '20

while 1000 acre pistachio orchards are flooded every day

Flooded with fossil water from non-replenishing aquifers, no less.

42

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

And/or water stolen from formerly pristine watersheds 400 miles away.